There is so much sourced whiskey on the shelf today, in such a dizzying array of formats, that I don’t envy the task of any young company trying to break into this particular niche of the spirits world. Without a story and history to call their own, any one of these young brands theoretically faces bigger hurdles to become recognized by the consumer, and more importance than ever is put on the quality of the spirit itself.
Increasingly, this finds those young non-distiller producers turning to gimmickry in order to carve out a niche, often in the form of fanciful secondary maturations or other “finishes.” In that sense, it’s nice to see right off the bat that High n’ Wicked has eschewed that kind of gimmickry with its own flagship bourbon and rye whiskey. In some respects, High n’ Wicked looks like a pretty typical independent bottler. It was founded in 2019 by two well-heeled former Brown-Forman senior executives, W. L. Lyons Brown III and Kevin E. Sachs. It primarily sources Kentucky bourbon and rye, as in this duo of 5-year-old flagship expression