With the holiday season (mostly) a wrap, a wee dram to fortify oneself against the winter chill is in order while I get in the seed order for this year's garden. My wife told me to "go buy some whiskey that you'll like" as part of my Christmas present, so...I took her up on that. Granted, buying a bottle of something I've haven't tasted before is a bit of a gamble, but this one paid off nicely, and I've no reason to doubt the judgment of the golden palated folks here who've sung the praises of Westland. The biggest note for me here is chocolate, and in a few different forms...at various moments in time, I get baking chocolate, spiced Mexican dark chocolate, hot cocoa, and fudge. While the chocolate notes are the most obvious, there are some notes of espresso, dried fig, vanilla, and coconut. I even get the faintest hint of charred wood in the background, almost like someone in the neighborhood's just gotten a charcoal grill started. The mouthfeel is deliciously coating, but not heavy. My sole complaint is that there's a definite youthfulness here...it's a younger distillery, so this isn't a huge shocker, but I did need to let the dram sit for a bit to open up since there was a definite ethanol heat on initial pouring. I'd have loved this bottle at, say, $10 less, but I still feel like I got what I paid for at about $60. Still, if this is what their entry level whiskey is like, I can't wait to get my hands on some of their other output.