Following yesterday’s review of their 21 yo, here is another rye from High West, this time their Double Rye. With an age statement this would be a 2 yo: it is a blend of a 2 yo from a 95% rye, 5% barley mashbill and a 16 yo with a “barely legal” 53% rye, 37% corn, 10% barley mashbill. Not sure of the proportions but this is a similar concept in many ways to their Rendezvous Rye but with a younger whisky at one end (6 yo in the case of the Rendezvous) and a lower rye mashbill at the other end (the 16 yo used in the Rendezvous was 80% rye).

Well, let’s see what this is like.

High West Double Rye (46%; from a sample received in a swap)

Nose: An interesting nose, with obvious rye notes (dill) but also richer, warmer notes of orange, leather and even a bit of ginger in place of the usual cinnamon/clove complex. At least at first. With a bit of airing there’s a fair bit of pine/eucalyptus and a sweetness somewhere between sappy, rooty and herbal. But the aromas are still pretty “warm” rather than the usual rye “cool”. A couple of drops of water bring out more (powdered) ginger. Continue reading →

I’ve made fun of High West a little bit before in my review of their Rendezvous Rye, but I did enjoy it and also my batch of their Campfire (a blend of bourbon, rye and peated Scotch). And I must also admit that my teasing was somewhat unfair as High West is quite upfront about the fact that the whiskies they are releasing while their own matured spirit comes online do in fact originate at other distilleries. That is to say, High West do not really represent the honesty gap on display in so many parts of the American whiskey industry. And so I’m not going to make fun of them in this review of Batch 2 of their Rocky Mountain Rye (Batch 1 was a 16 yo).

As per High West’s website the mashbill for this whiskey was 53% rye, 37% corn and 10% malted barley. Which makes it “barely legal” rye (the minimum requirement to be labeled rye is 51%). However, it is unusual in that it was matured in used barrels. Continue reading →

I don’t know very much about rye whiskey and my experience of it is even smaller. I know that to be called rye the mash bill has to be at least 51% rye (analogous to bourbon’s 51% corn mash bill) but I’m not sure if there are more restrictions a la bourbon. I guess I could google it but I don’t want to give the impression that I am an active, resourceful sort. Indeed, I would not have made it in Park City, Utah in the 19th century. That’s a non-sequitur, you think, but the joke’s on you! High West is located in Park City, Utah, which I am assuming was settled in the 19th century (see above for my ambivalent relationship with the idea of googling to find things out).

This rye isn’t distilled there, however. I believe High West’s own distillate is still maturing. In the meantime they are bottling spirits that their website says they “found back East” . Doesn’t that sound nice? They “found it”. It’s like David Perkins was out for a walk through all of the American East and came upon barrels of Rye resting underneath a waterfall, guarded by an army of enlightened beavers who handed it over to him as they recognized that he was the guardian foretold in ancient beaver lore. Or perhaps he stole it and now an army of angry beaver warriors has sworn a blood feud against him and his descendants that only the One–born of beaver and woman–will be able to settle. Continue reading →