Take wild west imagery, high altitude history, quality whiskey and a nose for interesting blends and you have High West Distillery and Saloon in Park West Utah. Wait, what? Utah? Isn’t that where alcohol is pretty much a no-no for a huge chunk of the population? Where it’s shunned along with all other things people consider fun… I kid… They put a craft distillery there? Yes they damn well did. David Perkins took his biochemical expertise, southern bourbon experience and love of skiing to Park City and in 2007 opened up High West Distillery and Saloon in the historic Beggs House and National Garage on Park Ave. Focused on the traditional American spirit of rye, they are also known for their interesting and experimental blends of various ages of Rye and Bourbon. Some of their popular releases include: Campfire, an interesting blend of Rye, Bourbon and Malt whiskies, Bourye a blend of Bourbon and two different aged Ryes, Rendezvous Rye a blend of two older Ryes and Double Rye which is the focus of this review.

Double Rye is a blend of a young, raw, fiery 2 year old Straight Rye Whiskey with a 95% rye 5% barley mash bill and an older, smooth, wise, rich 16 year old Straight Rye Whiskey with a “barely legal” rye mash bill of 53% rye and 37% corn. What you get is a combo of high heat young rye and sweet rich balancing older rye all coming together and figuring it out. The rye presentation in the High West Double Rye is unlike anything I’ve tasted so far in that you really get a full representation of the various spice notes of rye. It’s like a big happy, wet, spicy slap across your face. In fact you’ll feel an urge to run out grab some nice pastrami and slap it together with some hot deli mustard between  two fat slices of Double Rye.

Aroma: Rye in your face. Sandalwood, mint, spice pepper, some oaky vanilla and honey sweetness notes but mainly just a big fat rye back fist to your schnoz.

Taste: Big hit of rye spice and heat at first, clove, anise, allspice, mint, white pepper, with a background of vanilla and light honey sweetness. Rye, Rye, Rye. The more you sit with this one, the more rye parts and pieces come together. Bitter chocolate, nutmeg, more pepper. Just all over the place.

Finish: The heat and spice stick around (it’s Double Rye people, duh) with some of that light drying sandalwood showing up in the finish. Your tongue and mouth will be tingling with spicy rye fallout for a while.

I bet you do.

The younger rye in this ass kicking blend punches you in the throat in a way that you’ll keep tilting your head back asking for more. The older rye  balances and add richer sweeter notes, but the younger rye takes front stage. Sounds odd? Maybe, but it works. Well.  The folks at High West have a real unique flavor profile winner here. The rye  is a star here in a way I haven’t tasted before. The anise, clove and allspice rye base backed by an older rich sweetness combine for a fantastic sipping experience. I’m sure this would rock in and Old Fashioned, but I could not bring myself to drink it any way but neat. Despite the high proof and rye spice slap, this is an amazing easy drinking whiskey. Not that this is a characteristic you should be concerned with, but it is. As is usual, I’m writing this review after drinking most of the bottle. High West isn’t available in SC so… I’ll be S.O.L. soon. Except, as I’ve said, mail order whiskey rules. 46% ABV Highly Recommended.

Scott’s BBQ in Hemingway, SC

Scott’s BBQ in Hemingway, SC

I had a free Saturday for the first time in a while and the wife was busy so what was I to do? A trip to Scott’s BBQ in Hemingway, SC seemed to be in order. Off I went. Hemingway is about an hour and 45 mins from Charleston on nice back roads so I figured I could double up and do a little shooting there and back. I’ve had Scott’s que once before but had never made the trip to the actual “restaurant” if you can call it that. It’s more of a smokehouse with a to-go counter and a Pepsi machine out front, and it’s just about perfect that way. Their website says they’ve been serving barbeque for forty years since it was founded in 1972 by Ellie and Roosevelt “Rosie” Scott. Their son Rodney now runs the show and describes their ‘cue secret as ”we put a whole lot of love into what we do”. Yes they do. Real authentic wood fired pits, the way ‘que was meant to be made. It’s a lot more labor and time intensive, but it pays off.  They recently gained some national (international?) fame by having  the New York Times run an article about them.  That was three years ago. My visit this past weekend confirms that while there has been fame, it doesn’t appear to have gone to anyone’s head. The restaurant / smokehouse doesn’t seem to have lost any of its authentic back roads SC charm, and the cue is still about as good as I’ve ever had.

Fuzzy shot due to cell phone fear.

The inside of the restaurant is essentially a walk up order window and a couple of shelves stocked with loaves of white bread, some snacks and a few other items. But not much. You’re here for barbeque not for a grocery trip. The menu is simple. You can order whole hogs, parts of hogs, turkeys all either uncooked or have them cook it for you. You can get 1/2 pound and pound orders of pulled pork and you can get yourself a whole or half a chicken. You can also get your self a house smoked rib-eye, which really sounds awesome. And outside of extra sauce and some pork skins that’s pretty much it. And that’s how it should be as far as I’m concerned. There’s no need to fuss with a bunch of other items when you do your barbeque like this.  Whatever you do, do not talk on your cell phone when you are ordering. There are at least 5 different signs warning you on this. I was even scared to take a photo while in there for fear of some sort of Seinfeld soup-naziesque response forever shutting me out. And bring cash, no debt or credit cards allowed. In fact there’s a big sign preaching on the evil of credit, so fill that wallet with green and bring it.

Look at all that wonderful ‘cue

My fears of cell phone retribution were immediately quashed when I got to the counter and placed my order. Two very nice and helpful ladies took and filled my order, made sure I had everything I needed and sent me on my way with a big smile. The problem here is that I was a good two hours from home. Would I be able to control my picking at the Styrofoam container enough to make it to Charleston with anything left?  Aside from a few instances I managed to control myself and the ‘cue made it home mostly unscathed.  The BBQ is classic long pulled pork sauced with a Lexington like vinegar, light tomato, pepper and chile flakes combination. All together it’s a perfect mix of a little sweet, just the right amount of smoke and a little heat to finish you off. They cook whole hogs instead of just shoulders but other than that it reminds me of Lexington style, and it’s as good or better than any Lexington style barbeque I’ve had from the source. I ordered a couple pounds and some extra sauce on the side, but that sauce is unneeded. It’s a good thing that it’s a 3-4 hour round trip for me. I could see myself visiting Scott’s way more often than is advisable. I do however advise everyone and anyone who appreciates good ‘cue, a family making things the right way not the fast way, and an interesting trip to head to Hemingway one weekend and check out Scott’s.

Gratuitous Pork and Whiskey shot.

Lots of this on the road to Scott’s.

Bourbon, Bacon, Mustard Potato Salad

Bourbon? Yes. Bacon? Yes. Kick ass Mustard? yes.  This potato salad is easy quick and will cause all sorts of mama slapping when you serve it.

Shopping List

• 4 lbs of new potatoes, quartered
• 4 strips thick bacon, sliced into lardons. Use a good quality smokey bacon. I like Benton’s bacon
• 1 medium red onion, medium dice
• 1 large shallot, medium dice
• two cloves of garlic, smashed and fine diced
• 2-3 green scallions, thinly sliced green parts
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup bourbon I used Old Grand-Dad Bonded
• two heaping spoonfuls (ok fine let’s say about 3 tbs.) of quality whole grain or coarse ground mustard such as Lusty Monk Original Sin
• 1 large handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• sea salt
• fresh ground black pepper

What To Do

1. In a large sauté pan over low heat render the bacon lardons. Once all the fat is rendered remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve on a paper towel covered plate. Remove pan from heat.
2. In a large pot, cover potatoes with cold water and bring to a boil. Cook until a knife easily slides into a potato.
3. Drain and return to pot to keep warm
4. Add the bacon fat pan back to medium-low heat
5. add the shallots, onion and garlic to the bacon fat. Saute until just translucent. 3-5 mins
6. slowly pour in the vinegar and bourbon into the pan. Be careful of splattering.
7. increase heat to medium
8. reduce the mixture for 2-3 mins
9. whisk in the mustard
10. reduce another 4-5 mins or until slightly thickened
11. move potatoes to serving bowl or large mixing bowl
12. add sauce, bacon lardons, green onions and chopped parsley to the warm potatoes
13. Fold bacon, bourbon onion mixture into potatoes
14. season with salt and pepper

Serving

You can serve it warm right away or pop it in the fridge and serve it later. I would let it come to room temp before serving if you choose to wait.

Balcones True Blue

Chip Tate of Balcones Distilling is a rising star in the American whisk(e)y world. He’s taken on the amiable task of starting a new Texas Whisky  tradition (they drop the “e”). Recent winners of many awards, Balcones was founded in 2008 in Waco TX and specializes in corn whiskey with a few other products including a rum-ish spirit called Rumble which is distilled from mission figs and Texas wildflower honey. But like I said most of their output is corn whisky, but this isn’t your distant cousin-who-has-a-connection to that guy who lives in the shack up the hill mason jar corn whiskey. Instead of using easily and cheaply obtained bulk run of the mill corn, Balcones imports Hopi Blue Corn from New Mexico. From the Balcones’ website:

“While Hopi blue corn we use has an extremely interesting history, there is really only reason one we prefer it to all other corn for our whisky– taste.  Its gorgeous midnight blue kernels are packed with a rich, roasty nuttiness that is truly exceptional. Unlike most of the blue corn on the market, Hopi blue corn is not just white dent corn which has been specially crossed to give it a blue tint. There is a lot of quality corn in this category, even some nice organic examples.  But in a blind taste test, we could not tell the blue from the white corn.  Hopi blue corn, however, has been grown with the same rich color and flavor for thousands of years and is the only corn that could impart the rich character we require for our whisky.”

Along with distilling in Tate’s hand-built copper still, yes he built it, they also age their corn whisky in small barrels in a non climate controlled room in the distillery that speeds up the aging process. The constant changes in temperature brought on by distillery production forcing the liquid in and out of the barrel combined with the greater surface area contact of the whisky in the smaller barrels allows them to get more bang for the aging buck. While you can technically call their whisky bourbon it really falls more as a refined middle road between the sweet aged character of bourbon and a more earthy corn whisky of moonshine. Balcones’ first whisky Baby Blue is billed as “not only the first Texas whisky on the market since Prohibition, but so far we know the only blue corn whisky made anywhere.” Baby Blue’s big brother True Blue is a cask strength also lightly oak aged version of the Baby Blue corn whisky, and damn good. I’ve yet to try the Baby Blue but if True Blue is any indication, Balcones is doing things right. I chose True Blue over Baby Blue because almost as a rule I go for cask strength versions if I can get my grubby hands on them.

Aroma: floral, orange, light and tight wood, some slight vanilla, nutty corn, finishing with more orange citrus candy and leather

Look how empty that is. Makes me sad.

Flavor: big first punch of  syrupy orange, spicy pepper, and some cinnamon. Then that familiar corn whisky profile, but different. Sweet, nutty, spicy, but deep, dark and earthy corn with some chocolate thrown all under it. The Blue Corn has a noticeably different flavor than the cheap mass produced corn found in other “corn whisky”.

Finish: has some drying heat that comes in mid palate and hangs around all the while surrounded with more corny corn corn and dried chili spice with thick orange and dark honey sweet notes.

Ok so my impression of Balcones True Blue is: I’m ordering more now and will do my damn best to have it on hand all the time. Unfortunately I can’t get any in SC but that’s why mail-order whisk(e)y might be the second best human discovery behind fermentation. It’s such a new whisky experience. Powerful, and while young, refined, complex, deep and outrageously good. As many other reviewers have noted, it is a very American whiskey. It screams it. If you’ve been turned off from other corn whisk(e)y offerings, give this powerhouse a try. I’m sure it’s not for everyone as it does have a different and more forward flavor presentation than any mainstream scotch, bourbon or other whisk(e)y you’re going to find and it will no doubt turn off the less open and adventurous. But if you have a palate that expands past what you find at the generic neighborhood bar and you want to try something you’re likely not to find elsewhere, this should be on your list. I’m so pissed my bottle almost dry. *ring *ring Hello Binnys? Might as well grab some other Balcones while I’m at it…. Brimstone here I come.

Highly Recommended 63.00% ABV