High West Distillery

High West Distillery makes its home in Wanship, Utah, in the high country east of Park City, where founder David Perkins built what became the first legal distillery in Utah since Prohibition. The name on the label still reads High West, but the whiskey inside tells a more layered story: part Utah-distilled rye aged at altitude, part carefully sourced stock blended with a distiller's hand. It is a business built on transparency about that blend, at a time when most producers preferred silence.

History & Heritage

David Perkins was a biochemist, not a career distiller, when a 2001 visit to Maker's Mark in Kentucky changed his direction. He and his wife Jane founded High West Distillery in 2006, starting on a 250-gallon copper pot still in Park City. That modest setup carried the weight of history: High West became the first legal distillery to operate in Utah since Prohibition, a notable feat in a state with famously restrictive liquor laws. As demand grew, the Perkinses expanded beyond the original site, and in 2015 High West opened a larger production facility in Wanship, Utah, built around a 1,600-gallon copper pot still the distillery named "Agnes." In 2016, Constellation Brands acquired High West for approximately 160 million dollars, a deal that brought outside capital to a craft operation while keeping its Utah production base intact. The distillery remains owned by Constellation Brands as of July 2026.

The Whiskey

High West built its reputation on a practice that used to be rare in American whiskey: openly sourcing and blending. The distillery buys mature stock, including rye whiskey from MGP in Indiana, and blends it with whiskey distilled on-site in Wanship, disclosing that sourcing when contractually able to do so. High West Rendezvous Rye, a blend of straight rye whiskeys, was the distillery's first commercial release and remains an award-winning cornerstone of the lineup. High West Double Rye Whiskey combines a younger sourced rye, roughly 95 percent rye and 5 percent barley malt from MGP, with High West's own older rye distillate, made from an 80 percent rye and 20 percent malted rye mash bill; earlier editions of Double Rye instead used a 16-year-old straight rye from Barton Distillery. High West Campfire Whiskey layers that same house rye and a bourbon component together with a blended malt Scotch whisky, a combination that gives it a distinctive smoky character uncommon among American whiskies. High West American Prairie Bourbon blends straight bourbons aged between 2 and 13 years, largely sourced from MGP alongside High West's own stocks, from a typical mash bill of 75 percent corn, 21 percent rye, and 4 percent malted barley; a portion of proceeds supports the American Prairie Reserve conservation effort. Every High West whiskey is bottled at a minimum of 46 percent ABV and left non-chill filtered. The distillery also points to its high-altitude aging in Utah as a factor it believes accelerates maturation and builds complexity, and it runs its production with an eye toward sustainability, sourcing grain locally, sending spent grain to an anaerobic digester, and offsetting 100 percent of its electricity use through Rocky Mountain Power's Blue Sky program.

Why It Matters

High West helped normalize sourced-and-blended whiskey as a legitimate, well-crafted category rather than a shortcut, at a moment when the craft distilling boom was still figuring out what honesty on the label should look like. Whisky Advocate named High West its Distiller of the Year in 2016, and the distillery has collected Double Gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition along with a Gold Medal for Campfire at the 2025 USA Spirits Ratings. That combination of transparency, consistent blending skill, and Utah-specific aging conditions gives High West's expressions a distinct identity within the Reserve Whiskey Library, useful for those who appreciate good whiskey and want to taste how sourced and house-distilled components come together in one glass.

Visiting the Distillery

High West offers tours and tastings both at its Wanship, Utah production facility and at the High West Saloon in Park City, giving visitors a choice between the working distillery and the original hospitality outpost that built the brand's early following.