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. 

High West Bourye Timeline and 2018 Review

Bourye is a blend of bourbons and ryes which High West has sourced form other distilleries over the years. I often see questions and misinformation about the provenance of each iteration so using various sources, I've put together a timeline of the batches.

2009

• 10-year-old straight bourbon; 75% corn, 15% rye, 10% barley malt; unknown
• 12-year-old straight rye; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 16-year-old straight rye; 53% rye, 37% corn, 10% malt; Barton, KY

Source: Back Label

2010, 2011

• 10-year-old straight bourbon; 75% corn, 20% rye, 5% barley malt; Four Roses, KY
• 12-year-old straight rye; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 16-year-old straight rye; 53% rye, 37% corn, 10% malt; Barton, KY

Source: Wayback Machine highwest.com 2011 and Sku's Recent Eats

Bourye went on a hiatus for a few years only to be resurrected in 2015 with yet another new blend and every year since we've seen a new incarnation. All of the remaining was sourced from highwest.com.

2015

• 9-year-old straight bourbon; 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 10-year-old straight rye; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 16-year-old straight rye; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 16-year-old straight rye; 80% rye, 10% corn, 10% malt; Barton, KY

2016

• 9-year-old straight bourbon; 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 13-year-old straight rye whiskey; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 17-year-old straight rye whiskey; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN

2017

• A blend of straight bourbon and rye whiskeys aged from 10 to 14 years.
• straight rye; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN
• straight rye; 53% rye, 37% corn, 10% barley malt; MGP, IN
• straight bourbon; 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt; MGP, IN; 

2018

• 14-year-old straight rye; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 13-year-old straight rye; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 12-year-old straight bourbon; 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 11-year-old straight bourbon; 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 11-year-old straight bourbon; 60% corn, 36% rye, 4% barley malt; MGP, IN

2019 - 2020 (added 1/17/2021)

• 10-year-old straight rye; 95% rye, 5% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 10-year-old straight bourbon; 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt; MGP, IN
• 10-year-old straight bourbon; 60% corn, 36% rye, 4% barley malt; MGP, IN

It's an interesting story over time. Early on it was Four Roses bourbon, MGP rye, and Barton rye; then MGP bourbon, MGP rye, and Barton rye; and now it's all MGP bourbon and rye. 

Historically, I've loved this blend as evidenced by my reviews of the 2015, 2016, and 2017. The whiskeys at play are of great pedigree, have respectable specs, and High West is known at being masterful blenders. Let's see if the trend continues this time around.

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High West Bourye 2018

No Age Statement; 46% ABV; $75; Batch 17L19 (bottled December 2017)

Nose: Very woody and very sweet with a slight menthol twinge. Upfront is a lot of your typical woody bourbon sweets but towards the end it is more like spicy bubble gum sweets I get with ryes. There's a lot of wood influence here.

Taste: Tastes like the nose. There is a hefty dose of woody caramel sweets initially. The finish is spicy and sweet with cracked pepper, cinnamon gum, and some older wood notes. The older wood notes are giving it some dark cocao flavor that linger slightly bitter. 

Thoughts: Like previous iterations, it's a nice blend of wood, sweet, and some spice with plenty of depth. Having said that, for whatever reason, it's just not doing quite as much for me this time around. I don't even know if it's not as exciting as previous batches or I just have higher standards these days. I don't factor value into my reviews but I can't help but think at the price here, I could get a Four Roses private select and have money left over, so maybe I will start skipping these in the future. 

Rating: B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

High West Bourye (2017 Release) Review

I've covered my feelings on High West more than a few times lately so I'll just touch on the highlight again here that they are master blenders who have sourced excellent whiskey. Bourye has become a Frankenstein of all those sources over the years as the 4 batches I'm aware of all seem to contain at least one unique component. For 2017, Bourye is composed as follows:

• A blend of straight Bourbon and Rye whiskeys aged from 10 to 14 years.
• Straight Rye Whiskey: 95% rye, 5% barley malt from MGP & 53% rye, 37% corn, 10% barley malt from MGP
• Straight Bourbon Whiskey: 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt from MGP

The things that jump out to me there are that the age of the oldest whiskey has gone down from previous releases and there is a new MGP rye mash in play. I was a big fan of the 2015 and 2016 releases so I have high expectations coming into this. 

No Age Statement

46% ABV

$75

Batch 17A12

Nose: Smells like a barely legal rye whiskey or a very high rye bourbon. Lots of spicy menthol on top of sugary oak sweetness. The nose is rather bold considering the middling proof. 

Taste: Sugary wood sweetness upfront, rye baking spices in the middle, and a nice sweet spicy combo rides out the finish. Some tannic, slightly bitter oak complexity also comes through in the finish. Super easy to drink - that's likely the lower ABV. I would not say it's under-proofed though, it's still got plenty of body and depth of flavor. Tastes exactly like what I would expect from a blend of 10 - 14 year bourbon and rye. 

Thoughts: High West just keeps knocking them out of the park. I really, really like this. On a pure enjoyment scale, this is up there with Wild Turkey Decades which carries twice the price tag. That's par for the course for High West lately - they keep putting out quality blends at respectable prices that are relatively easy to obtain and yet there's little if any hype train around them. Why that is, I don't know, the whisky hobby makes no sense to me most of the time. I'm not going to complain though. I'm just going to happily stroll back down to my local and buy another bottle of this while crazy people chase the hype train for the new Colonel Taylor Four Taters or whatever other carrot Buffalo Trace is dangling this month.

Rating: B+ / B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

High West Rocky Mountain Rye 16 Year (2015) Review

I've covered High West many times before but the quick recap is they are excellent blenders who have managed to source some great whiskey. The crown jewels in those sources include old rye whiskeys that they've acquired from MGPI in Indiana and Barton in Kentucky. To celebrate the opening of their new Blue Sky Ranch distillery in Wanship last year, they released a product that was a blend of both those old stocks. It was limited to a few hundred cases and was sold only at the gift shop but a fellow whiskey friend was kind enough to smuggle a bottle to me. I really like Rendezvous Rye and Bourye which have elements of both the old ryes in this blend so it stands to reason that this should be great. 

Aged 16 years; 46% ABV; Batch 15C707; $133

Nose: Spice dominates but there's also a hefty dose of wood sugars. I usually get menthol notes when nosing a rye and that's the case here. The spiciness is really strong.

Taste: Just like the nose the spiciness is very forward. There is also a good amount of sweet wood notes and plenty of oak depth. It certainly tastes every bit of 16 years old. There are touches of old wood that I really like but too much for me to say it's bitter or past its prime. As the finish tapers the intense spice notes fade into lighter baking spices and the sweet notes take on a darker cocoa flavor. 

Thoughts: Not only is this an exceptional whiskey but it's also an exceptional rye whiskey. When a lot of rye products these days taste more like high rye bourbons rather than ryes, that's certainly a welcome thing. What really stands out to me here is how spice forward this is and how well that integrates through all the range of flavors of sweet and wood. This is a really well done product and up there with my all time favorite rye whiskeys. 

Rating: A-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

High West Rocky Mountain Rye 21 Year Review

I'm a big fan of High West. I like the company, I've enjoyed most of their products, and the proprietor David Perkins seems like a real stand up guy. Here today we have an interesting product from them that was introduced back in 2009 (I think) but since discontinued for quite a while now. During an AMA with David on /r/bourbon, I asked how he came to source such a rare rye whiskey. I love his candid answer as to how this product came to be so much that I felt it's worth a repost here:

We bought three lots of Barton rye at the same time. The 21 year old and two different 16 year olds. I was introduced to Larry Epersold at the Seagram's plant by Jim Rutledge, I was seeking bourbon but Larry said he had rye to buy and he handed me samples of the Barton. He said "You can have as much as you want." Back then they couldn't give rye away. Especially old rye. I said "I'll take all you got!" and was scared to death because we didn't have the money to pay for it. I think I stretched the payment out a year and a half. We look like genius's now. In fact, people told me "Why did you buy that rye, you're going to lose your shirt. Nobody buys rye."

My how times have changed.

Aged 21 years in reused cooperage; 46% ABV; Batch 9; Retail price $120 - $150 (discontinued)

Nose: Lots of baking spices with very little heat. Smells like a really old whiskey, I would have guessed 15+ years based on the nose. 

Taste: Old oak, sweet wood sugars, and prickly rye baking spices. The mouthfeel has a nice silky texture to it. It has the depth of an older whiskey which is surprising given the cooperage and those casks also seem to have imparted a lot of traditional sweet bourbon notes as well. Overall it's a really great balance of sweet and spicy with a touch of older/darker wood notes. If I had one complaint it would be that it is slightly on the thin side. 

Thoughts: This is wonderful stuff and one of my all time favorite rye based whiskies. The extended aging and re-used casks have made something really unique because I've never had anything else like this. Like almost every whiskey these days though I would not pay whatever ridiculous secondary rate this is going for which I'm guessing is $300+. 

Rating: A-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

High West Yippee Ki-Yay Review

If you look through the history of my reviews, you’ll see that I am big fan of High West. I love their Rendezvous Rye and have even bigger affection for its port finished sibling, A Midwinter Nights Dram. Having said that, I don’t love all of their products and Double Rye is one that I just cannot get into. While I really enjoy the blend of 6+ year old ryes in Rendezvous, the 2 year old component in Double Rye really shines through with lots of young untamed raw distillate notes that kill it for me. So here we enter Yippee Ki-Yay, a blend that started its life as Double Rye that was then finished in Vermouth and Qupé Syra barrels. I love vermouth and typically enjoy wine finishes but with Double Rye being the base, I had some hesitancy. I trust High West enough though that I was willing to give them the benefit of a doubt and took a chance on this one.

No Age Statement; 46% ABV; $70

Nose: Smells like a really boozy manhattan. Lots of vermouth and fruity wine notes with some young whisky and anise spice.

Taste: Overwhelming vermouth and fruity wine flavors. Boozed soaked raisins. The fruit notes are so strong they pretty much dominate everything. And yet under all that, I still get some of the things I don’t like about Double Rye - young, raw distillate with some rough rye notes of pine and spice.

Thoughts: As a whiskey, this is pretty rough. As an aperitif, it has some merits but I still don’t like it from that perspective either. It’s more like an off ratio cocktail than anything, with the alcohol component being too strong for me to get my head around. My brain and taste buds are just totally confused by this. I even went the extra mile in trying to like this and made a manhattan with it that was perfectly okay but nothing extraordinary.

Rating: I just can’t score this. I don’t hate it but really don’t like it.

Value: This one could be pretty polarizing as I could see some people liking it. I highly suggest you try it before you plunk down $70 on a bottle.

High West Bourye (2016 Release) Review

There is a lot of grumpiness in the whiskey world regarding Non Distiller Producers these days and for good reason - prices keep going up, quality is often going down, transparency is rare, and some bottlers are pushing lame backstories in order to sell product. Yes, I’m looking at you Diageo and your entire stupid fucking Orphan Barrel line. Yet despite those trends, there are a few companies selling sourced whiskey who are doing things right and a shining example of that is High West.

One of the many reasons people love High West is because they are doing interesting things with finishes and blends to create some unique products that aren’t ridiculously expensive. Once such product is their Bourye which has come in a few versions over the years with gist being a blend of straight bourbon and straight rye whiskeys. I enjoyed the 2015 version which made me perk up when I heard the details of their newest 2016 batch. Here are the specs straight from the High West website:

• 9-year-old straight bourbon (mash bill: 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt) Source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams, Indiana
• 13-year-old straight rye whiskey (mash bill: 95% rye, 5% barley malt) Source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams, Indiana
• 17-year-old straight rye whiskey (mash bill: 95% rye, 5% barley malt) Source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams, Indiana

You have to love the transparency there. Those are some very respectable numbers with some older whiskey than the previous batch in the mix. The stats had me curious if this batch would be even better than the last so let’s find out.

No age statement; Batch No. 16A13; 46% ABV; $75

Nose: Lots of sweet and lots of wood. It’s not as spicy as I expected but there is some prickly menthol in there. Smells like an early teenage high rye bourbon.

Taste: A lot like the nose - very sweet, lots of wood, and not overly spicy. The front palate is dominated by your typical sweet caramel and vanilla notes. The spice starts to come through in the mid palate in the form of cinnamon red hots which ride out all the way through to the finish. The finish also sees a transition of the sweet flavors into darker notes like cocoa powder. The wood depth here is pretty great as it has hints of some really decent age.

Thoughts: High West are damn good at blending and this is another prime example of that. It’s a nice mix of sweet, spice, and a decent amount of age without being overly bitter. I have an affection for sweeter bourbons and this one definitely hits home there as it is on the sweeter side. I haven’t tasted them side by side and I’m only going off memory here but I’m not sold that it’s a major improvement over the previous batch. That’s okay though because it’s still a great product and now it appears to have consistency on its side which is more than you can say for many other batched NDP products.

Rating: B+ / B

Value: As always, I don’t factor price into my ratings. The price here is a little high for what you get and there are better values to be had. I feel like Rendezvous Rye at around $25 less is still a better buy but it isn’t as unique as this which is what you are really paying for here.

High West Midwinter Night’s Dram Act 3 Review

High West’s Rendezvous Rye is one of the most well received rye whiskeys I can think of. Then again, it’s hard not to love a masterful blend of 6 year MGP rye with 16 year Barton rye that is readily accessible and from company who is honest about their sources. Given that, you can imagine the whiskey world was thrilled back in 2014 when High West announced it would release a port and french oak finished version of it with A Midwinter Night’s Dram.

I had high hopes for that release and per my review of Act 1, I was not disappointed. Act 1 was a gift shop only release but Act 2 came shortly after with a nationwide rollout. To me there were some subtle differences but by and large they were the same great product that I believe to be the best new American whiskey released that year. Here today we have the third iteration of that line in Act 3 which saw a limited release nationwide in the Fall of 2015. I had a much harder time acquiring a bottle of the latest release and it will probably be even more difficult in the future since Whisky Advocate rated it #1 in their most recent quarterly top ten.

No age statement; 49.3% ABV; Act 3 Scene 3; $85

Nose: Very rich and sweet with a lot of fruity port influences like raisins along with some crisp mentholy rye spice. Smells exactly like what you would expect from a decently aged port finished rye whiskey.

Taste: Very much like the nose. Starts off with rich layers of sweets like caramel covered dates and finishes with mint and menthol spices. Very thick, lush mouthfeel and only minimal amounts of the infamous dill note that is prevalent in MGP rye whiskeys. It drinks so easy it’s hard to imagine this is nearly 100 proof. Age wise it tastes very much like a blend of the composite whiskeys as it’s neither overly young nor over-oaked or bitter.

Thoughts: A phenomenal whiskey, every bit as good or maybe even better than my memory of Act 1. The port influence seems even stronger which for me isn’t a bad thing. High West has hit another one out of the park, keeping this in my list of all time favorite whiskeys.

Rating: A

Value: As always, I don’t factor price into my ratings. At $80 retail, this bottle is well worth it.

High West Bourye (2015 Release) Review

Like many other startup distilleries, High West is on the “sell sourced whiskey while our own product comes of age plan”. Unlike a lot of other startups though, High West is very transparent about the source of their whiskey. One such whiskey in their portfolio is Bourye, named as such for being a blend of straight bourbon and straight rye. In late 2014 / early 2015, High West released another version of Bourye, this time replacing the Bourbon component that was once Four Roses with whiskey sourced from MGP. Here's the full breakdown per the High West website:

• 9-year-old straight bourbon - mash bill: 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt - source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams Indiana
• 10-year-old straight rye whiskey - mash bill: 95% rye, 5% barley malt - source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams Indiana
• 16-year-old straight rye whiskey - mash bill: 95% rye, 5% barley malt - source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams Indiana
• 16-year-old straight rye whiskey - mash bill: 80% rye, 10% corn, 10% malt - Source: Barton Distillery, Bardstown KY

Their complete transparency is one of the many reasons whiskey geeks praise High West but really it’s their skill at blending quality stock that make people love them.

No Age Statement; 46% ABV; Batch 15B09; $80

Nose: The nose has a fruit cake like sweetness with more bourbon than rye influence along with a pretty heavy dose of wood. If I dig in I get a little menthol spice note but it’s subdued. It smells on the old side.

Taste: The initial taste is a lot like the nose. Typical bourbon sweetness of caramel and vanilla up front with the woodiness in the back. You can really taste the older aged whiskey components here as it tapers off in the finish with some slightly bitter/tannic spiced tea. The one surprising thing though is how subdued the spice level is here - it’s only in the finish that I get a light menthol/clove tingle.

Thoughts: Really good stuff with a nice balance of sweet, older wood, and spice. High West continues to flex their muscles at being master blenders but it’s not hurting them that the MGP and Barton base components are already stellar whiskeys on their own. The only real fault I can find here is the price is a bit of an issue. At $80 I am not sure the quality to price ratio is the best and honestly I’d prefer Rendezvous Rye which is around $25 cheaper over this. All in all it’s a easy to find, unique, and enjoyable whiskey that is a nice change of pace from most everything else out there on the shelves.

Rating: B / B+

High West Midwinter Nights Dram Act 1 Review

High West's Rendezvous Rye is a crowd favorite in the rye whiskey world. By marrying a higher rye 6 year old MGP whiskey with a more mature 16 year Barton whiskey, High West has created an interesting product with a broad range of flavors. A Midwinter Nights Dram looks to improve on that already great offering by taking Rendezvous Rye and putting it through some additional finishing in both new french oak and port barrels. As a big fan of the standard offering I had high hopes for this release.

49.3% ABV, Act 1 $75 (purchased at the distillery, thanks /u/mfpark)

The nose is very forward with classic MGP rye spice of dill and mint. The port sweetness is evident even as early as the nose and rounds off the spice with a nice sweetness. On the palate the port flavors comes on stronger but still plays second fiddle to the layers of spicy rye punch. Mint and dill rye spice predominate but are intermingled nicely with sweet wood sugars like caramel and some dry oak. It's an incredibly complex whiskey with a lot of depth and something new in almost every sip.

Thoughts: High West has taken an already great product and made it even better. The range of flavors here from woody to spicy and sweet all come together really well to create a complex and very craveable poor. This is one of my favorite whiskeys of the year and I can only hope that High West makes it a permanent offering because it is a bottle I would always keep stocked.

Rating: A

High West Rendezvous Rye Review

This was another review that I did as part of /r/bourbon's regular community review series.

West Rendezvous Rye

46.0% ABV, Blend of 16yr Barton 80% rye and 6yr MGPI 95% rye, $55

The nose is spicy and sweet. The classic MGPI dill is there but it is not overpowering like in straight MGPI ryes. There is lot of honey and vanilla sweetness as well as some traditional rye notes like mint and pepper. The taste is like the nose with a wonderful combination of sweet and spicy. Loads of vanilla and honey along with mint and peppery spice. The taste is way less straight MGPI like than the nose with very little dill. The breadth of spices is very nice as you get some of the more aggressive prickly rye notes from the young MGPI rye intermingled with the older more mature classic rye notes from the Barton rye. The finish is pretty damn long considering it is only 46% and lingers for quite a bit with burnt sugars and peppermint.

Thoughts: This rye gets a lot of praise and it is for good reason. You'll be hard pressed to find such a complicated rye or any other whiskey for that matter at this price point. This is second only to the Colonel Taylor rye as my favorite non barrel proof, non hyper-aged rye. Of course the Taylor retails for about $20 more per bottle and it's a close race so I feel this one punches way above its weight class. I'm really trying hard to be stingier with my scores lately but it would be a robbery not to put this one in the top letter grade.

Rating: A-