Proof: 96.2

Age: Blend of 2 + year old bourbon

Distillery: High west

Mashbill: N/A

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Nose: Black cherry, black berry, nuttiness, leather, butterscotch, musty oak, vanilla, cherry, sugarcane, mocha

Taste: rich/tannic mouthfeel. Blackberry, black cherry, bitter oak, leather, dark chocolate, caramel, tobacco, vanilla, cinnamon, black pepper, clove. 

Finish: Medium-Long length. Right off of the bat you get hit with the tannins from the wine barrel. The rich mouthfeel coats every corner of your mouth and leaves no surface untouched. The heavy black pepper and clove set a good footing for the sweet notes from the wine barrel finish. With lots of black cherry and blackberry coating the palate, it is hard to decipher much else. By letting your mouth completely dry before going back in for more, you are able to pick up the rich notes of leather, bitter oak dark chocolate, and cinnamon.

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Overall: This is my first dip into a store pick High West. I absolutely love it. With their staple American Prairie bourbon spending 8 months inside of this Bayul’s wine barrel, it was able to take on plenty of the wine notes without overpowering the baseline bourbon. I am a huge Midwinter’s and Yippie fan, so I was super excited to have found this bottle. So excited, i bought two. For the money, $52, I think this is well worth it. MWND is $99 retail, I would be okay to not find MWND if I could get something similar to this fairly often. High West – MAKE THIS A STAPLE PRODUCT PLEASE!!!!!

 

The AP bourbon that is the baseline for this pick is a pretty lackluster whiskey if I am being honest, this finish helped me see it has some real potential. If you do not like finished bourbon (I am talking to you Mark), there is always something out there for everyone to enjoy. I think I may have swayed him a bit to see there are good finished whiskies in the world.

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Rating: 8.4/10

Value Rating: 10/10

Total Score: 9.2/10