High West A Midwinter Nights Dram Blend The Encore

The formula for A Midwinter Night’s Dram changes from year to year, but the 2022 release is as follows: the liquid consists of High West’s Rendezvous Rye that was finished in tawny and ruby port barrels, a blend of 80 percent rye and 20 percent malted rye distilled in-house, and 95 percent rye and 5 percent barley malt from MGP in Indiana. It’s bottled at 98.6 proof.

The Encore has the same blend at its core, but this whiskey was finished in white port barrels from Portugal, an unusual cask finish for American whiskey. According to the distillery team, this type of barrel is much harder to get, and this cask finish gave the whiskey similar characteristics to brandy. This whiskey was supposed to be blended into the new A Midwinter Night’s Dram, but after tasting it, master distiller Brendan Coyle liked it so much he decided to release it on its own. Encore is bottled at 101.6 proof and is a distillery-only release.