High West Bourye (2024) Review

High West was likely the first producer to blend rye whiskey and bourbon together into one cohesive product. And even if they weren’t, they were the first to state on the label that’s what was in the bottle. The name that Dave Perkins (founder of High West) gave it was “Bourye.” He’s since gone on to trademark the term.

I recently wrote an article covering the timeline of bouryes. If you read it, you’ll see there have been many copycats over the years. Unfortunately, High West has let their dominance in the category slip away since then. For instance, producers like Michter’s and Jim Beam have released three different bourbon and rye whiskey blends (each) over the last 10 years. There have been numerous other imposters as well.

High West Bourye

The formula for High West’s Bourye was to typically take highly aged bourbon and rye whiskey and blend them together prior to bottling it all at 92 proof. This low proof theoretically made it more approachable to a wider audience, but the problem was that it was still a limited time offering. It was only going to have a limited audience that were opening and drinking them. That limited audience tended to be enthusiasts who would buy it up before less-experienced customers could. This is how the game works, though. If High West thought they should make a whiskey for everyone to enjoy, they shouldn’t have made it so limited in the first place.

High West also rejected the idea improving Bourye to become a higher-tiered product. Instead, they let it become stagnant and uninteresting. Starting around 2019, they became more secretive with the makeup of the blend. That’s always a sign that they’re cutting costs by blending with inferior barrels. They kept the proof at the same 92 proof as well, even after the trends clearly showed that enthusiasts expected higher priced allocated releases to be bottled at higher proofs.

I also understand that part of the reason why Bourye has suffered is due to a shortage of well-aged whiskey starting around the same time. It didn’t help that they were also bought out by Constellation who then instituted efficiency measures to cut costs and boost profits. Now instead of Bourye being made up of 12-17 year old components, the age limit seems to be about 10 years old.

What was once a premium whiskey is now another low-proofed limited time offering riding on the coattails of its past glory.

The 2024 release of Bourye

From what I’ve gathered, this year’s Bourye is made of 4 separate whiskies – 2 bourbons and 2 rye whiskies. The source of the bourbons aren’t listed, but they’re not hard to figure out. 75/21/4 is obviously MPG’s low-rye bourbon and 78/10/12 seems like it would be Heaven Hill’s bourbon. On the rye side of things, the 80/20 recipe (the 20% is malted rye, not barley btw) is High West’s own pot still abominati… errr, creation. The 95/5 recipe is obviously MGP’s famed rye whiskey. All of these recipes are aged at least 10 years.

Put ’em all together and you have a whiskey that seems like it has the chops to be a tasty release; I’m just not so sure about the Heaven Hill component fitting in. So how does it taste? Thanks to my friend John, I get to find out. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Upon first sniff, I pick up on a nice bouquet of fruit, rye spice and caramel. Typical MGP rye whiskey scents of pine needles and orange zest gets my attention while I also find an assortment of other herbal notes. I can pick up on some of the age with a seasoned oak note. Sweeter scents follow with vanilla buttercream frosting, berry jam and a slight bit of Sherry wine (that’s strange).

Palate: The texture and viscosity is light on my tongue. Rye spice shows up in a big way with notes of spiced honey, cinnamon, licorice, pine and more herbal notes. Tannins revolve around dry oak and a hint of leather. I find fruit flavors to be concentrated around cherries, citrus and sweetened stone fruit. Two somewhat strange notes I pick up on occasionally during the session are cornbread (which is a younger whiskey note) and a little bit of chalk. Is there Dickel in this blend?

Finish: After the sip is complete, I find lingering notes of spices (cinnamon, allspice), dry-ish oak, and tobacco. The dry oak also comes off as barrel char. It’s not all tannins and spice, though. There are still fleeting fruit notes (apricot, cherry) along with a little bit of vanilla and honey.

Score 7.8/10

The 2024 release of Bourye delivers an experience that’s more-or-less what I expected. The rye whiskey notes clearly take the lead, but not so much that you think you’re drinking an actual rye whiskey. Each sip delivered plenty of sweetness and spice as well as plenty of fruit flavors. It’s enjoyable for what it is.

You probably could see where this review is ultimately going, so I won’t disappoint you. The biggest disappointment continues to be the low proof this gets bottled at. All of these flavors are good, but the thing that would push them over the edge to being something great would be giving it at least 10 more proof points. I don’t care how that has to happen, but High West needs to find a way. I can literally taste the missing flavors from all the water they added.

Final Thoughts

The High West name conjures up memories of a brand that was built to be different. Everything from their blends to their finishes to the feeling of the “Old West” their bottles exude was a welcome change from the Kentucky bourbon scene. It’s that feeling you get when you hold a bottle and see the labels that make you think “maybe I should buy this.” Sadly, the whiskey that they were once known for isn’t the whiskey they’re bottling today. This isn’t just a fault of Bourye either – it’s a problem they have across the board.

What could High West do about it? Start bottling a whiskey for the true enthusiast. One that clearly states mash bill composition (so we don’t have to go through so many channels to find it) and one bottled at 104 proof (at least). There are signs that they are capable of doing this – with the introduction of their “Cask Strength Bourbon” line – but they need to do it to their special releases as well. Start by making Bourye better and I think they’d see a return of enthusiasts back to the brand. Unfortunately, all this label has become is just an overpriced, low-proofed bourbon that doesn’t bring enough to the table anymore.