High West BouRye (2025)

Bottling: 25A23

MSRP: $125

Mash: blend of MGP 95% rye, 5% malted barley, 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley, 60% corn, 36% rye, 4% malted barley, High West 80% rye, 20% malted barley, and KY 78% corn, 10% rye, 12% malted barley

Proof: 92

Age: 10 years+

Nose: lemon zest and lemon pith, butterscotch, nectarine, windex, sugarcane

Palate: lemon tart pastry, light butterscotch, vanilla, floral tea like note, overall the mouthfeel is incredibly thin

Finish: pretty short finish with some sugar and tannins

Rating: Pass (Out of Hoard, Buy, Try, Pass)

Thoughts: This release just made me sad. There are times when I enjoy this, but only if I'm multitasking and not paying attention to what's in my glass. It's mind blowing that this is a combination of 10 year whiskey, and even more mind blowing that this is the same lineup that 10 years prior was absolutely incredible. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I'm not sure who blessed off on this blend, or why. I really wanted to rank this as a Try It, but it's honestly just not good, and it's expensive on top of that. I had heard when this was initially released that it was a return to really good BouRyes, but I don't have any idea what they were talking about. Sadly I can't recommend this to anyone, pick up their Rendezvous Rye if you want much better quality from Highwest, and cheaper.

I don't like writing bad reviews, but this was just disappointing and I'm sad that I spent money on this. I like High West, but this ain't it.

What's the deal?: High West started a lot of their blends at too high of a quality. The first releases in 2009-2012 were blends of MGP bourbon, Four Roses bourbon, and Barton rye, all aged between 10 and 16 years old. They were incredible blends that really helped put High West on the map. The BouRye line returned starting in 2015, and from then forward relied on solely MGP bourbon and Barton rye. The big issues, is that somewhere between 2015 and 2016, High West ran out of the wildly unique and high aged Barton rye that helped prop up both the BouRye and Rendezvous Rye lines. For a while older MGP rye was used to help bring the higher ages to the blend, but they slowly started lowering to just 10 years across the board for the bourbon and rye. I have heard that this 2025 release had a lot more High West distillate than had ever been previously possible. However, something in this blend is just off. I don't know if it's the MGP, High West, or the mystery KY component, but this just didn't work. It feels young and lackluster, and just sour overall. I have a 2017 bottling of BouRye and it is fantastic, almost ten years later I will not be purchasing another BouRye.