Rye Hard with an Essence: High West Yippee Ki-Yay vs Dad's Hat Vermouth Barrel Finished Rye. Comparing Vermouth Finished Rye

Welcome to the party, Taters. Today we do a comparison of one of the smallest rye niches I've come across which is vermouth finished rye. As a bit of an overview, vermouth is a fortified wine, that is flavored with botanicals, and wormwood to give it's signature bitter and astringent character. Of course there are different types of vermouths which are used in cocktails and in places like Spain, vermouth is enjoyed on the rocks with a sprig of rosemary! Many classic cocktails combine vermouth and whiskey, so it made sense to combine those notes in a whiskey. There were a couple of attempts made by some producers a few years ago to make a splash in the market with vermouth finished rye, but it never really caught on and became a bit of a footnote in history with the notable exception of the High West Yippee Ki-Yay which is finished in vermouth and Syrah barrels. This whiskey has been a bit of a white whale for me because every time I read a review of it, it sounded great! A whiskey that tastes like Rye Manhattan or negroni cocktails? Sign me up! When it was discontinued, I scrambled to find a bottle, but the collectors hoovered up the remaining stock of the total 5 year run of 29,646 bottles and I was dry. Fast forward a half decade to 2025 When I made my trip out to High West for the Bourye relaunch and I made it to the High West library tasting room and got to finally taste my white whale, and boy was I hooked! So I bit the bullet and harpooned by wallet to get a bottle of the very last batch that I had been looking for back in 2020. Naturally, I had to compare it to something and I came across Dad's Hat Vermouth finished Rye at almost the exact same proof! A challenger has appeared. Alright, game on! Let's get into it!

Methodology: Tasted neat in Glencairns rested in the cupholders of a taxi cab careening through Central Park 

First up is the Yippee Ki-Yay.

Background: This is essentially the old High West Double Rye Finished in Vermouth and Syrah Barrels. Over the course of its run from 2015 to 2020, each batch had a unique composition consisting of a combination of MGP, Barton and High West's own distillate. This is batch 8, the final batch released in 2020 and it contained an unknown ratio of straight rye from MGP, Barton and High West Distillate.  

The Deets: 

Proof: 92

Mashbill: MGP (95% rye, 5% malted barley), Barton (53% rye, 37% corn, 10% barley) High West Distillate (80% rye, 20% malted rye)

Finishing length: Undisclosed 

Appearance: Reddish and dark caramel. This looks like some very serious Dr. Pepper. 

Nose: Soft, floral and fruity. This smells like a rich and dark spiced brandy. Yum!

Mouthfeel: Creamy and syrupy, but not heavy and chewy. This has great mouth coverage with how syrupy it is, but it doesn't have that sluggish weight that very old, high proof whiskies have. 

Palate: Sweet Luxardo cherry bomb and floral hit right up front. This is like mixing cherry coke with an herbal gin and rose water. The midpalate is dominated by red fruit and rounded juicy wine notes and starts to give way to a nice prominent wave of that grassy bitterness which works so well in concert with the sweetness from before. the finish is all herbaceous rye with lovely faint eucalyptus and sandalwood. Surprisingly not as sugary sweet as one would expect.

Finish: Very pleasant, sweet, a bit bitter but too short. It's cocktail-like. It feels like I took a sip of a Vieux Carre or Boulevardier. This could definitely use a bit more length

Overall: Man, there is nothing else like this....ever. The selling point of this is the wild finish and the fact that High West didn't hold back in bringing it to the fore. I've read some accounts purporting that this is a double edged sword and that the turbocharged finish makes this too much of a cocktail in a bottle ready to be thrown over rocks and slurped down. I have to disagree because it's way too complex on the palate to ever be anything but a neat sipper. I believe this is why High West cut the proof to under 100 to encourage neat sipping to really appreciate the nuance here. Perhaps it was to garner wide appeal and maybe the vermouth was too bitter not to water down. Maybe, but High West has put out some higher proof,  prominent finish whiskies out there since the discontinuation of this unique bottle. I really wish they had kept this offering, I think it would have stood the test of time and could have lived on as a type of Prisoner's Share intermittent release. While I'm sad it's gone, I'm happy to have a bottle, so I guess that's bittersweet (see what I did there?)  For it's total uniqueness and smooth drinkability, I give this an 8.5/10

Next up is the Dad's Hat Vermouth Finished Rye.

Background: Dad's Hat is a small distiller out of PA run by two brothers who pay homage to their father's memory by distilling PA rye whiskey. Here Dad's Hat is somewhat more up-front about how the finish comes about and they disclose that the vermouth is sourced from Quady Winery and the vermouth is called "Vya". A google search reveals that Vya is a line of vermouths from the California winery, so not too clear on whether what kind (sweet, dry or some combination) went into this. Dad's hat reports their finishing length and the Rye is aged at least 6 months in new American oak. Enough background, let's get it!

The Deets: 

Proof: 94

Mashbill: 80% rye, 15 barley malt, 5% rye malt 

Finish length: 3 months

Appearance: Orange brown and a bit auburn 

Nose: Cough syrup cherry and Ricola herbs 

Mouthfeel: Thin but surprisingly syrupy with decent mouth coating

Palate: Bitter cherry syrup right up front with a faint herbal celery, grass and star anise note. Brash rye spice with some cinnamon and vanilla. Some dry wood finishes out the taste profile. 

Finish: Prominent astringent rye spice with a bitter dry woody finish that is mercifully short. 

Overall: Ok, this is young. Fine. I honestly think that if this spent some more time mellowing, it would be a more worthy contender. Other than it being a bit unrefined, I really don't think there is anything *wrong* with how this is executed. I can see how a small distiller would not want to put their oldest and arguably best stock toward an unproven and niche finish. Totally understandable. But I will say that this is far more reminiscent of the cocktail in a bottle thing I've had the misfortune of trying a handful of times. Give this a bit of simple syrup or maraschino cherry syrup, drop the proof to around 80, pour this over ice and you can call it Dad's Hangover. The complexity just isn't there, but I believe it could get there with aging. Maybe I'll get a few of these and barrel age them... hmmmm. Anyways, overall, I give this a 5/10. 


Seeing that I'm something of a scientist myself, I blended these 50:50 and the final product is not at all enhanced and falls short of the midpoint and gets a 6/10. 

So there you have it folks, are these vermouth finished ryes your action heroes or does this vermouth finish plummet off the top floor of Nakatomi Plaza? Let's Yippee Ki Yak it up about these tasting notes, Mothertaters!  u want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

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