What is perhaps most interesting about High West is that, like its home state, the brand has taken to doing things differently. Though blending is common with Scotch, in America it is not done so often. Those that do are often keen to obscure where they’re getting their liquid from: High West is happy to celebrate it. Take the aptly-named Campfire: into every bottle there is rye, bourbon and then a slug of peated Scotch. Typical constraints are not High West’s style. If you see it at a bar, have the Bourye. You can’t miss the label, with its smiling jackalope — the mythical antlered rabbit. The name says it all: a blend of bourbon and rye, bringing out the best of both: the fruit and caramel of bourbon, the leading spice of rye. Before High West, no-one had thought to mix the two. Or, if they had, they’d kept quiet about it. Bolder still is the Noble Share. It is a blend of MGP-distilled rye and High West-distilled rye, aged in both Marques de Casa Noble Anejo Tequila casks and Amburana barrels. Whiskey ageing in tequila casks isn’t the done thing. Or perhaps wasn’t; now it has been, and the result is astonishing, and quite unlike anything else in the world of whiskey. Sipped, it is almost like seeing a new colour.
