High West Whiskey Double Rye: the spiciest whiskey in the world?

If you want a peppery spirit full of spices, the bottle for you is the High West Whiskey Double Rye. It is a very rough and spicy whiskey, suitable for those who love intense flavors cut with an ax and in fact, it was created to enhance the green, herbaceous and mentholated parts of the rye.

How did they do it?

Very simple. They made a blend of a young, two-year-old whiskey rye, full of pepper and licorice, and a more mature one, which spent 7 to 12 years in cask. The details of the years of aging are not specified on the label, so we can say that the age of the most refined rye is variable.

Overall it is a pleasant but very particular distillate, the use of which finds its life purpose in blending. We are not at the level of the Few and even less of the Whistlepig. It is not meditation rye; indeed, if you want to make a comparison with another excellent product (for mixing), it resembles, as a philosophy, the Kraken rum.

You will not start sipping this whiskey at sunset while you are galloping in the valleys of Montana. No, not even for a second: its fiery taste will smash your palate. This is not a defect. It was born in this way for a commercial choice. It is no coincidence that the High West Whiskey Double Rye is the distillery’s entry-level bottle.

If you want rye to taste, opt for the house jewels, the Campfire and the Rendezvous, much softer, despite having an incredible “angular” character.

The distillery wanted to create the spiciest rye whiskey in the world and it succeeded, but with such a statement, it is evident that it wants to place this bottle in the blending field.

But if, on the contrary, you use it to make great classics like Sazerac, Manhattan, Old Fashion, the result will be fantastic.

The megalithic spicy charge will be transformed into a thousand facets, finding balance and a unique pleasure. From an almost caricatured distillate, it will become an elixir of joy. Consider it a heavily marked distillate, almost an aromatic bitters to be stretched and worked.

Another field of application is the gastronomic one. It is clearly created to enhance smoked dishes, so you know what to uncork if you have to grill pulled pork, brisket, and smoked ribs.

It’s also great for making barbecue sauce. Try it with this recipe.

Organoleptic characteristics

The bouquet is paroxysmal, more like green tea flavored with a thousand spices than a whiskey. Herbaceous scents are extreme. They bite and don’t leave much space. Anise, vanilla and cardamom seem ground and then infused, so much so that it is hard to find a common thread.

On the palate, it is rough, dry, throws punches. The tannins are sharp, pepper and chili whip the palate and between one lash and the next, you will feel flavors of walnut, burnt caramel and cocoa.

It is hard to say that it is excellent and balanced. It is undoubtedly eclectic and balsamic, with a suggestive eucalyptus and pine finish, but as “warmth,” it is too fiery.

First, it burns you and then comes the mentholated flavors, but it lacks the right softness to relieve the tongue. The alcohol content is 46 degrees.

Price

On the distillery website, it is sold for 34 dollars, a fair price for a distillate to make great cocktails, but certainly not with pretensions.