High West Double Rye! Binny's Barrel Select Cognac Finished Blended Rye Whiskey

VITALS:

- $45

- 99.4 Proof

- NAS

- Barrel #17752

- Finished 8 mos.

- Utah

Binny's recently got another round of barrel select finished whiskeys from High West. In fact, I got wind of them a bit early, and when I went to my local store, they hadn't even unpacked them yet. The next day I was that guy, the one that stalked the spirits manager asking him when he was going to open those cases. Luckily for me, he indulged me and told me that if I waited around fifteen minutes or so, he'd stock those bottles next.

So, of course, I waited and picked the ones I wanted as they were pulled out of their boxes, grabbing a Calvados finished American Prairie Bourbon and this Cognac Finished Double Rye!  I wasn't in any position to buy them all, though I wanted to, so I left the two wine finished picks behind. I hope that wasn't a mistake. That said, I was pretty excited to dive right into this Cognac finished rye, as I've loved just about every other bottle I've had that was finished in Cognac barrels.

The nose on this was incredible, like a rich dessert! I got a lot of baked pear and baked cinnamon apple. It had that warm, inviting nose with just a bit of spice. I was also getting some Luxardo cherry. These fruit-forward notes were balanced out by notes of toffee and oak. The nose was super rich, and I could not stop sniffing my glass.

I found the flavor to be very interesting and different. I got the baked pear from the nose, but I also got some peach coming through. It reminded me of a fresh peach cobbler. The cinnamon and toffee from the nose were also there to complement these flavors. Even the Luxardo cherry that I was getting from the nose made its way across my tongue, though that flavor was more predominant in the finish.

The richness from the nose certainly came through on the palate as well. It had that heavy sweetness, and it reminded me of brown sugar and butter. I even got a healthy amount of molasses. In fact, between that molasses and the rich fruit notes, it reminded me a lot of oatmeal raisin cookies (which I would love if it weren't for their texture).

This really had everything I was expecting to get out of it. The Cognac finish really shined, and if I had one criticism, it would be that it seemed to overwhelm the rye notes. That said, even if that is the case, what was there was delicious, and I found myself dipping right back to that bottle time after time until it was gone in relatively short order.

Grade: B+