By Richard Thomas
Ranking: B+
The revamped Excessive West Campfire
(Credit score: Richard Thomas)
A decade in the past, Utah’s Excessive West was a fan favourite, immediately incomes a fame for transparency at a time when a handful of whiskey bloggers led an usually trollish obsession amongst lovers with the generally shady advertising employed by non-distiller producers. Excessive West was uncommon in not solely did they frankly admit that their whiskeys had been sourced, however they even specified from who and what their mixing proportions had been.
Campfire was not simply an instance of a transparently sourced American whiskey, but in addition an early instance of a whiskey that blended a number of forms of whiskey collectively, or hybrid. On this occasion, it’s a combination of bourbon, rye and Scottish malts. As Padre John wrote in our 2015 evaluation, “In accordance with David Perkins, founding father of Excessive West Distillery, the Campfire saga all started on the Bruichladdich Distillery B & B. He and his spouse had been served an uncommon mixture of recent melon and candy smoke. He believed it a really unforgettable expertise, and the concept struck him to recreate this marvelous expertise solely with a bourbon as the bottom.”
Excessive West discontinued Campfire for a short spell, however has resurrected it this 12 months, albeit with a brand new formulation. This model attracts on shares of the ever-present MGP-made 95% rye, 5% malt rye whiskey; Excessive West’s personal in-house rye whiskey; the 75% corn mash bourbon made by MGP; and a mix of malts from Scotland, sourced from undisclosed distilleries. This Campfire 2022 is bottled at 92 proof.
The Whiskey
I’ve by no means truly discovered campfire to have the nostril of a campfire, which is probably a very good factor: American whiskeys don’t have any enterprise aping the peatiest beasts of Scotland. This new formulation has a candied core on the scent, smacking of vanilla, honey and butterscotch, tinged with cookie spices and pine needles. The flavour follows virtually precisely on this vein, differing solely within the addition of a contact of ash, making it the whole lot anybody might ask for from an Scots-American hybrid whiskey. That ash firmly establishes its toes in each identities, and in a means that doesn’t conflict. The end rolls on woody and spicy, however mildly so.
The Worth
Formally, Campfire now goes for $79.99
