Milk and Honey Westward Cask

Please be upstanding for the world premiere of a new era of collaboration between Milk and Honey (M&H) and the powerhouse American single malt distillery – Westward. Two of ‘worlds whiskies’ major power players have instigated a ‘barrel swap program’ – and your not-so-little whisky club has the world exclusive first release from this partnership – Welcome to the Milk and Honey Westward Cask!

A whisky that reflects this sunny and fresh season perfectly. A whisky full of the bright notes of spring. Green citrussy piquancy, big yellow malty notes and an orange-y apricot jam tang is just the beginning of what’s to be had in this one.

A whisky from a company that has absolutely blown the world away since they burst onto the world whisky stage a little over 4 years ago with a string of medals, including the World Whisky Awards ‘Whisky of the Year’ in 2023. A whisky that, simply put – we are incredibly proud to have our logo featured on – The Milk and Honey Westward Cask!

This SMWC exclusive release is the WORLD FIRST to come from this collaboration and barrel exchange program.

To back this fantastic Milk & Honey Malt of the Month up, what better way than to also offer the other half of the collaboration – Westward – and their Cask Strength expression.

The M&H Westward Cask Finish was distilled in late 2020 from a fermented wash of UK grown Munton’s malt. Initially matured in an ex-bourbon cask for 2.5 years in the Tel Aviv warehouse. It was then transferred to a fresh Westland Single Malt Whiskey Cask for a further 9 months. This secondary maturation took place outside the warehouse with the cask exposed to the full sun and weather of Tel Aviv for the entire 9 months finishing period. It has ben bottled slightly lower than cask strength at 57% abv.

Now this isn’t our first waltz with the desert whisky production specialists from Isreal. In fact, we introduced M&H to Australia way back in 2020 when they launched their first single malt whisky to market. Last year they thanked us for that introduction by supplying to the club the World Exclusive cask-strength version of their just-crowned Whisky of the Year – the M&H Elements Sherry Cask.

With such a great relationship between the SMWC and M&H, we wanted to keep the good times rolling with another world-exclusive for this year. But what to do? Let me tell you, when choosing a cask from the M&H portfolio one has a MASSIVE choice of both cask-types, finishes AND maturation environments. You see, not only are Tomer (head distiller) and crew mad keen on maturing their whisky in ALL the cask types that ever existed (seriously- this distillery makes the average indy-bottler look positively BEIGE with the cask choices they make!) – but M&H has 4 separate and wildly different maturation warehouses located in all the (news to me when I found out) different environments Israel has to offer. They have bond stores spread around Israel ranging from below sea-level scorching heat (on the shores of the dead sea) to mountain-top cool climates. From the Mediterranean-fed humidity of Tel Aviv – to the parch-dryness of the desert.

This particular project began back in 2020 at Whisky Live in Paris. M&H and Westward had neighbouring stalls and Tal Chotiner (head of international sales, M&H) and Miles Munro (master blender and brand ambassador for Westward) discovered a true friendship as well as a love of each others products. It was decided then, that a barrel swap program between the distilleries would occur. Each to age in the others casks.