High West Double Rye Review

To say I am a fan of High West would be an understatement. Rendezvous Rye, Midwinter Nights Dram, and Bourye are all products that I quite like a lot. Though they didn't distill any of those products, all of them are fine examples of what is arguably High West's greatest strength - blending and finishing sourced whiskey.

Of course, High West isn't perfect so not all of their expressions turn out great. Yippee Ki-Yay is one that comes to mind that I thought tasted like a bad cocktail which I feel is due largely to its base whiskey - Double Rye. I've never been a fan of Double Rye as I feel it's a poor substitute for its older sibling Rendezvous. Ordinarily I would never consider reviewing it but since it came up as the April /r/bourbon Community Review I was left with little choice so here we go.

A blend of two straight ryes both at least two years old; 46% ABV; Selected by New Orleans Spirit Exchange; Thanks to /u/rhinusdax for the sample

Color: I rarely remark on color but I could not help but notice this is very light. It's more golden than brown which already isn't a good sign.

Nose: A ton of rye spice notes - cinnamon powder, spearmint, evergreen, eucalyptus, aloe. It's very spicy. Unfortunately there are also a lot of young alcohol notes - ethanol, menthol, isopropyl rubbing alcohol, bactine. Its quite a mess.

Taste: Taste isn't as bad as the nose but the same core flavors are there. Some woody sweet notes come in at the beginning of the palate, like honey and vanilla. Eucalyptus and spearmint spice notes start to take over in the mid palate and linger through the finish. There are also some off grassy notes that I typically associate with young craft whiskey. In the finish those young rubbing alcohol notes come roaring back and linger for quite some time. 

Thoughts: I've had worse but this is pretty awful stuff - I couldn't even finish the dram. Some try to say this is a good cocktail whiskey but I've been there and done that too and it's a good way to ruin a cocktail as well. If you want a good High West rye, stick to Rendezvous.

Rating: D-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.