High West gives some heavy clues to its home – ski resort, in the Rockies probably? It’s not, in fact, based in a Colorado mountain town, but Park City, Utah. That comes as a surprise to many – isn’t Utah a dry state? It’s not, despite the Mormon influence, however it does have some dry counties and, elsewhere, there are restrictive laws that alcohol over 3.2% ABV (ie anything but lite beer) must be bought in licensed shops. 

High West master distiller Brendan Coyle has a great historical nugget about Utah: ‘It was our state that cast the deciding vote to end prohibition in the United States in 1933. Even back in the 1860s, distillation and whiskey-making flourished in Utah, with 37 licensed distilleries, most of them owned by Mormons, including the Latter-day Saints’ leader Brigham Young.’

In the 1990s and 2000s, Park City, aka Sin City and the home of the Sundance Film Festival, was known for its microbreweries but hadn’t re-established distilling since Prohibition. In 2006, High West changed that, becoming the first new distillery to open in Utah since 1870.

The success of High West means that there is now a second distillery, further up into the mountains. But, unusually for an American distiller, High West focuses on blending. Coyle, who studied at Heriot-Watt, so knows his Scotch, says, ‘Trading stock and blending is common globally – in Scotland, of course, but whiskey globally, also rum, even Cognac. But when we began, it was very rare in the United States. The big bourbon distilleries were very singular. We wanted to help change that, because we thought that diversity in your inventory and complexity in the flavour profile ultimately allow you to get to a whole new place that’s never been seen before.’

As they have their own pot stills, what they mainly trade is their ‘big, rich, robust’ pot-still whiskey (which can be malt, bourbon or rye, depending on the mash bill) for column-distilled bourbon and rye. 

It was rye whiskey that got High West off the ground – Rendezvous Rye (around £80) to start with, a classic Christmas-cake-spice rye whiskey, well-aged, rounded and rich. It has a notable viscosity because it has a high percentage of High West’s own pot-still whiskey in it. Later, High West introduced another rye, with more outside-sourced column-still whiskey in the blend. Double Rye (around £55) packs a huge spice punch, but more along the lines of dry-fried cooking spices, plus there’s a minty freshness in there, too. It’s arguably more of a mixing whiskey than Rendezvous.

Campfire (around £90) is probably the most compelling of High West’s blending stories. Its creator, Coyle, explains the origin: ‘Camping is huge in the United States and, one time, the founder and I got talking about what whiskey you would take camping. The trouble was, we loved so many different styles and whiskeys from around the world, but you can only choose one because you have to carry that bottle in your pack. Well, which one whiskey are you going to choose? It’s like picking your favourite kid. So, I started thinking about a global blend… and this is the result. Campfire is American bourbon, American rye… and peated Scottish blended malt. So, it comes in with sweet bourbon, then there’s spicy rye mid-palate, and it finishes with that long, ingrained peat.’

Coyle refuses to reveal the source of the peated malt – ‘It took us two-and-a-half years to get the deal, and they worded it six different ways in the contract, that we could not divulge the source!’ – but he does say it’s not from Islay.

High West does produce a bourbon (around £55) too – a relatively late addition to the roster after the rye went stratospheric. The mantra of many famous bourbon brands’ marketing departments is to emphasise “vanilla and caramel notes”. Coyle says that High West’s tasting panel has a rule: ‘No one is allowed to write vanilla or caramel in the tasting notes. Every bourbon has those – you have to use a new American oak barrel that’s charred. Well, charring caramelises the wood sugars and the oak contains a substance called vanillin. We wanted to move beyond that – bring out more spiciness, more earthiness, more richness into our bourbon, so it can stand alone as an interesting, unique sipper, but it can also be very assertive, so it stands out in cocktails. It doesn’t just get washed away by mixers.’

The bourbon High West distils itself is 35 per cent rye – usually rye would account for only about 15 per cent of a mash bill. That’s then blended with other bourbon to balance it, but it’s still nutty and spicy – certainly characterful enough to work in cocktails that usually call for rye whiskeys.

It is High West as a cocktail ingredient that explains the brand’s annual trip to Chamonix. It’s the location for the European final of the annual High West Mountain Bartender Challenge (one of the most keenly fought bartender competitions – especially among those who ski or snowboard). 

What the competition demonstrates is that a globalist approach to whiskey (not to mention other areas of the economy) reaps benefits in return. Bartenders across Europe are stocking High West blends to mix with further creativity in their cocktails. And many of those bartenders are in locations that might surprise those who think that London and Barcelona are the only places that matter. 

The 2025 winner was Chris Grøtvedt, founder of Oslo’s Boho House. The runner-up was a little closer to home: Will Barker from The Dark Horse in Bath. He produced a complex and subtly balanced Park City cocktail: 50ml High West double rye, 15ml clear crème de menthe, 10ml clear cacao liqueur, 5ml kümmel (caraway liqueur) and a dash of smoked-salt solution, stirred and served with a grapefruit twist as garnish. (Perhaps easier to go to Bath for the weekend and let him mix it for you).

Honourable mentions go to two of those more surprising cocktail hot spots: Belgium and Latvia, specifically to Annelies Demaret of Jiggers in Ghent and Sabīne Sebre of Kolonade in Riga. Demaret made her own nocino (an Italian liqueur made from green walnuts) out of foraged green pine cones for her recipe: 40ml High West bourbon, 15ml pine cone nocino, 25ml verjus, 10ml green tea syrup and two dashes of Angostura. Meanwhile, Sebre made a rhubarb liqueur (it’s a popular crop in Latvia) for what is probably the easiest recipe to replicate at home (since commercial rhubarb liqueurs are available). Muddle mint and dill in 50ml High West Rendezvous rye and 25ml apple juice, add 35ml rhubarb liqueur, 7.5ml ginger syrup, 5ml lemon juice and three drops orange bitters, shake and strain.

High West’s aim to be a maker of global whiskey has recently shifted south with its limited-edition The Noble Share ($174.99), a blended straight rye aged partly in Casa Noble tequila barrels and partly in Brazilian amburana wood barrels. It’s exclusive to the US and pretty much sold out, but it can be acquired on the secondary market for a massive mark-up. More importantly, it suggests there are more innovations to come from Utah.

highwest.com