High West Campfire Whiskey Review
By Father John Rayls
Rating: A-
(Credit: High West Distillery)
According to David Perkins, founder of High West Distillery, the Campfire saga all began at the Bruichladdich Distillery B & B. He and his wife were served an unusual combination of fresh melon and sweet smoke. He believed it a very unforgettable experience, and the idea struck him to recreate this marvelous experience only with a bourbon as the base.
Perkins took the sweet honey flavor of bourbon, the floral fruity spice of rye and combined it with the smoke of a peated scotch whisky. As you probably already know, High West Distillery is one of this author’s favorite micro-distilleries. Even though they use sourced whiskeys, primarily from Indiana and Kentucky, they are masterful blenders and often make up their own rules for American Whiskey. This concoction is made by combining Straight Rye Whiskey, Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, and is bottled at 92 proof. Of course, the exact amounts and proportions are closely guarded High West secrets.
The Whiskey
Looking at the generous pour in my Glencairn glass, the beautiful color of the whiskey is a brownish orange. It reminds me of an oak leaf at the height of its color glory on a crisp fall day. In addition, Campfire has very long, long legs. It doesn’t appear thick or syrupy and yet, the effect on the inside of the glass after swirling is surprising.
The nose is intense and I love it. You can easily pick up fresh fruit with floral overtones and all of this surrounding a butterscotch base. The smoke is subtle, but it is there gently wafting in and out. The taste is primarily mid-tongue back. The rye appears to be the major flavor factor supporting the more subtle sweet caramel and vanilla and slight fruitiness. However, the smoke is ever present, but never harsh or overpowering. Campfire Whiskey has a medium to long finish that is spicy and warm. It invites another taste and swallow. You get a real sense of the presence of pepper and rye.
drawing on High West Campfire
(Credit: Julia Ritz Toffoli)
This whisky is so good that you may not want to mix it with anything (including water). However, I still encourage you to take a look at Julia Ritz Toffoli’s recent column using the High West Campfire as a base for mixed drinks. It really is that good.
Scotch and bourbon purists will find things to complain about with this whiskey. But for the rest of us, I think it is another home run for High West and well worth your time to explore it. This would make an excellent gift that might taste like a much more expensive whiskey for your friends (and certainly unusual and memorable).
The Price
Unfortunately in Texas, we can’t get very much whiskey shipped to personal addresses from out of state and it keeps our prices a little higher on some items. I found Campfire advertised for anywhere between 54.00 and 75.00 (US). Here in San Antonio, I paid $66.
I bought a bottle based on this review. I wasn’t enamored with the American Prairie blended bourbon but the Rendezvous Rye is a favorite of mine.
Campfire is just amazing. What a wild whiskey(whisky because of the scotch?). This will be a standard bottle in the cupboard from now on.
Personally, I think it tastes like a mistake. When you’ve spent several days in the wilderness camping sitting out by the campfire for and you can’t find dry wood to burn. The smoke gets into your clothes, your throat and your pores. And even when you’re home you still stink. It was expensive so I will drink it out of necessity, but it isn’t an enjoyable spirit. It’s confused. Admittedly I prefer a sweeter profile, but the feeling I get is that the distiller sampled and thought it was going to be an average to sh!tty whiskey and decided to toss in smokey peat, turn on the marketing engine and try to call it something special…”Campfire.” If you ask me, don’t bother. It isn’t worth your money and I could give you a list of a half-dozen American whiskies that are infinitely better.
Recently, a friend brought a bottle of High West Bourye to an event we were both attending, and had me try a dram. I thought it was pretty good, and since I had never heard of High West Distillery I thought I should look into it and its products. So, after coming across this review of Campfire, I figured I owed it to myself to try a bottle. I just brought it home this evening and tried my first taste…all I can say is wow. Or actually, WOW!
I would never have thought that such a crazy blend could taste so good, but it does. Put David Perkins down in the “mad genius” category, and do everything possible to make him keep churning this stuff out. I love it!