The Wild West

I talked to High West head honcho David Perkins on the phone this week for the first time in over a year. They're really cooking over there in Park City, Utah with expanded production and the addition of new stills. What I've always admired about High West is the patience with which they're waited to release their own distillates. Over the years, David and his team have created an exciting and compelling line of fantastic products that stand out from the pack, offer quality at reasonable price points, and showcase clever branding with an eye for Old West aesthetics. Perkins has created the Compass Box of American whiskey, but at the same time he has his own distillery (imagine if John Glaser was also distilling single malt on the side!). "When are going to release some of your own juice?" I asked him after chatting for a bit.

"Uh....I don't know," he said with his characteristic and endearing drawl, "We'll get around to it at some point."

"We just wrapped up the latest batch of Bourye a few weeks ago," he said later on. "We're very happy with it."

"We just got our allocation this week," I said. "I thought it was very nice—especially nice for the price considering the older rye whiskies involved."

"When are you gonna come out here and see all this?" he asked.

"I don't know," I answered. "Send me some photos in the meantime." And so he did. It does look romantic up there on the mountainside with the sunset in the background. Who's up for a road trip? We'll hit up Leopold and Cut Spike while we're at it.

And grab a bottle of this...

High West Bouyre Bourbon/Rye Whiskey $69.99 - High West's latest batch of Bourye, a marriage of Bourbon and rye adorned with the elusive jackalope - a cross between a jack rabbit and an antelope, is back for another limited run. The Park City, Utah outpost only releases the Bourye when they have sufficient quantities of the necessary ingredients, which are getting more and more difficult to secure in today's market. This latest batch is bottled at 46% ABV and consists of 9 year old Bourbon, 13 year old rye, and 17 year old rye whiskey all sourced from MGP Distillery in Indiana, formerly known as LDI and Seagrams. Considering that a simple ten year old American rye whiskey seems to be worth its weight in gold, the fact that High West has included casks of a much older heritage is no simple task. The balance between both the richness of the Bourbon and the spiciness of the rye is quite wonderful here. There are no rough edges, the flavors meander from mellow oak to toasted with vanilla, all with a backbone of peppery rye goodness. We never have the Bourye in stock for long and we're always handling questions about when we'll get more. David Perkins continues to captivate us with his American whiskey blends, now considered the gold standard of the industry.

-David Driscoll