I love Michter's. But which Michter's? There are two. There is what we'll call "old Michter's" the Pennsylvania distillery in Schaefferstown that people known as Michter's - and which marketed itself as Michter's but was actually named Pennco for most of the recent past and Bomberger's Distillery before that. That distillery has been closed since 1990. It is most famous for one particular 1974 contract run of Bourbon made for a guy named Hirsch and aged for a heck of a long time. This became the subject of a fantastic book called "The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste - The True Story of A. H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Distilled in the Spring 1974. Made and Bottled in Kentucky" by Chuck Cowdery. This book is a miracle, which somehow tells something profound and universal about the Bourbon business, the craftsmanship, and history by focusing on one particular legendary run of juice. I cannot recommend this book more highly - it is a sweet and compulsive read and will teach you lessons about Bourbon that any enthusiast must know. It will also make you crave a taste of A. H. Hirsch's Bourbon - and that's a bit of problem as it is not around except at auction and then at stratospheric prices - dozens of times what it sold for even half a decade ago.
Meanwhile, there is a brand of Bourbon, whiskey, and rye sold in many stores called Michter's which is made by an unrelated company - owned by Chatham Imports, a middle-tier importer/wholesaler. We'll call that "new Michter's". New Michter's has extensive distribution for a company producing small quantities - and an excellent reputation for quality offerings at the high end of their line. You frequently see particular issues highly sought after in the Bourbon enthusiast community.
A few months back I visited the home of New York American whiskey enthusiast Jared Zuckman. While his newborn son slept next to us, Jared graciously and generously led me through a tasting which spanned such Bourbon stellar bottlings Four Roses Small Batch 125th Anniversary, Jefferson Presidential Select 18, A.H. Hirsch 16 foil top ("old Michter's"), and Michter's 20 ("new Michter's") among others.
My quick notes from that tasting for the two Michter's are as follows:
A beautiful big rich nose of Vanilla florals, brown sugar, sandalwood oak
The palate is thinner than you'd expect given the nose. Thinner mouth feel. Sandalwood perfume, citrus, and toffee bourbon flavors. In the mid-palate there is a a pervasive but gentle mustiness. The finish all about astringent oak.
Huge nose of dark oak perfume, deep musky loam, rich molasses and dark chocolate. With air and a drop of water, raw chocolate chip cookie dough and pancake batter notes.
Huge sweet palate with thick mouth feel. Toasted & burnt coconut, dark roasted cocoa, maple glazed roasted pecans.
In some ways it's not a fair comparison - the Michter's 20 is a barrel proof product. But there's no point actually denying the fact that the "new Michter's" 20 is a superior pour - for whatever that's worth. And pretty dramatically so. Jared would be the first to say so. He called the Hirsch 16, "historically interesting but overrated". He called the Michter's Single Barrel 20 "the pour of the year" for him. I had to concur. Obviously the A.H. Hirsch is something more than just what's in the glass. It's a "one year type" - like the 1793 Chain Cent is a one year type - rare and unique as a type - beyond just rare as an issue - functioning as a vanished symbol of something beautiful and gone. Pennsylvania's demise as a distilling center is all tied up with the death of rye, the death of distilling in the North-East, and the decline of American Whiskey in general in the dark days of glut. A.H. Hirsch's batch represents the "jewels in the darkness" - which came out of the rickhouses in the 90s as forgotten treasures, like the gold of King Tut's tomb. More on Tut and Michter's later... But for all that, what's in the glass (i.e. what you'd taste blind) is vitally important too. And the takeaway here is that new Michter's 20 is a stunning pour - and a true leading product.
So, what is "new Michter's" and how does it relate to "old Michter's"? I have my take on it, but here's how Cowdery describes it in "The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste":
"What about the Michter’s bourbon, rye and other whiskeys on store shelves today? What’s that and what is its relationship to the Michter’s Distillery and A. H. Hirsch Reserve Bourbon? After Michter’s closed, the Michter’s trademark was abandoned. A few years later, a Philadelphia company called Chatham Imports re-registered the abandoned mark and began to sell a line of Michter’s bourbons and other whiskeys. None of the whiskey they sell was made at the Michter’s Distillery in Pennsylvania. They are a non-distiller producer, which means they buy bulk whiskey made by one or more of the usual suspects and bottle it under the Michter’s brand name. Because they control rights to the Michter’s name, they can and do claim what is now (as of 2012) 259 years of Michter’s history as their own, even though they have just the name and nothing else that connects them to the distillery in Schaefferstown. Ironically, the Michter’s name itself is only about 60 years old. Over the years, the distillery was known by many different names."
"In 2011 , the new Michter’s announced its intention to build a micro-distillery in downtown Louisville, and they joined the Kentucky Distillers Association. That Michter’s had nothing to do with A. H. Hirsch Reserve and has no further role in its story."
Cowdery, Charles (2012-05-02). The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste. The True Story Of A. H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Distilled In The Spring Of 1974. Made and Bottled in Kentucky.
Everything that Chuck says in that passage is factual and these facts have led some people to be angry at the new company selling whiskey with the brand name Michter's. But, as I'll explain later on, it's not quite the whole truth. Yet the anger in some quarters is quite real. For an example of this angry reaction you can't do better than the anonymous blogger of http://thebourbontruth.tumblr.com/ who writes under the pseudonym "Lloyd Christmas". He rages at Non-Distiller-Producers (NDPs) like Jefferson's and others. but he reserves a special vitriol for new Michter's:
"The distillery closed in 1990 for good and when the abandoned name finds its way into the public domain for Mr. “Sleaze of the Year” to take it as if it’s been his forever. The new Michter’s starts releasing Michter’s Rye, Bourbon and Whiskey under a very fake, very dishonest story. Washington’s troops drank it, you say? Bullshit, I say."
"Makes up a bunch of more crap that only a con man comes up with. Obviously this sleaze has never taken — or at least never paid attention in — an ethics class while at Yale, but I bet he aced Lying 101 and Advanced Greed."
"I’ll be honest and say I don’t know if he owns barrels he sourced, aged or if he bought them ready for bottling. What I know is that Kentucky Bourbon Distillers bottled most/all of it and, I believe, supplied the barrels. Many, if not all, are being bottled by someone new, I believe in California."
"To give some credit, there were some older batches of 10 year Rye and Bourbon that were great. Incredible 25 year and first batch 20 year bourbons as well. The rest is stuff you try at a bar and are glad you didn’t get a bottle. Chatham imports is not even second rate but they beat the Michter’s name they adopted from the scrap heap as the gift that keeps on giving."
http://thebourbontruth.tumblr.com/post/41798018064/whisky-sleaze-of-the-year-and-sinking-to-the-bottom-of
Meanwhile, there is a brand of Bourbon, whiskey, and rye sold in many stores called Michter's which is made by an unrelated company - owned by Chatham Imports, a middle-tier importer/wholesaler. We'll call that "new Michter's". New Michter's has extensive distribution for a company producing small quantities - and an excellent reputation for quality offerings at the high end of their line. You frequently see particular issues highly sought after in the Bourbon enthusiast community.
A few months back I visited the home of New York American whiskey enthusiast Jared Zuckman. While his newborn son slept next to us, Jared graciously and generously led me through a tasting which spanned such Bourbon stellar bottlings Four Roses Small Batch 125th Anniversary, Jefferson Presidential Select 18, A.H. Hirsch 16 foil top ("old Michter's"), and Michter's 20 ("new Michter's") among others.
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| Jared Zuckman's bottles of new and old Michter's |
My quick notes from that tasting for the two Michter's are as follows:
A.H. Hirsch Reserve 16 gold foil top Straight Bourbon 45.8% abv - 91.6 proof
Dark amber colorA beautiful big rich nose of Vanilla florals, brown sugar, sandalwood oak
The palate is thinner than you'd expect given the nose. Thinner mouth feel. Sandalwood perfume, citrus, and toffee bourbon flavors. In the mid-palate there is a a pervasive but gentle mustiness. The finish all about astringent oak.
Michter's 20 Single Barrel Bourbon 57.1% abv Barrel 2368, bottle 12 of 220
Hazelnut Chestnut colorHuge nose of dark oak perfume, deep musky loam, rich molasses and dark chocolate. With air and a drop of water, raw chocolate chip cookie dough and pancake batter notes.
Huge sweet palate with thick mouth feel. Toasted & burnt coconut, dark roasted cocoa, maple glazed roasted pecans.
In some ways it's not a fair comparison - the Michter's 20 is a barrel proof product. But there's no point actually denying the fact that the "new Michter's" 20 is a superior pour - for whatever that's worth. And pretty dramatically so. Jared would be the first to say so. He called the Hirsch 16, "historically interesting but overrated". He called the Michter's Single Barrel 20 "the pour of the year" for him. I had to concur. Obviously the A.H. Hirsch is something more than just what's in the glass. It's a "one year type" - like the 1793 Chain Cent is a one year type - rare and unique as a type - beyond just rare as an issue - functioning as a vanished symbol of something beautiful and gone. Pennsylvania's demise as a distilling center is all tied up with the death of rye, the death of distilling in the North-East, and the decline of American Whiskey in general in the dark days of glut. A.H. Hirsch's batch represents the "jewels in the darkness" - which came out of the rickhouses in the 90s as forgotten treasures, like the gold of King Tut's tomb. More on Tut and Michter's later... But for all that, what's in the glass (i.e. what you'd taste blind) is vitally important too. And the takeaway here is that new Michter's 20 is a stunning pour - and a true leading product.
So, what is "new Michter's" and how does it relate to "old Michter's"? I have my take on it, but here's how Cowdery describes it in "The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste":
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| http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com /2012/09/print-edition-of-best-bourbon-youll.html |
"In 2011 , the new Michter’s announced its intention to build a micro-distillery in downtown Louisville, and they joined the Kentucky Distillers Association. That Michter’s had nothing to do with A. H. Hirsch Reserve and has no further role in its story."
Cowdery, Charles (2012-05-02). The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste. The True Story Of A. H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Distilled In The Spring Of 1974. Made and Bottled in Kentucky.
Everything that Chuck says in that passage is factual and these facts have led some people to be angry at the new company selling whiskey with the brand name Michter's. But, as I'll explain later on, it's not quite the whole truth. Yet the anger in some quarters is quite real. For an example of this angry reaction you can't do better than the anonymous blogger of http://thebourbontruth.tumblr.com/ who writes under the pseudonym "Lloyd Christmas". He rages at Non-Distiller-Producers (NDPs) like Jefferson's and others. but he reserves a special vitriol for new Michter's:
"The distillery closed in 1990 for good and when the abandoned name finds its way into the public domain for Mr. “Sleaze of the Year” to take it as if it’s been his forever. The new Michter’s starts releasing Michter’s Rye, Bourbon and Whiskey under a very fake, very dishonest story. Washington’s troops drank it, you say? Bullshit, I say."
"Makes up a bunch of more crap that only a con man comes up with. Obviously this sleaze has never taken — or at least never paid attention in — an ethics class while at Yale, but I bet he aced Lying 101 and Advanced Greed."
"I’ll be honest and say I don’t know if he owns barrels he sourced, aged or if he bought them ready for bottling. What I know is that Kentucky Bourbon Distillers bottled most/all of it and, I believe, supplied the barrels. Many, if not all, are being bottled by someone new, I believe in California."
"To give some credit, there were some older batches of 10 year Rye and Bourbon that were great. Incredible 25 year and first batch 20 year bourbons as well. The rest is stuff you try at a bar and are glad you didn’t get a bottle. Chatham imports is not even second rate but they beat the Michter’s name they adopted from the scrap heap as the gift that keeps on giving."
http://thebourbontruth.tumblr.com/post/41798018064/whisky-sleaze-of-the-year-and-sinking-to-the-bottom-of
Actually - "Lloyd" says some much worse things in that post. His rants peel paint and often go way over the line. I actually picked some of the more gentle areas to quote from. I have issues with many of the things "Lloyd" says, but there are some legitimate beefs here. If you go to Michter's web site the first thing you see (before giving your birthday) is the caption "Wine Enthusiast Distiller of the Year" and the following image:
Michter's is, as Chuck reported, building a pair of distilleries - one in Shively, KY and another in urban downtown Louisville on the strip. The one in Shively already has a pair of small test stills and a large 60' column still from Vendome is being fabricated and is expected to be delivered and installed this coming summer. It will have a pot doubler - or "thumper" - as the old Michter's distillery did. But Michter's isn't in full production yet - and that group of barrels in the photograph on the web site are a dream for the future rather than an actual group of physical barrels with that printing on the barrel ends. Michter's was, indeed named "Distiller of the Year" by Wine Enthusiast in 2012. But those barrels in that photograph are photoshopped. Lloyd rages that this photograph is a deliberately constructed lie - calculated to mislead people into believing that the whisky they buy is actually distilled, barreled and aged by Micther's. That's clearly where Michter's intends to go - but they aren't there yet.
Let's deal with "Lloyd"'s objections. They are, to summarize:
Some of these points are straight up correct, and some are just wrong.
A little while back, New York food and whisky blogger Susanna Skiver Barton of http://whattastesgood.net/ and I spent a very nice evening with Joe Magliocco, President of Chatham Imports and Michter's and Emily Malinowski who works with him. (She blogged about the evening here).
Over the course of the evening we discussed a few of these issues, but mostly we talked about history and drank most of the Michter's line (and then kept drinking various other things late into the evening). The first thing that popped out at me was that Joe Magliocco has a long history with old Michter's whiskey and has a real affection for it. He tells a story about his first job, when starting at Chatham - his father's wine and spirits import and distribution business in 1976, was to move a large number of surplus King Tut decanters which old Michter's had produced to catch the fever of "Tutmania" that accompanied the traveling exhibition of King Tut's treasures. He still has a good collection of King Tut decanters - among his extensive collection of Michter's decanters generally. For example I had never seen some of these Michter's decanters before:
Joe began our conversation by putting a tax stamped 1970s-80s dusty of old Michter's whiskey on the table and cited it as a frequent pour of his father's and an inspiration for a number of the things they are doing today. This is the odd extremely high rye and high-malt corn whiskey that was almost but not quite Bourbon (because the mash was 50% corn. 1% too low to be legally Bourbon). Joe said that his father drank and enjoyed it. This old, unusual, classic Michter's form of American whiskey continues to be an inspiration for new Michter's today and is found in at least two of their expressions US1 American Whiskey and the Celebration bottling. This effort at continuity with Michter's past is admirable. Over the course of the evening we tasted much of the Michter's line up. I'll post tasting notes for a few of those expressions below (the ones I took samples of, and/or have bottles of), but suffice it to say, there's some excellent cask selection and some very good palates on display at new Michter's. The whiskeys, Bourbons and ryes in the US1 line are quite good and some of the single barrel offerings are state of the art. Furthermore, as Joe made clear, and already noted Michter's isn't just an NDP and a bottler of contract runs made elsewhere. They are actively developing two distilleries in Kentucky. They aren't alone in independently bottling other distillery's whisky while developing their own distillery. There are a range of examples. from Willett's (Kentucky Bourbon Distillers), to Smooth Ambler, Old Pogue, Widow Jane, and many others. The fact that they are developing their own whiskey production and are members of the Kentucky Distillers Association should give them a degree of legitimacy and respect.
By the way, when we tasted that homage to old Michter's Sour Mash Whiskey, the US1 American Whiskey - I found that the new batch was considerably better than the one I had tried before. It is butterscotchy, grassy, with nice jujubee juicy fruit flavors. The other entry level expressions were good too. US1 bourbon was light, floral (marigold) with nice balance. The US1 Rye (6 years old) had floral herbal spice but also a characteristic toffee note you'll find in all the Michter's ryes. Michter's US-1 Sour Mash (little over 6 years old) is very nice with floral sweetness, but also some sophisticated notes of clay, dust, butterscotch & spice.
Color: dark amber with coppery glints.
Nose: Candy corn, blackstrap molasses, herbal rye, bourbon vanilla pods and char. Nosing deeper you get coconut, and beautiful sandalwood incense perfume. Musky, musty, earthy and spicy.
Palate: syrupy mouth feel, dark molasses sweetness, deep char, beautiful vanilla and coconut from white oak, and a lilting refrain of herbal rye spice dancing above the dark heavy brown cooked sugars and bitter char foundation. That dark vanilla extract leads - with plenty of vegetal treacle and brightly acidic citrus preserves. Notes of aspirin and ivy herbals speak to old rye. The expansion is big and bold with dark toffee, caramel, and rich sandalwood oak. The oak tannins wax on the turn - getting spicy and drying. The finish is long, and complex with big old wet oak dominating, but also molasses, dark chocolate, black coffee, and aromatherapy oils hanging around. It's a big, rich, darkly brown old style whiskey. In some ways it's bigger, more darkly wooded, and more displays more dark cooked sugar Maillard reaction flavors than the 20. But the 20 has greater complexity, bigger rounder sweetness, and more going on to tease apart. It's oily heavy dark flavored whisky that feels like old fashioned whisky. It is very reminiscent of the style of the big Old Fitz's of the 50s (not the candy notes of a wheater, but the same dark malty feeling and balance).
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Color: medium amber
Nose: Honey, pecan, old musty oak.
Palate: Honey, citrus floral, rye spice.
Intensely floral, herbal, sunny and balanced. There are sunflowers, lemon and candied orange peel. Canola oil, almond oil, and orange rind. Old rye's dark green aspirin and complex old herbal bitters flavor hang as a backdrop behind the sweet and sunny. Added air brings out the sweetness and a bit of mineral dust. This is big, complex, flavor dense stuff - but with a balance that is much brighter, sunnier, and less brown than the Single Barrel 20 or the 10. The story is the vatting in of plenty of rye - both hyper mature and vibrantly young. It's unusual, very good, and yet very much of a piece with the rest of the Michter's line. It is, however, sold at a very silly price.
Color Dark amber,
Nose: oak forward, qumquats, ambergris, caramel, marigolds and daisies, cooking oil
Palate: Beautiful rich toffee and rancio roundness like old cognac, enlivened with tart acid citrus, which melds into rich sandalwood perfume and darker, mossier, old wet oak aspect. Dark chocolate blooms at the turn which waxes into tannin spice. This is a big bold dark brown flavor. With extensive air, a beautiful sweet herbal flavor asserts itself - perfumed, darkly green, and complex. This is a monster that opens with a drop of water too - becoming sweeter and more floral. It's beautiful both neat and with a drop.
It's quite clear there there is a definite set of flavor preferences here. There is a clear sense of aesthetic regarding flavors across the line. The preference is for full flavors - rich and dark and old fashioned. There is also some excellent palates at work in barrel selection, batching, and filtering. Why is it so good? Joe Magliocco, not surprisingly, has some things to say on the topic. Stuff they have contract distilled is barreled at 103 proof. 125 proof is standard. They have barrels made using yard dried wood exposed to the elements for 18-36 months. With their barrels they have them toasted them before being charred. Their barrels come from Mcinnis in Cuba Missouri, Independent Stave in Lebanon Missouri and a 3rd source he cannot name. They do a lot with filtering - which sounds like a dirty word to whisky enthusiast me - but Magliocco assures me that filtering a creative paintbrush that Willie Pratt can use to change the balance of flavors - executing creative control. The unavoidable impression of all that is that there is some knowledge, palate, and crafting going on. Good whiskey is seldom an accident.
Yet I find reactions like the one I got from EMT paramedic and bourbon afficionado, Ari Susskind, earlier this week at a whisky event who said that he doesn't buy Michter's because he doesn't like that they muddy up the identity of Michters. Mr. Susskind is a leader of a whisky group, as well as someone who makes private cask selections for liquor stores in his area, not just a casual drinker - so this presents a troubling aspect. It's not the whiskey - it's the branding story and it isn't just "Lloyd Christmas" howling in the wilderness over at BourbonTruth. But many of the other examples I previously gave (Willet's Old Pogue, etc..) are apparently in the same boat: old distillery brands resurrected with newly built distilleries, selling someone else's juice until their own is in full production and ready for market after barrel maturation. You don't hear this complaint much about them? So what's the deal? Is it that Chatham Imports is a middle tier distributor Shouldn't be. There is a grand tradition of whiskey merchants becoming distillers. Pappy Van Winkle himself was a wholesaler and distributor before he partnered with Stitzel and built a new distillery to resurrect a beloved old brand. So what is it?
Part of it is that it's Michter's. Chatham took the brand name because Joe Magliocco loved it legitimately and it was abandoned. He might have bought it but the owners had literally fled the liability of the busted down site of the physical distillery. Picking up that abandoned brand name looks like good business and Joe is certainly a good businessman. But the story is deeply connected to a sense of Bourbon's history and new Michter's connecting piece to that history is lacking. With Willett's, Drew Kulsveen is a 2nd generation member of the Willett family and the distillery is the same one. With Pogue - it's the same blood of the old family name. With Smooth Ambler it's a new brand with no baggage. But with Michter's the ghosts are thick and Michter's marketing talk that attempts to blur the very real line between old Michter's claims to history (already a bit fanciful - even when they were in PA) and the new project. Michter's is special because it's about the tragic death of Pennsylvania's distilling tradition - deeply connected with rye whiskey in America. It's about A. H. Hirsch and the story of that one amazing batch that has come to symbolize the dark tomb of the Bourbon glut era in the way that King Tut's glorious golden death mask has come to symbolize the vanished glories of ancient Egypt.
Should you care? I'm here to tell you straight up that Michter's Single Barrel 10 is one of the best Bourbons on the market you can actually find on a store shelf. I actually picked it blind ahead of Pappy (thanks again, Steve Zeller). You have to decide for yourself whether what's in the glass is more important to you than a marketing story that blurs the truth that old and new Michters are separate things.
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| Photoshopped barrel heads - see missing support cables at right and just left of center. |
Let's deal with "Lloyd"'s objections. They are, to summarize:
- Willie Pratt given the title "Master Distiller" while Michter's still isn't distilling
- Wine Enthusiast awards Michter's "Distillery of the Year" in 2012 before their distillery operations are in production.
- Michter's Celebration sold in a fancy box for $4000. The idea is that is like Dalmore: elitist and ultimately based on hype.
- new Michter's chose to base operations in Kentucky, rather than in Pennsylvania where old Michter's was located.
- The assertion that early releases were wonderful - and had Stizel-Weller stocks, and have gone down hill as those stocks disappeared leaving current bottlings inferior to older ones.
- new Michter's claims the mantle of centuries of history in their advertising, but are totally unrelated to old Michter's .
Some of these points are straight up correct, and some are just wrong.
- Willie Pratt's title is "Master Distiller" and he is already doing test distillation batches, and he is doing barrel selection and is vatting. That's all some master distiller type stuff. But the whiskey you buy on the shelves wasn't distilled by Willie Pratt. So this is ambiguous at best.
- The text accompanying Wine Enthusiast's award is a well written restatement of Michter's marketing literature. It commits the mistake of confusing old Michter's and new the same entity. It states that Michter's was "restarted". This simply isn't true. While the award text describes both of Michter's distilleries which are under development in the present tense - it also talks a lot about Michter's "making" whiskey. This is clearly misleading. It reminds me of the Nobel committee awarding Obama the Peace Prize - presumably in the hopes that he would be a force for world peace going forward. Clearly new Michter's has some very well defined ambitions about being a distiller that they are sinking capital into. But that's the future. What you are drinking now wasn't distilled by Michter's - although some was contract distilled for them - and to their specifications including some unique mash bills. I don't know if you can blame Michter's for the wording of the award - but it clearly confuses the truth of the matter.
- Michter's Celebration is an exercise in fancy decanter type "ultra-premium" marketing, like you usually see high end Cognac or single malt Scotch whisky engaged in. It's an ominous development for American whiskey - primarily from the price pressure perspective. I don't like the decanter business, in general, in any market. However, it was a tiny production run. No one forced you to buy it. It sold out quickly. Who really cares? If it's a matter of principal to you, then you do. Otherwise, not so much.
- Joe Magliocco, Michter's President makes clear that the decision to locate their new distilleries in Kentucky was a business decision based primarily on the culture and labor resources there. It's hard to argue with that. They didn't attempt to resurrect the old Michter's site because it's a rat's nest of liability.
- While Lloyd Christmas regularly asserts that Michter's is going downhill, I took part in a blind tasting held by Steven Zeller - The Smoky Beast - where we had three different bottlings of Michter's Single Barrel 10 year old Bourbon (and a Pappy Lot "B" thrown in for confusion). I ended up picking the newest one as the best and, in fact, ranked them in inverse order of date. In other words I liked the oldest bottling the least and the youngest the most - in order. And that was tasting blind: http://smokybeast.blogspot.com/2013/10/going-vertical-history-of-michters.html
- Lloyd's complaint about new Michter's deliberately stating that they have a multi-century history in their marketing (which is not true) is absolutely correct and is certainly troubling.
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| Joe points at old Michter's King Tut decanters. |
Over the course of the evening we discussed a few of these issues, but mostly we talked about history and drank most of the Michter's line (and then kept drinking various other things late into the evening). The first thing that popped out at me was that Joe Magliocco has a long history with old Michter's whiskey and has a real affection for it. He tells a story about his first job, when starting at Chatham - his father's wine and spirits import and distribution business in 1976, was to move a large number of surplus King Tut decanters which old Michter's had produced to catch the fever of "Tutmania" that accompanied the traveling exhibition of King Tut's treasures. He still has a good collection of King Tut decanters - among his extensive collection of Michter's decanters generally. For example I had never seen some of these Michter's decanters before:
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| Some unusual 1970s Michter's decanters. |
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| Joe Magliocco and Old Michter's American Whiskey |
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| Magliocco shows plans for the Louisville distillery. |
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| One of new Michter's test stills in their new Shively distillery. image from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-29/ forget-scotch-rye-whiskey-comeback-packs-100-proof-punch.html |
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| The US-1 line up. |
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Michter's 10 (barrel 2340) 47.2%a abv
Color: dark amber with coppery glints.
Nose: Candy corn, blackstrap molasses, herbal rye, bourbon vanilla pods and char. Nosing deeper you get coconut, and beautiful sandalwood incense perfume. Musky, musty, earthy and spicy.
Palate: syrupy mouth feel, dark molasses sweetness, deep char, beautiful vanilla and coconut from white oak, and a lilting refrain of herbal rye spice dancing above the dark heavy brown cooked sugars and bitter char foundation. That dark vanilla extract leads - with plenty of vegetal treacle and brightly acidic citrus preserves. Notes of aspirin and ivy herbals speak to old rye. The expansion is big and bold with dark toffee, caramel, and rich sandalwood oak. The oak tannins wax on the turn - getting spicy and drying. The finish is long, and complex with big old wet oak dominating, but also molasses, dark chocolate, black coffee, and aromatherapy oils hanging around. It's a big, rich, darkly brown old style whiskey. In some ways it's bigger, more darkly wooded, and more displays more dark cooked sugar Maillard reaction flavors than the 20. But the 20 has greater complexity, bigger rounder sweetness, and more going on to tease apart. It's oily heavy dark flavored whisky that feels like old fashioned whisky. It is very reminiscent of the style of the big Old Fitz's of the 50s (not the candy notes of a wheater, but the same dark malty feeling and balance).
Michter's Celebration 112.3 proof
A vatting of 30 yr bourbon and 30 year old rye plus younger favorite casksColor: medium amber
Nose: Honey, pecan, old musty oak.
Palate: Honey, citrus floral, rye spice.
Intensely floral, herbal, sunny and balanced. There are sunflowers, lemon and candied orange peel. Canola oil, almond oil, and orange rind. Old rye's dark green aspirin and complex old herbal bitters flavor hang as a backdrop behind the sweet and sunny. Added air brings out the sweetness and a bit of mineral dust. This is big, complex, flavor dense stuff - but with a balance that is much brighter, sunnier, and less brown than the Single Barrel 20 or the 10. The story is the vatting in of plenty of rye - both hyper mature and vibrantly young. It's unusual, very good, and yet very much of a piece with the rest of the Michter's line. It is, however, sold at a very silly price.
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Michter's Single Barrel Bourbon 20 57.1% abv
Color Dark amber,
Nose: oak forward, qumquats, ambergris, caramel, marigolds and daisies, cooking oil
Palate: Beautiful rich toffee and rancio roundness like old cognac, enlivened with tart acid citrus, which melds into rich sandalwood perfume and darker, mossier, old wet oak aspect. Dark chocolate blooms at the turn which waxes into tannin spice. This is a big bold dark brown flavor. With extensive air, a beautiful sweet herbal flavor asserts itself - perfumed, darkly green, and complex. This is a monster that opens with a drop of water too - becoming sweeter and more floral. It's beautiful both neat and with a drop.
It's quite clear there there is a definite set of flavor preferences here. There is a clear sense of aesthetic regarding flavors across the line. The preference is for full flavors - rich and dark and old fashioned. There is also some excellent palates at work in barrel selection, batching, and filtering. Why is it so good? Joe Magliocco, not surprisingly, has some things to say on the topic. Stuff they have contract distilled is barreled at 103 proof. 125 proof is standard. They have barrels made using yard dried wood exposed to the elements for 18-36 months. With their barrels they have them toasted them before being charred. Their barrels come from Mcinnis in Cuba Missouri, Independent Stave in Lebanon Missouri and a 3rd source he cannot name. They do a lot with filtering - which sounds like a dirty word to whisky enthusiast me - but Magliocco assures me that filtering a creative paintbrush that Willie Pratt can use to change the balance of flavors - executing creative control. The unavoidable impression of all that is that there is some knowledge, palate, and crafting going on. Good whiskey is seldom an accident.
Part of it is that it's Michter's. Chatham took the brand name because Joe Magliocco loved it legitimately and it was abandoned. He might have bought it but the owners had literally fled the liability of the busted down site of the physical distillery. Picking up that abandoned brand name looks like good business and Joe is certainly a good businessman. But the story is deeply connected to a sense of Bourbon's history and new Michter's connecting piece to that history is lacking. With Willett's, Drew Kulsveen is a 2nd generation member of the Willett family and the distillery is the same one. With Pogue - it's the same blood of the old family name. With Smooth Ambler it's a new brand with no baggage. But with Michter's the ghosts are thick and Michter's marketing talk that attempts to blur the very real line between old Michter's claims to history (already a bit fanciful - even when they were in PA) and the new project. Michter's is special because it's about the tragic death of Pennsylvania's distilling tradition - deeply connected with rye whiskey in America. It's about A. H. Hirsch and the story of that one amazing batch that has come to symbolize the dark tomb of the Bourbon glut era in the way that King Tut's glorious golden death mask has come to symbolize the vanished glories of ancient Egypt.
Should you care? I'm here to tell you straight up that Michter's Single Barrel 10 is one of the best Bourbons on the market you can actually find on a store shelf. I actually picked it blind ahead of Pappy (thanks again, Steve Zeller). You have to decide for yourself whether what's in the glass is more important to you than a marketing story that blurs the truth that old and new Michters are separate things.
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| Michter's 25 yo rye. Toffee, dark spice, kiss of baby aspirin. Caramel, ivy, rich |