What, you may ask, is Bourye? Bourye is a unique concoction from the good folks at the High West Distillery in Utah. It's a blend of a ten year old Bourbon and two ryes -- a 12 year old with a whopping 95% rye mashbill (5% malted barley) and a 16 year old with a more traditional rye mashbill (53% rye, 37% corn, 10% barley). High West is one of the few bottlers I've seen that spells out the mashbills of each of its component whiskeys right on the bottle (High West doesn't distill any of this itself but buys whiskey from distillers). Their Rendezvous Rye is one of my favorite rye whiskeys, so I was eager to try Bourye.Tasting
Bourye, a Blend of Straight Whiskies (Batch 1), 46% alcohol ($60)
The nose is very Bourbon heavy up front, with rye spice kicking in later (keep in mind that while we know the component whiskeys in this vatting, we don't know the proportions of each that are used in the final product). Not surprisingly, the taste is similar to a high rye-content Bourbon. The first thing you get is a sweet burst of corn, followed by rye spice and some chewy, oak notes. The rye takes over in the finish, which goes on and on. This is really good stuff. Sipping blind, I would guess this was a very good high-rye content Bourbon with some age on it, which is probably more or less what it is when you add up all the components.
An impressive product, one that makes me glad that someone recognizes that value of what's hiding in some warehouses out there.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to assume that the 95% rye component was originally destined to be a flavoring whiskey in something else. Glad that it made it into this, instead!
Have you heard of the group "Whisky Avengers" ??? They are coming to town next week - playing in Hermosa, Venice and Canoga Park. I actually went to high school with these guys .. Cupertino locals :)
ReplyDeleteSam, I agree completely. We're lucky that High West rescued these whiskeys.
ReplyDeleteAnna, never heard of the band but what a great name!
Since David Perkins revealed that he had acquired a few barrels of Four Roses bourbon (which Jim wasn't even aware of), what are the odds that the bourbon component of the Bourye is Four Roses?
ReplyDeleteEricH, it's 100% certain as David has now made it clear that Four Roses is the Bou in Bourye. The rye is a combniation of LDI and Barton.
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