High West

Its first aged whiskeys all came from other distilleries: the old Seagram distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, now owned by MGP Ingredients, Barton in Bardstown, Kentucky, and others.^4,5,6 Brendan Coyle joined in 2008 and, as master distiller, led the move to put High West’s own whiskey into its blends.^5,7,12

By 2012 High West distilled in Park City and in a 5,000-square-foot space in Salt Lake City; that year it said it would move its main distilling to Wanship.^13,14 The Wanship site began making spirit in December 2014 on a single copper pot still from Forsyths of Scotland, holding 1,585 gallons against 264 for the Park City still.^1,15,16 Its distillers were to make rye, malt, wheat and bourbon whiskeys there.^1,15,16 It opened in 2015, when the Park City still had become far too small, and it now does most of High West’s distilling.^1,4,17

Constellation agreed to pay about $160 million, closed in October 2016 and promised funds for a second Wanship still; Perkins said he would stay as self-described chief ambassador.^7,8,9 Isaac Winter joined as distillery manager in September 2017.⁷ By 2018 its own, much younger whiskey had replaced the 16-year-old Barton whiskey in its Double Rye blend.⁴ In 2023 Coyle became a spirits consultant and Winter director of distilling; Coyle later left, and Winter was promoted to master distiller.^5,7,18 By 2026 High West sent most of its barrels to Salt Lake City to age at a different site.¹⁸

Sources

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