Tasting them next to each other I came to the conclusion that about 4 days out of 5 times I’d rather come home to a glass of the Rendezvous over the Midwinter Night’s Dram. I’m drawn more towards the assertive spicy rye character in the RR than I am the sweetness of the High West A Midwinter Night’s Dram. Still, it’s a fine dram and I’m perfectly content to sit and sip on a glass after a long day. In every way it’s a perfectly sippable whiskey and if you haven’t tried it I recommend you do. This also comes with a finish in somewhat exotic casks, at least in American terms. You’ve got French oak (though with no mention of the predecessor libation, if any, that these barrels held) and Port casks, the latter of which will be familiar to Scotch whisky drinkers. Though finished whiskey is appearing with increasing frequency (and mixed results) in the U.S., these expressions are still a minority exception to the majority rule of new, charred oak. But something went wrong with either MWND or Encore and they scrapped the idea. In the end, they were both made into two separate releases. T his could point to the fact that MWND was going through a big change-up for 2022 and both final products weren’t really what the blenders at High West envisioned.

In my 2014 review of A Midwinter Night’s Dram Act 2.1, it was clear that finishing rye whiskeys in port barrels was a relatively new concept, even if it was starting to become more prevalent. In 2022, wine finishing is quite common, and using ex-port barrels is as common as any wine finishing styles. 1792 Port Finished Bourbon, Woodinville Port Finished Bourbon, and Angel’s Envy Bourbon Port Finish are among some of the top-of-mind port finished whiskeys. Notably, these are bourbons, but less-known rye base port finished whiskeys do exist. Milam & Greene Rye Port Wine Cask Finish, Sagamore Spirit Rye Port Finish, and WhistlePig Old World Cask Finish (a blend that includes Madeira, Sauternes, and port) are among them.No partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship is created as a result of your use of the Service. Palate: Just like the nose was, rye notes seem much stronger than the port wine on the tongue. There are still some fruity flavors to be found, but as a whole, dry oak, sharp cinnamon, peppermint and a little bit of citrus zest are most noticeable. I’m enjoying this a great deal, regardless of where it came from. This has a quality that can be elusive to those of us accustomed to (over)analyzing whiskey: the ability to hypnotize the taster with its deliciousness, short-circuiting the critical impulses and making itself disappear during the long, pleasant reverie of savoring the whiskey.

What I ended up finding was that Act 7, 8 and 9 all still tasted pretty good for not having the Barton Rye Whiskey included any longer. In fact, I would say that Acts 8 and 9 were the biggest surprises of all while Act 10 definitely had something about it that deviated from the rest.

Questions?

In recent years, High West has transitioned Rendezvous to a blend of MGP (95 percent rye, 5 percent malted barley) and in-house distillate (80 percent rye, 20 percent malted rye). Longtime Midwinter drinkers claim to notice a significant difference between those earlier releases and Acts 8 and beyond (me among them, to be transparent). This kind of stuff happens all the time to producers that became famous from the whiskey they once sourced. I can’t fault them too much because it seems like they’ve made an attempt to keep the quality up as much as they could. I struggled to sense the underlying rye components in last year’s Act 10, and fortunately, Act 11 doesn’t lose that influence in the wine notes. There’s noticeable rye spice here from the base of Rendezvous Rye, enough that it’s possible to differentiate the 95/5 mash bill MGP whiskey from the 80/20 in-house High West distillate.