Two decades after firing up its first still in Park City, High West Whiskey has grown from a mountain town curiosity into one of the most respected names in American whiskey. As the distillery marks its 20th anniversary, the team reflects on the milestones that shaped its journey: from pioneering transparent blending and bold barrel finishes to embracing a distinctly Western ethos that prizes creativity, collaboration, and adventure. In this conversation, High West’s Isaac Winter (Senior Director and Master Distiller) and Tara Lindley (Director of Sensory and Product Development) share with Kristiane Weeks-Rogers of CRAFT SPIRITS Magazine (CSM) how innovation, teamwork, and a fearless approach to flavor continue to define the brand’s next chapter.
CSM: You’re celebrating your 20th, so this is why we’re joined together today. As you look back, what stands out most about the journey from a small Park City distillery to a brand with a cult-like following?
Isaac: I’ll go first. I’m kind of the new kid on the block, but I’m coming up on nine years with High West. One of the things I love about our team is the incredible tenure and institutional knowledge here. A big shift or inflection point in our growth was standing up our distillery guest experience, a beautiful place of work in Wanship, Utah. It fundamentally changed the way we were making whiskey. We installed Agnes, our copper pot still, and went from 1,000 liters in downtown Park City to 6,000 liters outside of town. We added new fermentation, grain handling, a blending room, and an automated bottling line. It took us from startup craft distiller to the big time and created the foundation we stand on now, our custom whiskey lab where we can make oddball mash bills that are impactful in our blends, creating consistency and quality in our final products. Above all, it gave us a beautiful place for guests to experience the brand.
Tara: Even when I joined the company over a decade ago, blends were put together essentially the same way we do now. Working with Isaac so closely, as we put these blends together and do sensory, we’ve learned so much along the way. With every year and every blend, I feel we’re getting better at what we do. I’m continually pleased and surprised by what we can accomplish together as a team. Part of that is our journey, learning about whiskey, building our inventory, getting better at using it, and growing our program with different finishing barrels and new flavor profiles we weren’t exploring in the beginning.
CSM: What do each of you attribute your longevity and success to?
Isaac: Being creative and innovative, bringing something new and interesting to the table every time we do a new LTO, and keeping our core products consistent so Double Rye tastes the same every time. With our special release program, Midwinter, Bourye, and Prisoner’s Share, we get to play with new flavor profiles and different whiskies we source. We’re proud to source whiskey from other distilleries. That’s where the fun comes in and where we can really showcase what we do.
Tara: I think the way we’ve structured the team to make whiskey is really important. Our founders instilled the idea of cross pollination. We take a team approach to making whiskey, constantly looking for the best idea. That means bringing together people who look at whiskey from different angles, backgrounds, and processes. It takes a village, it takes a team, to do it sustainably over 20 years, and hopefully for 20 or 30 more.
CSM: I love the teamwork approach. You’re champions for transparent blending. What does that mean to you today, and how has the industry’s attitude toward it changed?
Isaac: When I first started at High West, I was proud to be with a company that shared so much and wanted to be transparent. There are only two things we don’t share, our blend ratios and where the Scotch in Campfire comes from. I came from the wine industry, where everything is secretive. I was excited to be transparent, to share what we do, and to be one of the early distilleries open about sourcing whiskey. That speaks to High West’s vision from the beginning, creative, innovative, whiskey of the West, something completely different from the traditions you see in Kentucky.
When we launched in 2006, there were zero craft distillers in Utah. People didn’t understand blending or where whiskey came from. Consumers today are well informed and have so much information at their fingertips. You have to be transparent to build trust. If you try to pull the wool over someone’s eyes, you’ll get hammered for it. Longevity and sustainability come from being upfront and bringing something beautiful to the table, showing just enough about how it’s made to celebrate our whiskey making ethos.
CSM: I love that. You’ve talked about being unapologetically adventurous. What does that frontier mentality look like in practice?
Isaac: It’s about giving a nod to tradition but not letting it define our guardrails. Think of Campfire, old bourbon, old rye, and Scotch malt whiskey blended together. Nobody had seen that before. We took whiskey as a style and pushed it forward. Another example is Noble Share, where we finished an old rye blend in Casanoble tequila barrels and added a touch of Amburana. It’s polarizing, but in small amounts it adds warmth and beauty. We took fundamental truths about blending and thought differently, bringing something familiar but with our own spin. We’re not making whiskey the way our granddads did, we’re pioneers.
CSM: Tara, what innovations or risks are you most proud of from the last 20 years?
Tara: One of my favorites was sourcing white wine barrels for finishing whiskey. The first time we did it was with Chardonnay barrels for Rendezvous Rye. It was beautiful, with floral nuances adding complexity. I kept sourcing more white wine barrels even when the sales team wanted red. Eventually, we helped educate that white wine finishing brings something special to American whiskey.
Encore was born from that idea. Our Midwinter Night’s Dram typically uses Ruby and Tawny Port barrels, but for the 10th release we added white port. It was such a beautiful component that it deserved its own product. I’m proud we brought that to the table and did it well.
Isaac: Around the same time, in January 2018, we started releasing our own spirit as a component of our blends. Transitioning from being known as a blending house to incorporating our own whiskey was a big, vulnerable step, but it worked. We’re proud to put our fingerprint on our whiskey. Anyone can buy whiskey from MGP or Kentucky, but making your own whiskey to a level you’re proud of and integrating it seamlessly into blends, that’s an inflection point I’m proud of.
CSM: It’s so fun to hear about the experimentation that’s led to 20 years of success. What have been the biggest challenges in defining your distinctively Western style?
Isaac: When we’re putting blends together, we look for big, impactful styles, whiskies with concentration, personality, spice, and character that make you stop and think. We’re not in the business of making boring whiskey. That’s something I’m proud of and always look for when creating or refining blends.
Tara: Sometimes the challenge is logistical. When developing something like Bourye, all the whiskies are over ten years old, so there’s more evaporation. We might develop an amazing blend in the lab, but when we dump the barrels, we don’t have quite the proof gallons we expected. We’ve had last minute moments where we had to make it work. Our sensory team comes together and figures out how to put it together in a way that still exemplifies High West. It’s stressful, but satisfying once we finalize a blend. It makes us better blenders.
CSM: What blending or barrel finishing decisions have most defined High West’s signature style?
Tara: We look for whiskeys that are big and bold with personality, amazing neat but strong enough to shine in a cocktail. Blending for that objective makes us unique. With finishing barrels, we have great partners, especially our internal wineries with Constellation. We get the best wine barrels and have control over their treatment, bringing beautiful flavor profiles and fun experimental blends. We’ve used Amburana and some interesting liqueur barrels recently, still aging now. We’re always looking for something new and different.
Isaac: Methodology defines our style too. Tara and I have tasted together for nine years, side by side. Our approach is iterative and surgical, a beads on a string method rather than all in blending. Start with what you can control, find two whiskies you love, and see if they’re more than the sum of their parts. Add on, refine, and backtrack when needed. Having a partner you trust and who complements your style is key. Together, we make a powerful team.
CSM: As you enter your next chapter, what excites you most about High West’s future?
Tara: Looking back at the last ten years, I’m confident we’ll learn just as much in the next ten. I genuinely believe our best whiskies are yet to come. We’ll continue innovating and bringing new complexities to the table. I’m excited for the maturation of our own make whiskey inventory and the new blend levers, blue corn bourbon and weeded bourbon, that will give us more creative freedom. We’re almost there.
Isaac: I agree. The best is yet to come. If we focus on whiskies we’re proud of and excited to drink, we’re setting ourselves up for success. If we ever lose faith in what we’re putting out, that’s a problem. But as long as we focus on what we love and do best, bringing something we’re proud of every day, the best is yet to come.