Basically, it was a 5-course dinner in which each course featured a beer, a High West whiskey, and delicious food from the restaurant. The beers were from 3 Stars Brewing, a local DC brewery. I'm not a hop fan at this stage in my beer-drinking career, so I gravitated toward their "pandemic porter" and "southern belle" imperial brown ale. Good stuff!
As for the whiskey, you can see the line-up in the picture (4 whiskeys total). I had been exposed to a few of these a couple years back, before I seriously got into whiskey. So it was great to get a chance to taste so many in one sitting.
Double Rye - this was a winner. They combine a 2-year 95% rye (if I remember correctly) with a much older 16 year-old rye with more corn in its mashbill. The end result is a pretty smooth whiskey that features mint and flinty flavors to accent the peppery spice from the younger spirit. Definitely worth seeking out at its $35 price point.
American Prairie - not a huge fan of this one. It's a blend of a 6 year old low-rye bourbon and a slightly higher-rye 10 year old bourbon. They trumpet its sweetness in all their advertising, but to me it was very subtle and didn't bring a lot of flavor to the table. Smooth, to be sure. But I would equate it to a watered-down Blanton's.
Bourye - liked this one a lot, though not quite as much as their double rye. It drinks like you would expect it to, considering its component parts: 9 year old bourbon with 10 year old rye, accented with additional older rye. There's a good balance of sweetness and spicebox flavors, and it's a smooth sipper.
Campfire - interesting, but just sort of an oddball for me. I could add a little scotch to my bourbon and get roughly this whiskey, but I would never want to. Maybe I'm just grumpy about this, but my feeling is if you want to drink scotch, drink scotch, and if you want to drink bourbon/rye, do that instead. Bourbon and rye mix very well together (obviously), but scotch...not so much. The smoky notes just overtook the glass and threw it out of balance.
