You can’t make a whiskey that embodies the Pacific Northwest terroir in a climate-controlled metal warehouse. That’s why Westland’s new barrel aging rackhouses, each housing upwards of 4,000 barrels, are unconditioned and passively ventilated – inviting the Skagit Valley air, climate, and temperature to leave their signatures on the whisky aging within. Thermal mass from the building’s tilt-up concrete walls tempers the peaks & valleys of daily temperature swings, just like rackhouses throughout Scotland have done for centuries. Entries at each end genuflect beneath roof overhangs to protect workers while loading and unloading barrels, and to show respect to the whisky passing across the threshold. And the complex’s stormwater is managed with a series of Underground Injection Control (UIC) wells, engineered by Jacobson Engineering and Associated Earth Sciences, to safely reintroduce runoff to the aquifer beneath, without degrading precious Skagit Valley topsoils.