High West - Silver Whiskey (Western Oat)
Nose: This has a light moonshiney smell and I picked some hints of blueberry. I THINK I’m picking up on some oat smell, but that could have been because I knew it had oats in it. And…..I also got slight hint of over-ripe banana. I’m not going to lie, the nose on this one is odd. Palate: Hmmmm….well, this is different. It tastes young and I almost immediately picked up the moonshine hinted at in the nose. That said, the moonshine quality is much sweeter than most moonshines and “non-aged, commercial moonshine”. While the moonshininess is most prominent, I also picked up some coconut, a small amount of oatmeal, and some slight fruitiness. It has a light mouthfeel and almost no heat at all. The finish is short and pretty non-descript. The finish does bring out some vanilla. Comments: I have had this bottle for quite some time, and I didn’t like when I first tasted it years ago. So…..my opinion didn’t change much. I like most of the stuff that High West puts out but I have to say that, although I don’t dislike this as much as I remember, it still is one of the their lesser worthwhile experiments. It seems to have more sweetness than I remember, but it is still just a young moonshine…..made with oats. The oats seem to give it a very distinct, odd taste. The mashbill is 85% oats, 15% malted barley. It clocks in at 80 proof and it is pot distilled with no chill filtering or “carbon treating” (I THINK this means they don’t drip it through charcoal, a-la Jack Daniels?). They age it in “French Limousin Oak” and the batch size was 250 gallons. The label only states it is “minimally aged”, but I can’t imagine it was for long. And….I was right. The company website indicates it is “un-aged” and it states that it spent 5 MINUTES in a barrel. I don’t remember what I paid for this (Total Wine sells it for $40). High West used to be a bit higher priced than now, so it was probably high enough that I was annoyed I had wasted money on it. This is still available, so somebody must like it. It IS different and if you want to taste something different, give it a try. You might like it. Especially if you like moonshine or white dog. But…..I wouldn’t buy a bottle of it until you’ve had a chance to taste it first. You may also enjoy it if you sip your Tequila neat.
