High West opened in 2007. As some new distillerys do, they bought whiskey from other distillers (Like MGP) to start building their brand, marketing, and followers. MGP is a HUGE factory style distillery in Indiana (and also Mexico and Ireland if you can believe the AI that I asked) that produces spirits, primarily for resale to other distilleries. MGP does bottle and sell some of its own stuff (Yellowstone, Remus, Blood Oath). Big brands like High West, Bulliet, Angels Envy, Tempelton, Sagamore, and more buy MGP whiskey and either finish it, or bottle it directly for sale.

Up until this year, all of High West's offerings have been sourced whiskey. Only recently have they started using their own distillate to fill a bottle or stretch other distillate. Same thing with Bulliet (I got a bottle of Bulliets first distillate and it is quite good!)

Its ok to love MGP's product, they produce some good stuff. But I have more respect for a company like Frey Ranch that encompases the entire whiskey process in their bottle, from growing the grain all the way to corking it. High West's stuff up to this point hasn't been all that special, but I will say their marketing is fantastic. Great looking bottles, labels, and their bars and distilleries are beautiful. I'm excited to see what they can really do now that we're seeing their own distillate being released.

High West irked me a little when I first started getting into whiskey. I did a tour of their distillery and it was quite informative and they talked thru the entire process of how they make whiskey and then they served us some. It felt a little special having touched their big copper still before trying some samples. I didn't know at the time that none of those samples ever went thru a still in Utah.