There's a moment when a craft distillery stops being a promising upstart and becomes something the whole country needs to pay attention to. For Woodinville Whiskey Co., that moment may have just arrived.
Washington state's largest craft distillery has announced the national rollout of two new releases: Woodinville Single Barrel Cask Strength 7 Year Bourbon and Woodinville Single Barrel Cask Strength 7 Year 100% Rye. Both are now available across the country, marking the first time these bottles have reached a truly national audience.
Image credit: Woodinville Whiskey Co.
This isn't a marketing stunt. It's the result of years of patient work, careful barrel selection, and a distillery that has quietly built one of the most respected whiskey programs in America.
Image credit: Woodinville Whiskey Co.
What Makes These Bottles Different
The word "single barrel" gets thrown around a lot in the whiskey world, but at Woodinville, it carries real weight. Co-Founder and Head Distiller Brett Carlile personally tastes hundreds of barrels before deciding which ones make the cut.
"We really wanted to elevate our single barrel program. I personally taste hundreds of barrels and pick only the best ones for this offering to ensure they are something very special. All of my selections are a minimum of 7 years old which really adds a tremendous amount of depth and character to the whiskey," Carlile said.
Image credit: Woodinville Whiskey Co.
Seven years is a serious commitment in craft whiskey. Most distilleries are eager to get product out the door and into stores. Sitting on barrels for that long — tying up warehouse space, capital, and time — takes discipline. What it produces, though, is something that cheaper, younger whiskeys simply can't replicate. At seven years, a whiskey has had time to pull deep flavor from the wood, develop complexity, and round off the sharper edges that mark younger spirits.
On top of that, these are cask strength releases, meaning the whiskey goes into the bottle essentially as it comes out of the barrel. No water is added to bring the proof down to a standard level. The alcohol content will vary from barrel to barrel, which is part of what makes each bottle genuinely unique. On average, a single barrel yields about 180 bottles — so when a particular barrel is gone, it's gone.
Image credit: Woodinville Whiskey Co.
A Program Built on Barrel Selection
Woodinville has been offering single barrel picks to retailers and whiskey clubs for years, but the program has largely stayed regional. Specialty shops and private clubs with the right connections could get their hands on barrel picks, but the average whiskey drinker across the country couldn't walk into a store and find one.
The distillery also features what it calls a Distiller's Pick Single Barrel Cask Strength as part of its Distiller's Pick Tour Experience. During that tour, guests don't just hear about how whiskey is made — they taste straight from the barrel. They also get to label and bottle their own whiskey, which is the kind of hands-on experience that serious enthusiasts don't forget. It's one thing to buy a bottle of bourbon. It's another thing entirely to fill it yourself from a barrel you've tasted.
Now the broader public gets access to what those club members and tour guests have been enjoying. The national rollout means the Single Barrel Cask Strength 7 Year Bourbon and the Single Barrel Cask Strength 7 Year 100% Rye are available at retail locations across the country, online at woodinvillewhiskeyco.com, and at both of Woodinville's tasting rooms. The original tasting room in Woodinville is open daily. A newer location in Quincy, Washington operates by appointment.
Pricing sits at $69.99, which, for a cask strength single barrel whiskey aged a minimum of seven years, is genuinely reasonable. The proof will vary depending on the barrel, so buyers should expect some variation between bottles — and that's a feature, not a flaw.
The Reputation Behind the Label
Woodinville didn't arrive at this moment without building serious credentials first. The distillery is the largest craft operation in Washington state, and the accolades it has collected in recent years tell a clear story.
Forbes reported that Woodinville "may just be the best craft whiskey in America." That kind of statement from a publication not known for soft praise gets people's attention. The Robb Report went further, naming Woodinville Straight Bourbon one of the world's "50 Greatest Whiskeys of the 21st Century" — a list that spans every major whiskey-producing country on earth.
Newsweek recognized Woodinville as one of the "10 Best Bourbons of 2026," and Wine Enthusiast included Woodinville Straight Bourbon in its "Best Bourbons of 2025" feature while also listing it among the "Top 100 Spirits of the Year." These aren't regional publications giving a local distillery a pat on the back. These are national and international outlets putting Woodinville in the same conversation as the most storied distilleries in Kentucky and Tennessee.
For a Washington state craft distillery to earn that kind of recognition speaks to something real going on in the production process — not just clever marketing.
What's Coming Next
The single barrel national release isn't the only thing Woodinville has in the pipeline. The distillery runs an annual Harvest Release event, which has become one of the more anticipated events on the craft whiskey calendar. Beyond that, Woodinville is working through a deliberate aging program that keeps delivering on a fixed schedule.
In 2024, the distillery released an 8 Year Bourbon. In 2025, a 9 Year followed. In 2026, Woodinville will release its first-ever 10 Year Bourbon — a milestone that marks a full decade of aging for whiskey that was put into barrels when the company was still finding its footing. That kind of long-term planning is something the Kentucky majors are known for. Seeing a craft distillery execute it with the same patience says a lot about how Woodinville thinks about its whiskey.
Tours and the Quincy Facility
For anyone who wants to go beyond buying a bottle, Woodinville offers private distiller-led tours at its main facility, which are available by reservation. The Woodinville location is open daily, making it accessible for visitors who don't want to plan far ahead.
Image credit: Woodinville Whiskey Co.
The Quincy bottling and aging facility — a separate site where much of the whiskey matures — also now offers private tours, which need to be reserved in advance. Quincy sits in the Columbia Valley, where the dry high-desert climate creates conditions that accelerate and deepen the interaction between whiskey and oak. For those who want to understand why Woodinville whiskey tastes the way it does, a visit to Quincy offers a clear picture.
Why This Matters for American Whiskey
The bourbon and rye market is crowded. New labels appear constantly, and the shelves at a well-stocked liquor store can be overwhelming. In that environment, it's easy to dismiss new releases as noise.
The Woodinville Single Barrel Cask Strength 7 Year releases are something different. They come from a distillery with a documented track record, built on a selection process that starts with hundreds of barrels and ends with only the ones that genuinely stand out. Seven years of aging. No dilution. A fixed number of bottles per barrel.
For anyone who has been following craft whiskey seriously, this is a release worth tracking down. For someone newer to the category who wants to understand what a craft distillery can produce when it takes its time and doesn't cut corners, this is a good place to start.
Woodinville has been doing the work. The national rollout means the rest of the country finally gets to find out.
