BeppeCovfefe
High West Rendezvous Rye
Rye — (bottled in) Utah, USA
Reviewed
September 27, 2020 (edited June 27, 2021)
A decent offering from High West. It's interesting so many have an opinion on this yet so few could be troubled to write a note about it. I'm sampling Batch 18B22 which I hope means NOT the year. The bottle is open well below the neck (shoulders I guess) so the bitter geebies, if any, have had time to air out. The nose is feint but offers pleasant sweet dill and sugar spice.
Straight into the mouth we get a moderate offering of nice sweet spices quickly turning to some mild bitter nibs and coco, the corn blend I would say is just notable at the front and that's a good thing, otherwise we would have yet another 95/5 MGP product relabeled for the market. The profile does remain somewhat simplistic. This has just a bit of that nice richness found in the high corn ryes, and blend or the age produces a good smooth back side, the finish is burn free and clean. This really seems like one of the better ideas High West has come up with. If you want a somewhat straight rye experience with just a minor feel of the rich character ryes well you could do far worse. Prognosis. The proof and markup seem to be just at the point where I wouldn't mind keeping this in the bar though I certainly wouldnt kick out a favorite rye to make room for it. Better than some High West offerings though that's just not saying that much. Cheers!
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@dubz480 well then, that only makes the review more relevant since I didn't get a "unicorn" bottle that will soon be long lost but instead it's a sample more likely found this very day. I think High West is proving to be a great example of at least one part of what's wrong with the bourbon boom/whiskey craze of boutique startups. Creating a niche market with temporary sourced juice and price points beyond senseless.
@BeppeCovfefe unfortunately that does mean it's from the 2018 batch.... by that time this had already lost the 16yr old Barton Rye component and was replaced with High West's own distilate (in addition to the 7yr old MGP 95/5 component)... the difference with the 2020 batch is it will most likely contain a greater % of High West's own juice (80/20)
@Guitar-man Indeed High price West is proof positive re-labeled mgp is a great deal.
@BeppeCovfefe I got a bottle of this online last fall #18617 from Blackwell's for $60. If NC would sell it for this, I would keep a bottle for a change of pace. However, when I can get a bottle of Pikesville and a bottle of Sazerac NAS for the cost of one HW at the standard price...I will just miss out on that Rendezvous.
@ContemplativeFox thanks! as you said, paying more for this than say Rittenhouse may or may not make any sense at all.
@BDanner Yes I've seen some realliy stupid markup above msrp on these HW bottles, maybe a lucky day at Total Wine you might find it more reasonable but these "boutique" distilleries don't seem to mind if you pay more,
Seems like a very fair assessment. Thanks for leaving notes!
I really like the Double Rye, but haven't tried this one as I just have no enthusiasm about dropping north of $80 on a rye.