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High West ryes


StraightNoChaser
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Just met with a representative from High West. For the record, here's a breakdown of the sources of their products

Double Rye = 2yr HW rye and 16yr LDI rye

Rendezvous = 6yr (either HW or LDI, can't remember) and 16yr LDI

16yr = LDI

21yr = Barton rye aged in used cask

The 21yr is about to have its last bottling. 16yr is gone forever, get it while you can.

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Just met with a representative from High West. For the record, here's a breakdown of the sources of their products

Double Rye = 2yr HW rye and 16yr LDI rye

Rendezvous = 6yr (either HW or LDI, can't remember) and 16yr LDI

16yr = LDI

21yr = Barton rye aged in used cask

The 21yr is about to have its last bottling. 16yr is gone forever, get it while you can.

Hey SNC, I've heard Dave Perkins make numerous statements on High West and I don't think that's quite right, unless the formulas have changed, which would surprise me greatly.

I believe Double Rye is 2 yr LDI and 16 yr Barton.

Rendezvous is 6 year LDI and 16 year Barton.

I'm pretty sure the 16 year is Barton.

I don't believe they market their own rye in any of the sourced products, only on its own, such as with the OMG Rye.

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The formulas could have indeed changed but he was insistent that the 2yr was their own distillate. According to him they have been distilling since 2004 (legally)

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The formulas could have indeed changed but he was insistent that the 2yr was their own distillate. According to him they have been distilling since 2004 (legally)

Interesting, though I must say I have gotton bad information from brand reps in the past, so I wouldn't take it to the bank. We do have a HW guy on the board so maybe he'll jump in. And I'm pretty sure your guy was wrong about the 16 (which was just one batch and not changed) so that makes me skeptical of the others.

I know you're just reporting this and not necessarilly vouching; I just thought I'd share what I know about it.

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I think I need to start voice recording every meeting I have with any representative of any distillery LOL

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High West actually has/had two very different 16-year-old ryes.

The Rocky Mountain 16 and Rendezvous use the same 16-year-old whiskey. It is a high rye content whiskey with a mash bill of 80% rye, 10% barley malt and 10% corn. The other 16 which is used in the Double Rye and Bourye has a mash bill of 53% rye, 37% corn and 10% barley malt.

I do know that the 16 year Rocky Mountain Rye is one of the finest whiskeys I have ever had.

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I think I need to start voice recording every meeting I have with any representative of any distillery LOL

Well, there is just one constant in your interviews...Just sayin' ;)

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Well, there is just one constant in your interviews...Just sayin' ;)

Yes... I'm always drinking during them :lol:

Give me a little while, I took a picture of their sell sheet which will confirm the mashbills. I do think there was a slight error in there

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Damn, the sell sheet indicates LDI is the 2-yr rye being put into the Double Rye, however that completely contradicts the statement by the rep. He indeed claimed it was their 2yr distillate. Either he was wrong or they haven't updated their sales material.

Double Rye = 2yr 95/5(malt) rye, 16 yr 53/37(corn) rye

Rendezvous = 6yr 95/5 rye, 16yr 80/10(corn)/10(malt) rye

He did at some point say 16 yr LDI... I wonder if he was just messing his facts up. I didn't really pay attention to the fact sheet while we was talking to me.

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He did at some point say 16 yr LDI... I wonder if he was just messing his facts up. I didn't really pay attention to the fact sheet while we was talking to me.

Maybe you misheard or he misspoke and was talking about the 12-year old rye, which is LDI as far as I know. My understanding was that that was the oldest LDI rye around.

Also, if you look at the HW website's notes on the 12-year old, http://www.highwest.com/spirits/12-year-old-rye/ it says that LDI was using a 52% rye recipe in the early 80's and changed it gradually over time to the 95% in the early 90's. It did pass through an 80% rye phase, but being that HW's products didn't start showing up until 2008, that would mean that the 16yo rye would have been distilled around 1992, which sounds to me from the HW description was after LDI's mashbill changed to 95%.

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Maybe you misheard or he misspoke and was talking about the 12-year old rye, which is LDI as far as I know. My understanding was that that was the oldest LDI rye around.

There was no discussion of a 12yr rye...

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There was no discussion of a 12yr rye...

That is because this stuff is long gone, there were only 5 barrels. Aaron is correct, this is an LDI rye that was accidentally aged for an extended period.

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The 53/37 is Four Roses

Steffen

FOUR ROSES RYE????!!!!!! Are you trying to start a revolution??

The high rye bourbon FR makes is 60/35, but their lower rye 75/20 is what I believe is used in Son of Bourye as well as the original Bourye.

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Steffen, in regards to 4R, I think you might be confusing the rye with some of the bourbon they used for their Bourye or Son of Boureye.

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Sorry :-) No revolutions today from me, I think I mixed it up with the bourbon from the Bourye :bowdown:

Steffen

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FOUR ROSES RYE????!!!!!! Are you trying to start a revolution??

The high rye bourbon FR makes is 60/35, but their lower rye 75/20 is what I believe is used in Son of Bourye as well as the original Bourye.

Oh boy :slappin:

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I found this from Notamormon in old thread

And for some fun facts: High West doesn't just blend old and young whiskey from one distillery (LDI). We actually have whiskeys from Four Roses, Barton, and LDI. Rendezvous blends 6yo LDI with 16yo Barton. Double Rye! blends 2yo LDI and 16 year old Barton. The fun part is, the 16yo's have different mashbills. In Rendezvous, the 16yo has 80% rye, 10% corn, and 10% malt. This was a real shocker to people to know there was an older rye with that high of a rye mashbill. The 16yo in Double Rye has a more conventional rye whiskey mashbill with 53% rye, 37% corn, and 10% malt. Was I lucky when I sourced these? Very! And Bourye is a blend of Four Roses, LDI, and Barton.

Steffen, sorry for all the confusion

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Steffen, thanks for re-posting that. Notamormon is the man himself, David Perkins, so it seems this is confirmation that both the 16s are from Barton.

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However I still maintain it was said that the 2yr rye is HW juice

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From the High West webstie

"The 2 year old has a mash bill with 95% rye and 5% barley malt and is fermented with High West’s proprietary yeast."

It could imply they're making 95/5 rye themselves :skep:

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Here's the word back from an email

Thanks for your email and it was a good pleasure to meet with you today. You really seem to know and have great appreciation for whiskey, qualities I enjoy!

I apologize for any confusion that existed on our whiskeys, though I may have misunderstood your question. We have a lot of different whiskeys with various mashbills and of different provenance. I'll give you a broad run down of all the rye whiskeys in our program and please let me know if this doesn't clear things up:

- 95% rye, 5% malted barley - basically anywhere you see a 95% rye mashbill (in our brand or any other) it is a LDI distillate. "95" is kind of their thing... We currently blend this into our Double Rye! at 2 years old and our Rendezvous at 6 years.

- 53% rye, 37% corn, 10% malted barley - this was a former mashbill of LDI, though they do not produce it anymore. We have some of this that we pulled from barrel at 16 years and use it mostly for blending into the Double Rye! program.

- 80% rye, 10% corn, 10% malted barley - this also was a former mashbill of LDI (and I'd venture to say their best) and we have some that we also pulled from barrel at 16 years. It is used for blending into our Rendezvous program

- 100% rye (80% unmalted, 20% malted) - this is everything that is now distilled at High West, in Park City. Currently, it goes into bottle as our Silver Rye but the majority goes into barrel. The oldest that we have is just over 4 years and future Double Rye! (once we run out of the 2yr old LDI stuff) will be bottled with a portion of this production. The rest will be held for various single age expressions, etc.

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