The resulting blend clocks in at 49.3% ABV and is non chill-filtered. The advantage of distilling year after year is that one can eventually start to bottle it. Quick note: previous blends had both the MGP and a 16 year old Barton rye, which, also resulted in their Rendezvous Rye, one of my very favorite drams in general. Midwinter Night’s Dram is straight rye, composed from two sources: a familiar 95% rye from MGP and an 80% rye from High West themselves (took them long enough). High West out of Park City, Utah has been covered well enough by us, so we move onward to the bottle at hand. If done right, the result is a perilously drinkable composition. Simply put, I allowed myself to be surprised at this curious coupling of a dessert wine flourish and oaky rye. My tastes evolved with a sherry finished Beam a few years ago, along with a few others. I disregarded these creations ever since then. Responsibility should also be placed upon a particularly bad experience with an Angel’s Envy port finished rye. I don’t think I was snippy about it, I just don’t think it was needed. I never thought I was much of purist when it came to bourbon and rye but my instinct was to spurn away port or sherry finishing on any of my beloved American distinctives.
Which brings me to today’s selection, High West’s Midwinter Night’s Dram and how my attitude changed towards port finished ryes and bourbons. The industry will change, bottles come and go, but the only thing that stays the same is Richard Patterson’s Nose. A sort of whiskey maturity, so to speak, if there is such a thing. How does this happen? Change, for lack of a clearer word. It is now a dependable and steady dram as sure as God made green apples.
I nearly spit it out and gave up on this “whiskey as a hobby” thing almost as soon as it started. My first legit tasting session was with a miniature of Johnnie Walker Black. I guess congratulations are in order, High West, because it looks like you’ve got a baby unicorn on your hands.My whiskey journey is a baffling one. Of course, it will hit the secondary market eventually as well, and a rep for High West mentioned that it is expected to sell for about $1,000 a bottle once it does. With this year’s release of Act 10, you’ll taste notes of dark rye bread, black currant jam, candied ginger, bergamot, and smoked apple wood.”īoth whiskeys will be available next week, although you’ll have to travel to Utah to get your hands on a bottle of The Encore. “We really started to notice it taking off the past five to six years, and the line that now forms at the distillery bright and early on release day speaks for itself… Each year’s Act is a slightly nuanced expression thanks to the flavors the whiskey picks up from the barrels, which are sourced from different wineries and have unique characteristics. “It goes without saying that A Midwinter Night’s Dram is our most anticipated launch each year,” said Coyle in a statement. Encore is bottled at 101.6 proof and is a distillery-only release ($150). This whiskey was actually supposed to be blended into the new A Midwinter Night’s Dram, but after tasting it master distiller Brendan Coyle liked it so much he decided to release it on its own. According to the distillery team, this type of barrel is much harder to get, and the effect of this cask finish was to give the whiskey similar characteristics to brandy. The Encore has the same blend at its core, but this whiskey was finished in white port barrels from Portugal, an unusual cask finish for American whiskey. It’s bottled at 98.6 proof with an SRP of $150. The formula for A Midwinter Night’s Dram changes from year to year, but the 2022 release is as follows: the liquid consists of High West’s Rendezvous Rye that was finished in tawny and ruby port barrels, a blend of 80 percent rye and 20 percent malted rye distilled in-house, and 95 percent rye and 5 percent barley malt from MGP in Indiana.
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