Michter's US1 Small Batch Sour Mash

Michter's

Origin

USA

Type

Sour Mash Whiskey

Barrel

New Oak

Age

No Age Statement

Alcohol

43°

Value

60 points

About the product

Sour Mash Whiskey is a specific type of whiskey. The essential thing about it is that during the production process, a particle of each batch of fermented mash is kept and added to the next batch. This ensures that fermentation gets going faster and can be better controlled. It is the same principle used to make sourdough bread.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Michter's Original Sour Mash was the distillery's most popular product. It is made from a unique grain recipe, which means it cannot officially be called bourbon or rye. After the original Michter's went out of business in 1989, this amazingly beautiful product also disappeared, until it made a comeback in 2012 and became part of Michter's standard range. With success, as in 2019 this whiskey was named whisky of the year by The Whisky Exchange, the first whiskey from the USA ever to achieve this.

The Sour Mash Whiskey is a bottling based on a small batch of casks, at a strength of 43% ABV. The nose immediately offers a powerful aroma of caramel and fresh-cut apple with a touch of nutmeg. Vanilla and cinnamon make their entrance. It's a sweet blend of scents that is hard to be mad at, so seductive. This continues on the palate, with an excess of caramel, toffee, vanilla and coffee cake, silky smooth in consistency and with fine hints of cherry, raspberry and cinnamon cake at the end. The finish offers more spiciness from the rye and a surprising warmth.

About the brand

Michter's is one of the pioneers when it comes to high-quality American whiskey. Their philosophy is not for nothing ‘cost be damned’, by which they mean that their first and only concern is the quality of their products rather than the cost involved in achieving that quality. Perhaps the most important example is that all their bottlings are done on the basis of small batches, or are even single barrels, which is obviously a lot more complex than mixing and bottling large quantities of casks at once.

The history of Michter's is at once long and short. The brand grew out of a distillery established as early as 1753 under the name Shenk's, founded by John Shenk, a farmer of Swiss origin in Shaefferstown, Pennsylvania. The name changed a few more times, including to Bomberger's. In those early years, they were best known for their rye whiskey, as rye was widely grown in that region. Legend has it that during the US Civil War, General George Washington was so convinced of the quality of their whiskey that he bought it for his men. Thus it was nicknamed ‘The Whiskey that warmed the American Revolution’.

Like so many distilleries, they closed their doors in 1919, due to the Prohibition. Afterwards, the distillery changed hands often, until in the 1950s it was owned by Lou Forman, who changed the name to Michter's, named after his two sons Michael and Peter. The distillery then did the books in 1989, but Michter's was given a second life: Joseph Magliocco and Dick Newman bought the rights to the brand and re-established it, but this time in the birthplace of bourbon: Kentucky. There they have been building this story for almost 30 years now, and with great success.