High West The Prisoner's Share Review [In Depth]
High West The Prisoner's Share
by: ALEX WANG
Founder, writer
Founder, writer
High West The Prisoner's Share Details
Distillery: High West
Type & Region: American whiskey, Utah, USA
Alcohol: 51%
Composition: Blend of bourbon and rye whiskeys, more details in overview
Aged: At least 4-12 years
Color: 1.7/2.0 on the color scale (burnt umber)
Price: $170
From the company website:
A distinctive blend of aged straight rye and straight bourbon whiskeys, finished in The Prisoner Red Blend wine barrels to highlight the sophisticated notes of raspberry jam, toasted mahogany, crème brûlée, black pepper, cherry cola, and French oak spice character. Decadent. Indulgent. Unforgettable.
High West The Prisoner's Share overview
I’ve never had High West The Prisoner’s Share before. Between the limited supply and people clearing shelves, it hasn’t been particularly easy to obtain over the years. So, I’m excited to try it. Is it worth all the hype that has built up over the years? I’m lucky enough to find out for myself.
If you’re not aware already (this is all new to me), High West The Prisoner’s Share is a blend of bourbon and rye that’s finished in The Prisoner Red Blend wine barrels. This is not the only bourye created by High West, they also have their annual High West Bourye release. The 2025 version was a blend of at least 10 year old bourbons and ryes.
The Prisoner Red Blend is a blend of California grown and made red wines from various vineyards using various grape varietals that are aged in oak casks. So just like this whiskey, the wine comes from various places (across California at least). Based on the 2022 vintage (link here) the barrels are a mix of French oak and American oak, with a mix of new and used barrels.
I honestly cannot definitely state what the oak barrels will contribute the whiskey, but from experience I know that red wine casks usually infuse red fruits, vanilla, and toasted oak among other things. New (and less so used) oak should infuse dark roastiness, caramel, and cinnamon among other things.
Back to my earlier point about the red wine coming from various vineyards across California. The media release (but not the High West website) provides a summary of the various mashbills in the blend. The details are below, but they are a mix of bourbons from Indiana and Kentucky, and ryes from Kentucky, Indiana, and Utah (High West’s own distillate).
Mash Bill
- 75 % corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley (MGP)
- 60% corn, 40% rye (BBC)
- 78% corn, 10% rye, 12% malted barley (Kentucky)
- 95% rye, 5% malted barley (MGP)
- 80% rye, 20% malted rye (High West own make)
I wish they would provide ages of all the various components, but it’s possible that each mashbill uses barrels of various ages so it would be minorly annoying to provide those details. Just a thought, moving on.
Let’s find out if this whiskey can take my senses captive (in a good way) in this High West The Prisoner’s Share review.
This bottle was provided to me at no cost. All opinions are still my own.
As an FYI, I bought and use these Glencairn glasses for everything (they’re the best): Glencairn Crystal Whiskey Glass Set of 6, Set of 4, Set of 2, or just one. Full transparency, this is an affiliate link, so I may earn a commission if you buy this or something else from Amazon.
High West The Prisoner's Share smell
The scents are dark with dark caramel and cola, dark and refined oak, dried cherry, cinnamon, vanilla bean, dried orange peel and red apple, a hint of lemon, licorice, nutmeg, mint, and tobacco. I can’t really pick out the rye whiskey component because the herbal fennel, licorice, and pineapple don’t stick out. This feels like a cask finished bourbon, which is fine with me too.
High West The Prisoner smells awesome, a lot like a 12-14 year old bourbon with the dark sweetness, oakiness, and fruitiness. I’m surprised to even mention this, but the dark sweetness, oak, and fruit give me some dusty bourbon vibes. Overall great scents so far.
It’s not as expressive and round as I’d like, but I would not be surprised if some of it was my nose.
After swirling I smell dark cola, vanilla custard, candied cherries and apples, roasted oak, cinnamon, and a hint of licorice and pineapple. The scents have changed so much after swirling. There’s not as much dark oak, but in return there’s more sweetness and candied fruitiness that make it smell equally as good (but different) than it did the first time around.
I wish that more of the matured and refined oak from the first smell-through plus the extra fruitiness from the second smell through would be excellent. Actually, after 20+ minutes of rest, which I recognize is a lot, the mesmerizing dark oak starts to come back to better complement the sweetness and fruitiness so the scents feel more balanced, expansive, and complete.
Who actually has time to wait that long when drinking this more casually? I guess I do for this review, but I wouldn’t otherwise. Let’s just say that this can take a while to open up.
I still wish that the scents had a little more body and expressiveness, but I still think this smells amazing.
High West The Prisoner's Share taste and aftertaste
I initially taste dark caramel and cola, dried cherry and red apple, orange peel, a lot of refined and dark oak, vanilla beans, cinnamon, licorice, tobacco, and nutmeg. All the cola and dark fruit with a refined oak blanket that’s well controlled makes this really enjoyable and fun to drink.
To me at least, this does not feel like there’s rye whiskey mixed in with bourbon. High West The Prisoner could easily pass for a 12-14 year old bourbon. I wish that this had a little more expressiveness and vibrant pop, but so far it feels rich and delicious.
With “chewing”, I taste bold cola, dried cherry and apple, creamy vanilla custard, rich+refined roasted oak, cinnamon, caramel nougat, candied lemon peel, shimmery nutmeg, and a little tobacco and herbal fennel. The flavors are constantly shifting, so this is complex and interesting.
The finish leaves dark cola, refined and dark toasted oak, cinnamon, dried cherry, and cinnamon: again a dark and surprisingly refined cigar-blend-like experience.
High West The Prisoner’s Share has a captivating range of darker and brighter flavors that have me continually (and happily) sifting through the back and forth of various flavors. Spoiler, this isn’t quite “Top Shelf+” because “wow” doesn’t quite come to mind.
It doesn’t quite have quite enough pop or fullness to blow me away, but dang this is still so so good. I don’t think I’ve ever had The Prisoner Red Blend Wine, but it’s working some straight up magic with the whiskey. This is just about everything I wish I could have gotten from Bourye.
Alright, we have a winner.
I’ve unfortunately lost some Glencairn’s while in transit, and that made me very sad. So, I wised up and bought this Glencairn Travel Case that comes also comes with 2 glasses so I don’t need to worry so much about them breaking. I think it’s great, and I think you’ll love it too.
Seriously, if you already have glasses, protect them.
High West The Prisoner's Share Rating
I didn’t have high expectations going into this review, but casually sipping a few glasses of this over a few weeks (and making a few cocktails) prior to doing this review got me thinking that this might actually be an impressive whiskey. Now that I have my A game on to do a review, it turns out it actually is impressive and it’s really not that far off from “Top Shelf+”. I’m shocked.
To summarize what you’ve already read, this is a rich, layered, and interesting whiskey that wonderfully combines bourbon, rye, and wine casks. This is such a drastic turnaround from High West Bourye, which is sort of the unfinished version of The Prisoner. It is important to mention that Bourye is at least 10 years old while The Prisoner’s Share is 4-12 years old, so the blend itself is quite different but starts with a similar concept.
But somehow adding the wine cask finish blasts this to another level of fantastic quality, infusing so much more character, even though there’s much younger whiskey in the blend. The higher ABV helps too. I guess that might not necessarily be a good thing given Bourye’s “Mid Shelf+” rating, but it’s also a positive indicator of The Prisoner Wine casks and High West’s ability to maximize those added casks…and take advantage of me because I am a sucker for finished whiskeys.
The part that gives me pause is the price. $175 is still a bit steep even for me, but all things considered this is worth it if you can afford it. You’re paying a lot and getting a lot in return, but this would have been a home run purchase at $130-140. Inflation really sucks.
A weird comparison comes to Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2025 comes to mind and I totally recognize that it doesn’t make much sense. It’s because I reviewed it a few weeks before reviewing The Prisoner’s Share, so Birthday Bourbon is still very fresh in my mind.
That said, I enjoy The Prisoner’s Share a ton more than Birthday Bourbon 2025. Birthday Bourbon has a lot of mature oak (and does that part well), but it left me wanting more with just about everything. It’s still a great bourbon that felt disappointing to me. High West The Prisoner’s Share has similar-ish oak but fills it out with more sweetness and fruitiness that easily makes it more enjoyable and interesting.
I am very pleased with High West The Prisoner’s Share, great job High West!
Meet the Author: Alex
I have far too much fun writing about whiskey and singlehandedly running The Whiskey Shelf to bring you independent, honest, and useful reviews, comparisons, and more. I’m proudly Asian American and can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and some Japanese.
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Shattered glass really sucks, so if you’re on the move, this Glencairn-like stainless steel snifter glass should survive your travels. Full transparency, this is an Amazon affiliate link, so I may earn a commission if you buy this or something else from Amazon.
BrüMate NOS’R, Double-Wall Stainless Steel Whiskey Nosing Glass – 7oz (Matte Black)
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