Ingredients Matter

There is a common thread between a great meal, a memorable cocktail and a great whiskey. All these sensory encounters, all of them start with the ingredients.

Before there is a plate, a glass or a bottle, there is something grown, harvested, milled, distilled or fermented. There is a place where it began, and people who made choices about how it was grown, handled and transformed. And these are decisions we do not take lightly. Westland Distillery has always felt at home in the culinary community of the Pacific Northwest, our Master Distiller himself even came from a family that operated restaurants. The chefs and bartenders we admire most understand food and beverage the same way we do: that there is a distinct calling we have to look beyond the commodity system. Our most revered cooks care about provenance and seasons. They build relationships with farmers, producers and suppliers. They seek out ingredients with a sense of place, and they give those ingredients the time and attention they deserve.

These people who ask hard questions and look beyond conventions the ones we wanted to align with. So, at the heart of West of Tradition, we included the conversations and vignettes of like-minded chefs or flavor-curious business owners in our area. These are unique and creative individuals who embody our same spirit of exploration: deeply appreciating our location of the Pacific Northwest to express flavor in their work. Their work reminds us that tradition is malleable, and something can be examined, questioned and reshaped.

For Chef Dan Mallahan of Driftwood in Seattle, that starts with the Northwest itself. Driftwood is grounded in a deep appreciation for the ingredients of this place. Dan approaches the creation of his daily menu through ongoing relationships and provenance. The story of an ingredient begins with the land, the water, the farmer, the fisher and the producer who brought it into being.

That way of thinking requires patience, and grappling with the ever-changing uncertainties that mother nature throws our way. It also requires curiosity. What is growing right now? Who is growing it? How was it produced? What does this ingredient taste like when it is treated with care?

Those questions are familiar to Westland. We think about barley in much the same way. Grain is pivotal, and each vintage holds its own story and depth. Variety, soil, climate, agriculture and malting all contribute to what ultimately becomes whiskey. By paying attention to those details, we can make choices that preserve a sense of place rather than stripping it away. Dan’s approach to cooking mirrors those very ideals we have always held at Westland.

Chef Brady Williams of Tomo approaches food with a similar respect for the ingredient, expressed through an extraordinarily precise culinary perspective. At Tomo, ingredients are held with reverence. Technique exists to reveal and uncover the flavors held within the beautiful ingredients of the Pacific Northwest. The best cooks know when to add something and when to leave it alone. They understand that an exceptional ingredient does not necessarily need to be transformed beyond recognition. Sometimes the most thoughtful thing you can do is give it the conditions to become itself.

We believe the same of whiskey. It all starts with grain, and in that we wanted to source the most flavorful ones we could find, barleys that thrive in our maritime climate. We want the character of the grain, the influence of the Pacific Northwest and the choices we make throughout production to remain present in the finished whiskey. This requires time and attention and patience. And it requires trusting that the ingredients are worth giving that time to.

At Roquette, award-winning bartender Erik Hakkinen approaches cocktails with a focus on quality and sourcing that reflects the same respect for ingredients found in the kitchen. A great cocktail can be much more than a checklist of ingredients. Every component contributes to the final experience, and the quality of those components matters.

A thoughtfully sourced ingredient can change the character of a drink. A carefully selected spirit can give a bartender something distinctive to build around. And when every element is considered, the result can feel effortless even when an enormous amount of thought went into making it. That is what makes great hospitality so compelling. The guest may not know every decision that went into the glass, but they can experience the difference, all the way down to the type of ice, garnish, or temperature that the drink is served.

The same is true of whiskey. Most distilleries in the world do not know the story of the farmer who grew it. We chose to do things differently, all in the name of flavor. To us, ingredients are everything.

Flavor is always the through-line. We admire the chefs, farmers, bartenders all around us who are working to create something extraordinary. We recognize something familiar in the way they work. They are willing to look past convenience in pursuit of quality. They invest in relationships that take years to build. They care about the people and places behind their ingredients. They understand that a system built around efficiency and uniformity is not always the system that produces the most interesting things. At Westland, we have built our whiskey around the idea that the Pacific Northwest is one of a kind. The barley we source, the water we use, the climate in which our whiskey matures and the people who make it all contribute to what ends up in the bottle.

The people we work with in Seattle’s culinary community understand that instinctively. Whether it is a chef building a menu around what the Northwest can provide, a cook finding the most honest expression of an exceptional ingredient or a bartender creating a drink where every component earns its place, they are all participating in the same larger idea: ingredients matter.

Where they come from matters. Who produces them matters. How they are transformed matters. And when you begin with something exceptional, give it attention and allow it time, you can taste the difference.