High West High Country American Single Malt

High West has done such an outstanding job sourcing and blending whiskies that its transition to incorporating its own distillate risks disappointing fans of its sourced rye products. Its single malt, however, arrives without any such baggage, providing a blank canvas for High West to demonstrate its distilling chops. This first release of its own juice is a blend of two- to eight-year-old spirit made using the complex combination of barley and barrels detailed in the Distiller description. I wanted very much to like this but it’s rather disappointing given the caliber of the brand and how long it has been working on it. This tastes like something from the early days of American single malt, out of step with the leaps in quality of the past 12 months. The nose has the wet cardboard aroma characteristic of some younger malts. Things improve on the palate, which has a hint of chocolate and a sprinkle of peat, and the finish has a decent length, but the best I can say about this overall is that it’s not unpleasant. It pains me to write this review as I’m a fan of the brand and was really looking forward to this release, but I think they need to go back to the drawing board on this one if they’re to compete in a market awash with good whisky.

Look = Look isnt that satisfying to the eye but seen worse Smell = Definitely citrus type of scent and not too strong on the nostrils Taste = Smooth all the way through the palate. This is where I got the grainy almost bakery type of sensation After taste = This is where the rough part comes in. You can immediately feel it hit your throat and feel the burn at the top of the throat, all the way through the sternum and lingers longer than one would like

Nose: Toast with butter and apple jam. Baked cinnamon apples. French toast. Delightful and sweet! Palate: Malt forward less sweet than I expected. Light almost creamy mouthfeel. Finish: Short to medium There is something missing in this whiskey but me personally I like it, I like High West and I am excited to see where they go from here with ASM. Felt that it complimented the cigar I had.

Aroma is softly fruity and heavily malty with light notes of those gummy orange slices candy as it opens and has a slight roasty note to it like almost-charred-mallows or light coffee; Palate has a beautifully farmy character to it I’m enjoying that gives it an earthy tone and helps offset the young, but not crafty, notes; Finish is warm, fruity and farmy with a touch of rustic charm.

Batch 22J11. On the nose, a little malt funk, marshmello, cedar, and nuts. Light and easy on the palate, with some baked bread, honey, banana and a slight smokiness and peat. The peat lingers into the finish, but it is light.

Vanilla, honey, dust, life cereal, and a hint of peat smoke on the nose. Palate is dried fruit, peat, earth, caramel, and grain. Reminds me of highland Park 12, but more...American? Very interesting stuff.