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High West Rendezvous Rye

A Sweet Rye Whiskey

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@VictorReview by @Victor

11th Feb 2011

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High West Rendezvous Rye
  • Nose
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  • Taste
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  • Finish
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  • Balance
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  • Overall
    93

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High West Distillery in Park City, Utah, is the first distillery to be licensed in Utah since Prohibition. The High West distillery products have not yet aged sufficiently to be commercially marketed. The current Rendezvous Rye Whiskey, named after the annual summer trade gatherings in that area during the 19th century, combines a 6 yr old 95% mashbill rye whiskey with a 16 yr old 80% rye mashbill whiskey. Both whiskeys currently originate from another, unnamed, distiller. No information is given by High West concerning the remainder of the mashbill, but I would surmise that it is most likely malted barley, in order to increase enzyme concentration for the conversion of the grain starches into sugars prior to fermentation. The whiskeys in Rendezvous combine some malted rye with some unmalted rye. They are not chill-filtered

Nose: moderate to intense maple, brown sugar, caramel, oak, rye spice

Taste: sweet, a lot more caramel than you would usually see in a rye whiskey, big, big rye spices, such as black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and with substantial oak in the background

Finish: long, with all of the flavours staying together until the end

Balance: as a rye lover this one really works well for me. This is quite a bit sweeter than most ryes, which tend to have a dry flavour profile. The big spice, big oak, and above average sweetness here work well together. This whiskey has won quite a few awards, including Double Gold in San Francisco, a 95 rating from Malt Advocate, a 96 rating from Wine Advocate, and a 93/100 rating from Jim Murray's 2011 Whisky Bible

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4 comments

@AboutChoice
AboutChoice commented

@Victor, any idea as to the age, and how you would compare to fabulous ryes like Sazarac 6 & 18 and Van Winlke Family Reserve Rye 13? Your notes induce me to search for some of this.

13 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@AboutChoice, as to age, the vatting consists of 16 yo Barton 80% rye, 20% malted barley mash, with Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana 6 yo 95% rye, 5 % malted barley mash. I don't know the proportions of the vatting of each of the two whiskeys included. What stands out to me about High West Rendezvous Rye is that it is much sweeter than the average rye whiskey, probably second only to Wild Turkey Rye for sweetness in a rye. A second distinctive element for HW Rendezvous is that the maple flavour which I alluded to in the nose is also very distinctly present to me on the palate. The wood tastes to my palate to convey a strong maple flavour which for me is the dominant wood flavour here. My bottle of Sazarac 6 is much drier than this and doesn't taste of Maple. My Sazarac 18 (2010) becomes quite sweet as the delivery develops on the palate, but the effect without the maple flavour is quite different. My bottle (2010 release) Van Winkle 13 yo rye is quite fruity, but is still dry, like a very dry red wine is fruity and dry. I have tasted Willett Bourbons which had this strong maple sort of wood flavour. I suspect that Barton, LDI, or both have been using wood that produces this effect. My first guess is that this is from the more aged whiskeys from Barton.

13 years ago 0

@AboutChoice
AboutChoice commented

@Victor, thanks for the very detailed info, and sorry for reading too fast and missing your obvious facts regarding the ages included in the vatting. Isn't it so special to have all these bottles readily available for research !

13 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

This bottle still tastes very good 5 1/2 years later. I've always found High West Rendezvous Rye to be satisfying in a way which doesn't lead me to want more than one dram at a time. Consequently, this bottle is still half full after all of these years.

I've always been fascinated that no one I personally know of, and no one reporting on Connosr, has ever had a bad experience with Rendezvous Rye except for Jim Murray, who gave more than one of the batches a mediocre or worse review. For most people most of the time High West Rendezvous Rye is a great choice to exemplify the straight rye genre of whiskey.

8 years ago 0