High west A Midwinter Nights Dram act 8 scene 3 49.3% ABV.

A blend of straight rye whiskeys that have been finished in French oak Port barrels. This is their Rendezvous Rye which is the 95/5 (rye/malted barley) straight rye whiskey from MGP as well as an 80/20 (rye/malted rye) straight rye whiskey makeup from High West Distillery.

Appearance

A deeper gold, heading towards chestnut big time, it’s swirl line is nice and thick and beads up into lots of teardrops, that drop slow medium thick legs. #thewhiskeychaps

Nose

I’m getting cooked bacon and HP brown sauce initially. Rum and raisin ish too. Back of a decorators van 100%, plenty of wood and treatments, and the bubblegum is making an appearance again. Bag of starburst sweets too. #thewhiskeychaps

Ryvitas are here, black peppercorns, it noses higher ABV than not is for me. I’m getting Dr Pepper now, so prunes from a can, and dark shag tobacco makes an appearance. #thewhiskeychaps

Definitely pushing that way isn’t it. #thewhiskeychaps

— Dram it Mick! 🥃 (@StillSurreal) November 26, 2022

Palate

Again a slow arrival, I like that tbh, black tea, toasted tea cakes, cranberries, a little drying, brownies, chocolate cake, espresso coffee, then black cherries, figs and dates, almost tannic too. #thewhiskeychaps

Yes Black Forest gateaux as others have suggested, raspberry pavlova too, cherryade, cough syrup, strawberry syrup in black coffee, so much going on. #thewhiskeychaps

Finish

Long for me, and consistent, not overly spicy, more rich fruit cake, moist 😏. A freshness has come through too, slightly menthol, pencil shavings, a touch of cream soda too. #thewhiskeychaps

My thoughts

This bottle was a part of a High West tasting that we hosted with a few like minded whisk(e)y friends. This was tasted last, after the Double Rye and Yippee Ki Yay Batch 19C20. The Double Rye and Yippee Ki Yay Batch 19C20 were both very good, the Yippee Ki Yay was the best of the two so far, this whiskey had a lot to stand up against. Stand up it did, extraordinarily so to be honest.

This whiskey from High West also had the slow arrival, which seems at this point to be a characteristic of their more premium bottlings. I think we all agreed that this is a stunning rye whiskey, everything about it is perfect, and the breadth of aromas and flavours is seriously impressive, it made me smile that “this is so satisfying” smile. I can say it is the best rye whiskey iv’e tasted so far on my whisk(e)y trail, it may never be bettered in all honesty, it’s definitely a wow dram for me, and yes Santa, please put one under my tree this year, iv’e been a very very very good boy, honestly.

A big thank you goes out to Duncan, Paul and Tony for joining us on the tasting this whiskey was a part of, they, along with us can be followed on twitter using the buttons below.