Review: High West Bottled in Bond Bourbon

Oddly, High West’s first bonded whiskey wasn’t a bourbon but a rye, which arrived in 2024. It took another couple of years for the natural follow-up, a bourbon, to finally hit the market. The whiskey is made entirely by High West in Utah and from an unusual, barley-free mashbill of 64% corn and 36% rye. This inaugural 2025 release is aged for 4 years and 5 months before bottling.

Let’s dig in.

High West Bottled in Bond Bourbon Review

The lack of barley in the mash here is readily detectable, the whiskey featuring a rather biting, aggressive nose that’s heavy on toasted corn and layered with green herbs, torched grass, and a bit of asphalt. Altogether it’s quite savory and nutty, with gritty aromas of peanut shells enduring.

The palate keeps its cards close to the vest, with plenty of peanut-popcorn notes in attendance, but with minimal sweetness to speak of. This is a whiskey with youth, a chewy and earthy experience that needs considerable time in glass to warm up. It gets partway there, some soothingly sweet peanut butter notes and apple slices for dipping providing something to get a little excited about, with emerging brown butter notes giving the late game a cookie-like quality to explore. However, this all feels played very restrained and immature, the rye component underdeveloped and overtly herbal, and a finish that’s overly acidic yet also surprisingly flat.

On its merits, it’s fine as a cocktail mixer, but as an $80 bonded expression it faces extreme competition in both quality and value. The rye is considerably more interesting.

100 proof. Reviewed: Batch #25G09.

B / $80 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

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