High West Campfire Review

large_CFhr2017trimmed-2Remember, just because you can blend weird whiskies together, even if you are David Perkins, it certainly doesn’t mean you should. Just throwing that out there.

Utah based High West Distillery is a mixed bag for me. I seem to like less of their blended expressions of god-like concoctions than others do in our uber important society of dumb whiskey bloggers. Today’s selection, High West Campfire, doesn’t exactly cure this particular judgement of mine. That said, I still love their Rendezvous Rye. It’s probably my favorite rye. Like, ever. Apparently, David Perkins was inspired whilst at a visit to Bruichladdich Distillery to create a whiskey that brought together Scotland’s smoke with America’s sweet. This idea required an un-orthodox marriage of a peated malt with a bourbon and rounded out with a near pure rye. I’m telling you, ONLY David Perkins could pull this off. If anyone else tried, forget it, Jack.

The bourbon and rye whiskies are both sourced from MGP (where else) and are aged at least five years with mash bill slash lines of 71% Corn/21% Rye/4% Malted Barley and 95% Rye/5% Malted Barley. The Scotch is a blended peated malt sourced from an undisclosed distillery not on Islay, is all we know about that. No one cares anyway. Price wise we are above $60 bucks, ABV is 46%. On to it…

SWC Review

Nose- Sour mash with sweaty feet and dark plums. Dried fruit. Peat.

Taste- Slightly sweet and sugary. Non-specified fruit and brown sugar, spice. Rotting seaweed and smoke.

Finish- Barrel char and bitter. Bits of sweet, smoky fruits. Non-exciting.

Comment- “Acquired taste” is common phrase I see from online reviews. Aptly put. Yet, I know a guy who absolutely loves this, so there you go. We are whiskey generalists, so I don’t think we would automatically discount this oddball, but it just wasn’t that good, sorry to say.

SWC Review – 75/100

Agree? Disagree?

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