High West A Midwinter Night’s Dram

Remember a couple of years ago when the whiskey world was in a great debate about whether we should drink a whiskey that was sourced from some large, faceless warehouse in Indiana or Canada? At the heart of the debate was a question of authenticity. It’s still a valid question, but there’s not much of a debate anymore, mostly because many of us realized that some of the best American whiskey is being sourced. If these upstart bottlers didn’t buy and distribute this whiskey, most of which is purchased from MGP’s massive supply of booze that’s aging in Indiana, we’d have far less options on the market. And if a company is honest about not producing the whiskey themselves, and if they take that sourced whiskey and do something interesting with it, like aging it in a ship for a year, or juggling it between different second-use barrels, then who the hell are we to complain? And if sourcing whiskey allows a company to make some money while they carefully distill and age their own whiskey, then all the better, right?

At this point, I’m talking specifically talking about High West, a distiller and bottler out of Park City, Utah that can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned. High West does a couple of things. Mostly, they source good whiskey from MGP and other distilleries in Kentucky and make it great by aging it further in various second-use barrels. They also make their own spirits, released on a limited basis until they can age it long enough for public consumption. I’ve had the opportunity to taste both sides of the coin, and I can say that the results are impressive, whether it’s an un-aged rye fresh from their own distillery or a blend of bourbons sourced from undisclosed distilleries in Kentucky.