High West distillery in Utah has been distilling for a couple of years now, but apart from their ‘Silver’ series, all the whiskey they have released so far has been sourced elsewhere.

My review on High West, some of their whiskies and the food.

The Campfire whisky is a blended whisky consisting of bourbon, rye and Scotch blended malt whisky. The American whiskies in it come from the old Seagrams plant in Indiana, but which blended malt is used is not disclosed.

It’s a very nice idea to mix such different styles of whisk(e)y and whether or not it tastes good? Let’s find out!

High West Campfire

Sniff:
Complex is the first word that pops up. In this case complex means that a lot of stuff is going on. When you know that there are different kinds of whisk(e)y in your glass together it kind of explains what you smell, since all kinds are represented on the nose. Bourbon makes up the main component I would say. The Scotch bit tempers the sweetness a little bit. Fruity with barbecue sauce, corn syrup. There is a tiny trace of smoke in the background, covered with lots of caramel.

Sip:
A lot lighter than I expected and displays blended malt with bourbon. I’m not picking up a lot of rye. Fairly thin with a touch of that bourbon sweetness, not much though. The blended malt whisky shows, and there is finally some spicy pepper from the rye whiskey. Fairly spicy indeed with some toasted rye bread.

Swallow:
The finish feels fairly random. Spicy, with oak and some smoke, and some sweetness from teh corn. A bit flat though.

To be honest, I had expected more from this. Blending together all those styles is no mean feat, and maybe this is the best you can get from mixing up such different components, but I’m not entirely convinced. It’s a nice whisk(e)y, don’t get me wrong, but I just have the feeling that three components are trying to pull it in a direction and it falls flat in the middle.

High West Campfire, 46%, OB, available at Master of Malt at £ 58