Winemaker
David Perkins
- Discipline
- Winemaker
- Based in
- Wanship, Utah, United States
- Venue
- High West · Winery
i. Biography
David Perkins is the founder and CEO who led High West in Wanship from 2008 to 2016, and the plainness of his own sentence only sharpens its appeal: "I really love whiskey and everything about it: the history, the chemistry, making it, smelling it, sipping it, tweaking it, and even telling others about it." It reads less like a slogan than a mission statement, a tidy summation of a career spent moving between the practical and the poetic, the laboratory and the glass.
Coming Up
Before stepping into the role of founder at High West Distillery in Park City, Utah (2006–2016), David Perkins trained at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, carrying that formal business education into an industry where intuition matters as much as spreadsheets. At High West, he helped shape the company through a pivotal decade of growth, guiding it from its early identity into a name that resonated far beyond its mountain setting. The arc of those years suggests a builder’s temperament: patient, curious, and willing to keep refining until the result feels unmistakably right. That instinct for craft has remained a through line in his work, even as the specific bottles and partnerships have changed. Today, David serves as Liquid Collaborator and advisor of Keeper's Heart / O'Shaughnessy Distilling Company (since 2021), continuing a career defined by entrepreneurial instinct and an eye for craft. The title itself hints at a role that is less about standing at the center of the frame than about shaping what happens there—bringing experience, palate, and perspective to the ongoing conversation around what whiskey can be.
Where They Are Now
No current role is listed here.
Signature
David's signature wines include Bourye, A Midwinter Night’s Dram, and Double Rye. As listed here, those names carry the kind of resonance that lingers in memory: Bourye, A Midwinter Night’s Dram, and Double Rye, each suggesting a distinct expression of his fascination with whiskey’s range, from structure to nuance to the small surprises that keep the category alive. For Perkins, the signature seems to lie not only in what is poured, but in the ongoing act of making, tasting, adjusting, and telling the story of why it matters.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of David
Where did David Perkins train or study?
David Perkins trained at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
