High West Yippee Ki Yay Rye (Batch 3) Review & Tasting Notes

 

Happy Independence Day, America! Today is a quintessential American holiday, which suggests we should be celebrating with something uniquely American. Bourbon, American Rye, Moonshine... those fit the bill.

Today I will be enjoying High West's Yippee Ki-Yay, which is an incredible blend of Straight Rye Whiskeys. This particular bottle is from Batch 3 and is bottled at 92°. Yippee Ki-Yay is a younger blend of whiskeys than A Midwinter Nights Dram, but it can keep up with it quite well at a lower price point. The Ryes have been finished in Vermouth and Syrah barrels.

I called Midwinter Nights Dram "Christmas in a Bottle" (to be fair, a friend first described it to me that way), so perhaps Yippee Ki-Yay can be described as 4th of July fireworks in a bottle.

First of all, the color is a deep ruby red. That's from the Syrah barrel. Very unique and enticing, because you just don't see that in Bourbon or Rye.

Next, fruity, spicy, vanilla, wood and caramel lights up your nostrils and is quite the attention getter.

The palate then explodes with candied fruit, vanilla, nuts, cereal, wine (from the Syrah barrel) and wood.

The ooh-ahh is the finish. The sweetness of wine and honey, wood and nuts just hangs and lingers.

I've seen this priced anywhere from $58 to $75 a bottle. This is definitely worth the lower end of the spectrum and takes my Bottle rating. 

Have a wonderful time tonight watching fireworks. I'll be sipping mine. Cheers!