HIGH WEST WHISKEY
Hinchcliff House
5/7 Young St. Sydney
Hinchcliff House is a gorgeous sandstone heritage listed former woolstore located in Sydney CBD. It has four levels with food and drinks spread across the entire building. The function for High West Whiskey at Hinchcliff House was the perfect setting. Who doesn’t like good food and good drinks all nicely paired!
Our hosts were both both from High West Distillery. John Foster introduced Brendan Coyle who gave an informative and historical educational talk on High West Distillery and of course the pairing of each selected variety of High West with our delicious four course meal. The company started in 2006 and Brendan has been there since day one. The Distillery was inspired by global spirits and looked at Scotch whiskey and French cognac for inspiration as they had longer heritages behind them.
Upon entering this wonderful function, we were greeted with a very smooth ‘old fashioned’. This really was so good, and it was made of a mix of High West Double Rye and Bourbon. It was a tasty way to start our great night.
Our first course was corn bisque clam chowder with crab meat served in a shot glass.
A High West Double Rye was perfectly paired with this course. It’s all about the spice and the celebration of spicy whiskey. The Double rye was a three and a half to four-year-old whiskey. The flavours are Christmas like with its combinations of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and eucalyptus.
Next, torched whiskey glazed salmon crudo with cucumber, buttermilk and sorrel dressing was paired perfectly again, with High West Bourbon. Their Bourbon is aged for a minimum of two years, and this gives it rich earthy, caramel, vanilla and sweet corn flavours. They went so well together.
The third course was Brooklyn Valley pasture fed strip loin with whiskey jus and broadleaf rocket. The pairing was the limited release double rye tawny port barrel select. This combination was high spice taken from the double rye and the nutty savoury blend from the tawny port that came through nicely. The finished taste was a nice marzipan nutty flavour.
Dessert was chocolate, whiskey and wattleseed tart - paired with High West Campfire. This transcontinental blend has some of the worlds finest bourbon, rye and peated Scotch whiskey. It was a great finale to the meal.
High West is a brand that is getting traction at home in the US and abroad. Since it was founded, it has grown from humble beginnings into an award-winning distillery. The good news too is that their products are also available in Australia!
Big thanks to everyone for a great evening. The food was excellent, the High West pairings went perfetly with each course and tasted great and the talk from distiller Brendan Coyle between each course was entertaining and informative, We liked the High West products so much that we bought some too! Sir and Mlady were guests of Maven PR.