Batch #13K25, Bottle #1544

Subtle vanilla, caramel, light oak and rye spice.

Youthful elements of softened rye, wood, vanilla, baking spices, and caramel. Subtle and easy to sip, but not incredibly complex.

Medium length finish with softening elements of the palate. I didn’t pick up anything new here but it fades away nicely.

Son of Bourye gets into the increasingly popular area of blending bourbon and rye but doesn’t have much much of a wow factor like some of the other juice produced by High West. Despite that, it has that textbook sweet bourbon flavor with the added spice of a rye, so it strikes a nice balance of sweet and spicy to make it an easy sipper with a little something extra.

High West seems to have squeezed all of the value out of two 5 year olds by making the sum of the parts worth the $40 Son of Bourye goes for, although I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to find this one. I would put it on par with Wild Turkey Forgiven, which goes for $50 and may not be as easy to find. All-in this is decent stuff for a fair price.

Although there aren’t too many bourbon-rye blends to choose from, I’m not all that convinced these blends are anything special just because they have both bourbon and rye parts. To me, a good blend is all about the end result, and I don’t really care if it’s a blend of both bourbon and rye as long as it’s good. For marketing purposes the idea of both bourbon and rye sounds really cool, but in the end it boils down to whiskey created with some combination of the same basic ingredients as any other whiskey may have. I rated this one a 3 in all categories, and would have to say it’s the textbook definition of “Above Average” in all regards. Although it didn’t wow me, it didn’t disappoint me either. It’s a great option for a new whiskey drinker to try if you’re ready to move past the $30 per bottle mark and try something a little different.