Michter’s 10-Yr Bourbon Has Landed, and It’s A lot Older Than You Assume

Michter’s has been bottling its 10-year-old bourbon for a quarter-century, for the reason that early days of its rebirth in Kentucky. (Initially primarily based in Pennsylvania, the model was defunct for a number of years within the Nineteen Nineties.) 

Nevertheless, the age assertion — referring to the age of the youngest whiskey within the mix — has at all times taken a again seat to taste. Because of this every batch they bottle could be considerably older than 10 years. “As a lot as you attempt to have the whiskey in each barrel age precisely the identical, it doesn’t in actuality,” says Michter’s president Joe Magliocco. “Our grasp distiller Dan McKee and our grasp of maturation Andrea Wilson can watch for a whiskey to be prepared, be it 11, 12, or 15 years previous, relatively than be underneath stress to bottle it when it’s 10 years and a day previous.” 

So, how previous is the bourbon within the newest batch of Michter’s 10-Yr Bourbon? The Michter’s workforce isn’t saying, although Andrea Wilson, who has been with the distillery since 2014, confirms that “as soon as once more, it’s overaged.” 

Whatever the actual age, the flavour profile echoes that of earlier releases. “We wish Michter’s 10 to take you on a journey,” Wilson says. “We wish there to be lovely colour and engaging aromas that draw you into your first sip, a fancy concord of flavors from fruit and spice via to confectionary notes, beautiful maturity with out being too oak-forward, a creamy wealthy texture, and a pleasant lengthy end to depart you with an unforgettable expertise.” 

That taste profile has been the purpose ever for the reason that late Nineteen Nineties, when Magliocco was driving round Kentucky seeking to supply aged bourbon — a a lot simpler process again then, when the American whiskey trade was within the thick of a decades-long droop. 

“In these days, there was little to no marketplace for age assertion bourbons,” the 67-year-old alum of Yale and, later, Harvard Legislation College, remembers. “Kentucky was awash with extra whiskey that distilleries have been anxious to eliminate. We tasted via great whiskeys of various types and picked our absolute favourite bourbon to be the one first launched as Michter’s 10-Yr Bourbon.” 

A number of years later, with Brown-Forman alum Willie Pratt on the helm, Michter’s started distilling its personal whiskey at varied Kentucky distilleries. “Section 2,” as Magliocco calls it. And in 2015, Section 3 culminated with the opening of Michter’s very personal distillery in Shively, Kentucky. 

All through this journey, Michter’s has sought to duplicate the flavour profile of the unique 10-Yr Bourbon. Some years have been trickier than others. Take 2022, for instance, when Magliocco had signed off on the discharge of a batch that had already been getting old for a little bit greater than 13 years. Nevertheless, he recollects, “Dan McKee and Andrea Wilson determined to carry it yet one more 12 months till it reached 14-and-a-half years previous to bottle it as Michter’s 10-Yr Bourbon. They felt that one further 12 months would take that exact whiskey from great to actually memorable. 

So shoppers wound up ready till one other 12 months for the 10-Yr launch.

Michter’s 10-Yr Bourbon occupies an important center floor throughout the Michter’s portfolio, in between the no-age-statement US*1 bourbon and the rarer 20- and 25-year-old expressions, which recurrently promote for 4 figures n the secondary market. At $195, it matches the worth vary of a sipping bourbon, although Wilson additionally recommends it for cocktails, significantly, “in a ravishing traditional just like the Manhattan.”

As the primary Shively-produced bourbon reaches a decade of getting old, and thus turns into eligible for inclusion in Michter’s 10-year-old bottlings, a brand new chapter within the model’s historical past is about to start. However Wilson would be the first to let you know that she doesn’t know exactly when that shall be. 

“We’re not getting old to achieve a quantity,” she says, “we’re getting old to achieve an distinctive consuming expertise.”