The bar for whiskey and food is elevated at High West Distillery

A mid-summer distillery press trip to the western face of Utah’s Wasatch Mountain range provided a raft of unexpected surprises. At 7,000 feet above sea level, the high desert air isn’t cool. It’s bone dry and heated by sunshine that bludgeons SPF 50 sunscreens. Even a modest stroll taxed the lungs of this visitor from Louisville, Ky. (altitude 545 ft). Empty chairs dangling from ski lift cables made plain that Park City was built for Olympic winter sports, and on this July afternoon, scenes of a powdery snowpack found no purchase in my imagination.

It is in this uber-pricey community of 8,400 that a husband and wife dreamed of building a distillery. Yes, in a location where evaporative loss from whiskey barrels is excessive, and air density and weather-related challenges faced daily by distillers don’t occur in Eastern U.S. distilleries.

As the story goes, on a distillery visit to Kentucky in 2001, biochemist David Perkins recognized the parallels between fermentation in his own work and the distilling process. That lightbulb moment inspired him and wife, Jane, to build a small distillery, saloon and restaurant in a century-old building in Park City, right at the foot of Quittin’ Time ski run. That would make it the world’s only ski-in, ski-out saloon and distillery.

Opened in 2009, it was fittingly named High West Distillery, and it didn’t take long before high demand for its innovative spirits outstripped the capacity of its 250-gallon pot still. That led the Perkinses to build a large production distillery at a site 30 minutes away in Wanship, Utah, on Blue Sky Ranch. The location was distant and rustic, recalled master distiller Brendan Coyle, but it was ideal for distilling. The bonus: Well below the soil lay desirable limestone filtered water in the Oyster Ridge aquifer.

“If you’ve ever visited a Highland Scotch whiskey distillery in Scotland, you get a sense of solitude and isolation,” Coyle said several years ago in a YouTube video about the location. Having earned a master’s in brewing and distilling sciences in Scotland, he went to Park City in 2006 and met with the Perkinses. Hired as master distiller in 2007, he became High West’s second employee. “We wanted that feeling out here, to be surrounded by the mountains, excellent views, and not have that noise, hustle-bustle that goes with a tourist town.”

Fearless Innovation

To American distillery tour veterans: Know that this distillery is markedly different than visiting a traditional Kentucky site. Coyle’s training in Scotland foreshadowed his choice to make whiskey on a Forsythe pot still—plus a hybrid column thrown in for refinement. And speaking of refinement, the building’s many large and soaring windows provide a view of the surrounding mountains most anywhere you walk. It’s a lovely place to work.

Since space is limited here, only a portion of the barrels filled are aged on this remote campus. Most of them rest in warehouses about an hour away near Salt Lake City’s main airport. When those whiskies mature, they’re transported back to Wanship for blending, bottling and, sometimes secondary maturation.

Everywhere you look throughout the plant, the brand’s bent toward experimentation is on display. Whether it’s the visible mashup of Scottish and American whiskey-making mechanicals or barrel heads listing the details of a unique blend, it’s clear this is no distill-it-and-fill-it operation. Experiments are varied but precise. Ideas for new whiskies might begin as, “Hey, let’s try this,” but once executed, sensory data is tracked from still to staves and beyond.

In marketing its liquids, the team creates clever and goofy names that, with the help of great whiskey in those bottles, create cult-favorite releases that can disappear in single-day sellouts. Perhaps you’ve heard of some of them: A Midwinter Night’s Dram; Bourye; Prisoner’s Share; Campfire and many more.

“Sourcing spirits and used barrels for blending and aging has always been a part of what we do,” said Isaac Winter, director of distilling at Constellation Brands, which owns High West. His work within other Constellation brands such as Casa Noble Tequila, Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery and Copper & Kings American Brandy sees those companies’ used casks circulating through High West’s inventory. “We’re always innovating, always imagining something new. So, it’s great to have access to those brands’ assets and their teams’ knowledge, too.”

Coyle put it this way.

“It’s always been part of the company to innovate, to keep it moving, keep it fresh,” he said. Constellation bought High West in 2016. “We love to look at the cross-pollination of ideas: to experiment with different yeast strains, mashbills and grain varietals. We believe that variety leads us to the next great product.”

Variety is an understatement. Two walls of the distillery’s whiskey library and tasting room are lined with many dozens of year-over-year iterations of special releases. Yet, it’s doubtful the room has space enough to ensure the lineup is exhaustive. An in-depth tasting and Q&A session led by Tara Lindley, High West’s director of sensory and new product development, left me wishing I’d invested more treasure, time and tongue in those releases when they came to market years ago. Some will not be released again nationally, and some repeats are still resting in barrels.

“Long ago, we decided to have expertise in distilling and expertise in blending,” Coyle said. “We’ve got a good team: Issac and Tara, obviously, and many others. We do complex distilling trials, we have a complex inventory, and we also do complex blending and recipe formulation. So, to have two people who are focused in their own right is really helpful.”

Repast at the Refectory

Part of what led the Perkinses to Blue Sky Ranch was its owner’s wish that High West’s Saloon team would create a high-quality food and drink experience at his place. Focused more on distilling expansion and the Saloon’s current operation, Jenkins declined to strain staff resources by outsourcing them via consulting. But a compromise was achieved when Jenkins asked Blue Sky’s owner to instead build him a distillery and visitor experience on the property, one that the ranch’s horse boarders and riders could visit easily.

The result is a two-section building whose elegant design unifies the working distillery and its ski-lodge-like visitor experience into a visually striking whole. The Refectory, its restaurant and tasting room, opened in 2015.

Not only are whiskey tastings and flights staples here, so are whiskey and food pairings. The gastro menu is well suited for spirits, and nibbles and sips are always encouraged.

Side note: During the trip, our press group experienced an extensive dinner, whiskey and cocktail pairing at The Nelson Cottage, High West’s elevated farm-to-table restaurant in Park City. In more than three decades of writing about food and drink, I don’t recall a spirits-centric pairing executed as well as that one. To any distillery experience manager considering creating such an option, travel there for an immersive study.

“To have the distillery and Saloon in the heart of Park City was the original owners’ end-all, be-all goal—a place where guests could come, have a wonderful meal and whiskey pairing, and see our production right in front of their faces,” Coyle said. “But we surpassed that goal and realized there was more opportunity out there. That’s what led to this facility.”

If You Plan to Visit High West Disitllery

The distillery is open all year, but given that Park City is an expensive place to visit, you can save some dough by visiting during off-season. Not only are room rates lower, but according to our group’s driver, traffic isn’t the absolute nightmare it is during ski season. The drive to Park City is about 45 minutes from Salt Lake City. Tack on an extra 30 minutes if you want to drive to the distillery in Wanship. Learn more about High West’s multiple visitor experiences.