A DOCUMENTARY OF THE NEWLY POPULAR QUALITY SINGLE MALT WHISKEY
WEST OF TRADITION Chronicles the Rise of American Single Malt Whiskey
New feature documentary follows Westland Distillery and pioneering producers across the country as they help create a distinctly American whiskey tradition.
SEATTLE — September 2026 — A new feature documentary, West of Tradition, tells the story of American single malt whiskey at a remarkable moment in its evolution — following the distillers, farmers and whiskey makers who helped transform an idea into a federally recognized category.
The film is now live on Prime Video, with more platforms to come.
Produced by the same team who created the PBS documentary The Water of Life – A Whisky Film and Independent Spirits, West of Tradition uses Seattle’s Westland Distillery as the narrative spine of a much larger American whiskey story. It was directed by Greg Swartz and produced by Trevor Jones, Nate Barlow, and Joe Vulopas.
“Whisky has always been a story of place,” says Swartz. “What interested me was what happens when you take an old idea like single malt and put it in completely different hands and completely different places. American distillers weren’t handed hundreds of years of tradition telling them exactly how this had to be done. They had to figure it out for themselves — and that uncertainty, ambition and creativity is where the story of this film really lives.”
While Westland provides the central narrative, West of Tradition travels across the American single malt landscape, featuring Whisky Del Bac in Arizona, McCarthy’s in Oregon, Stranahan’s in Colorado, St. George Spirits in California, Cedar Ridge in Iowa and Virginia Distilling Company in Virginia.
Together, their stories reveal a category shaped not by a single region, but by distillers asking versions of the same question: What should single malt whiskey taste like when it comes from here?
“American single malt isn’t really one story,” says producer Trevor Jones. “It’s a collection of people in very different parts of the country who arrived at a similar idea, then took it in completely different directions. That diversity is what makes this feel like the beginning of a genuinely American tradition rather than an imitation of somebody else’s.”
The film follows the story from distillery floors into barley fields, forests, breweries, wineries and rack houses, exploring how agriculture, climate, local ingredients and individual creativity shape the whiskey in the glass. After years of work by producers across the country, American single malt whiskey received formal federal recognition in December 2024.
“We started with whiskey, but the deeper we went, the more this became a film about people building something without knowing exactly where it would lead,” says producer Nate Barlow. “These distillers weren’t just making drinks. Whether they realized it at the time or not, they were helping build a category.”
West of Tradition is now live on Prime Video, with more platforms to come.
Trailer: tinyurl.com/WOT-Trailer
Website: wateroflifefilm.com
MEDIA CONTACTS
Blacksmith & Jones
Nate Barlow - lowbarprods@gmail.com
Joe Vulopas - joe@blacksmithjones.com
