I sampled these blind and will have the reveal at the end. Would the change be drastic or insignificant? There’s only one way to find out. I teamed up with my friend Robert who helped me obtain a bottle of Double Rye! from 2020 while I used my bottle of Double Rye! from 2016 to check out what had changed. Prices remained more or less the same but the final blend had been altered in a way that many refused to believe it would be good anymore. Subsequently, by the beginning of 2018 there was no more Barton rye whiskey left to blend with anymore and Double West saw it’s recipe switch to a blend of 2 year old MGP rye whiskey and their own rye whiskey that was aged for up to 7 years and consisted of 80% rye and 20% malted rye. The reviews for it were impressive after it launched and it remained a great shelf staple for years after that.įollowing Constellation’s buyout of High West in late 2016, a cost-cutting plan was put into place that gradually reduced the amount of expensive, sourced whiskey in each offering and replace it with whiskey distilled on High West’s own stills. It was hoped that the young qualities of the MGP rye would be offset by the old, sweet, oaky rye whiskey that hailed from Kentucky. They decided to buy both.ĭouble Rye was conceived as a blend that would use very young, 2 year old Rye Whiskey from MGP along with the 16 year old 53/37/10 rye whiskey from Barton. When High West began to scour Kentucky (and Indiana) for stocks of rye whiskey and bourbon, they came across a huge lot of rye whiskey that was aging with no real purpose at Barton Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky.īarton had two different double digit aged rye whiskies to choose from. Up to this point, the secret ingredient in High West’s products like Rendezvous Rye, Rocky Mountain Rye and even some batches of Bourye were these old barrels of Barton Rye Whiskey. The reason was Barton wasn’t producing that rye whiskey any longer. They had been blending various rye whiskies and bourbons for 4 years now and growing their brand nationwide.īut with that growth came the need to offer products at price points that would attract new buyers that weren’t sure they wanted to spend more than $50 for a bottle of whiskey.Īt the same time, High West needed to delay depleting their limited stocks of rye whiskey they bought from Barton. In 2011, High West was considered by many to be the darling of the US’s rekindled love with brown spirits. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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