Whiskey You Can Buy: Michter's Rye

As part of my effort to try more available and affordable whiskeys, today I'm trying Michter's Single Barrel Straight Rye, a sourced rye from the standard Michter's US*1 line.

Michter's US*1 Straight Rye, 3 years old, Barrel 16D581, 42.4% abv ($40)

The nose has soft minty notes. The mint comes on strong on the palate followed by sweet notes, creating a sweet mint tea type of flavor and closes with some acid. The finish tastes like breath mints.

All of this mint makes me think this is an MGP rye. The source isn't listed (nor is the state in contrast to the Michter's barrel proof rye which specifically states that it is Kentucky Straight Rye). Of course, this is a single barrel whiskey, so different barrels could be sourced from different distilleries.   

This is sweet and low proof; It's inoffensive and easy to drink, but not particularly interesting. If you have a sweet tooth - and like mint, it might be for you.

UPDATE: Michter's contacted me to let me know that the Michter's Straight Rye is a Kentucky rye. 

Thanks to Reid Bechtle for the sample and photo. 

Sku Awards: Worst Whiskey Company

'Tis the season for whiskey awards, and like every blogger, I want to make sure I get mine in.  This year, there was stiff competition for our Worst Whiskey Company award with lots of cynical marketing ploys, ridiculous pricing and other shenanigans, but there can only be one winner!

First, the runners up:

• Jim Beam.  Year after year, Beam is contender for this award. This year, they put in a solid effort with their attempt to charge their loyal customers more for less by cutting the proof of Maker's Mark.  Only in the face of a huge public backlash did they relent, but hey, it's not their fault that there isn't enough whiskey around; they've got to meet the insatiable demand for Red Stag.
• Diageo.  Another major heavyweight in this category, Diageo was clearly playing to win this year.  I won't go into detail here; just read Whisky Advocate's recent post naming them Distiller of the Year.  That post pretty much summarizes all of the reasons why they should get the Worst Whiskey Company award (and thanks to Whisky Advocate for saving me the effort!)
• Dewar's (Bacardi Inc.).  A good rule of thumb for companies is not to alienate half the planet, but Dewar's managed to do just that with an ill advised commercial about their character "the Baron."  Aside from being a boring imitation of the advertising personalities for Captain Morgan and Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World, the Baron's heroics involved rescuing a friend from being approached by an overweight woman in a bar (apparently, Dewar's commercials operate in a bizarro-opposite world in which men in bars are in constant danger of getting approached by women they find undesirable).  The blogosphere immediately pounced, and Dewar's ended up withdrawing the ad.  They may have even used the same form apology that Maker's Mark used.

Congratulations to all the runners up, but there is only room in the world for one Worst Whiskey Company, and this year the award goes to:

Michter's (Chatam Imports).  Michter's has long been a Worst Whiskey Company contender both for their mediocre whiskeys and constant stomping on the grave of the true Michter's Distillery in Pennsylvania, which they have nothing to do with.  This year, though, they were not satisfied to rest on their laurels.  No, this year they rose from the ranks of whiskey mediocrity to pure evil with the release of Michter's Celebration.

Before Celebration, no one thought it would be possible to charge $4,000 for a bottle of American Whiskey.  Just doing that would have put Michter's in the running for this award, but they didn't stop there.  They went above and beyond in their effort to insult the intelligence of consumers.  This $4k marvel isn't a bourbon or a rye; it's a "sour mash whiskey," a classification which means...nothing.  It has no age statement, and it's not even labeled straight.  In short, this crap could be anything.  Though media reports mention that it contains whiskey up to 30 years old, it could contain whiskey that is much younger. It could be any type of whiskey.  It could even have added coloring.  And as with all Michter's whiskey, we have no idea what distillery or distilleries made the whiskey. We don't know anything. 

Of course, as the old saw goes, none of that matters if it tastes great, except that no one is going to taste it.  They only produced 273 bottles of this whiskey.  Based on my own observations, I would estimate that only 99.9% appear to remain on the shelf.  Given that and the fact that there appear to be no reviews on-line, perhaps we can take heart in the fact that whiskey consumers aren't as gullible as Michter's may think (they should have put a picture of Pappy on the bottle - then it would have been gold!).

So for shameless cynicism and chutzpah which knows no bounds, I'm honored to declare Michter's the Worst Whiskey Company of 2013!  (Note to Michter's, feel free to list this honor on your website in place of your current headline "Wine Enthusiast Distiller of the Year" since, you know, you're not actually a distiller).

Congratulations to Michter's and better luck next year to all of our other competitors.  Oh, and if I left anyone out who deserves a mention, just let me know in the comments.

Dusty Thursday: The Real Michter's Original Sour Mash Whiskey

Yesterday, I sampled the new Michter's Original Sour Mash Whiskey.  That one is a Kentucky whiskey from an undisclosed distillery (or distilleries), but long ago, when Michter's was a real distillery, the sour mash whiskey was made in Pennsylvania from a mashbill of 50% bourbon, 38% rye and  12% malted barley and aged in a mixture of new and used barrels.  I was lucky enough to have a generous friend who shared a sample of a miniature bottle of the real stuff with me (pictured, right); I know he likes some char on his bourbon, let's see what it's like.

Michter's Original Sour Mash Whiskey, 43% abv.

The nose is a bit soapy with some of the sandalwood notes that I often get on old Pennsylvania ryes.  The palate too is soapy with a lot of sandalwood.  Spicy notes dominate the finish.  This is much more similar to the old Pennsylvania ryes than it is to any bourbon I've had.  I generally like the sandalwood notes in those old ryes, but the soapy notes in this clashed with them.

This is absolutely nothing like the contemporary version I reviewed yesterday.  Whereas that one tastes pretty much like any current bourbon, the original Michter's tastes nothing like a modern bourbon.  Of course, the original Michter's was not only made in Pennsylvania, it was made in a pot still, which imparts a very different flavor to a whiskey.  The new Michter's was almost certainly made on a continuous still, which probably accounts for some of the differences between the two.  (UPDATE: Sam K. points out in the comments that the pot still was the doubler and the whiskey went through a typical continuous still first).  In addition, soapiness is a characteristic that I have found in a number of dusties, and it can be a result of poor storage or handling over the years, and the small quantity involved in a miniature bottle makes it even more susceptible to the ravages of time.  All this is to say that the current state of this whiskey might not reflect what it tasted like in its prime, but that's always a risk with dusties.

Despite its flaws, I'm intrigued by this old Michter's, particularly the Pennsylvania rye notes.  I'll have to see if I can track down some more of this stuff.

Michter's Original Sour Mash Whiskey

Long ago, Michter's was a distillery near Schafferstown, in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  The distillery shut down in 1989, but as with many American distilleries, the name lived on.  After the original name was abandoned, it was registered by Chatham Imports which used it as a label on sourced whiskey that it had bottled at Kentucky Bourbon Distillers.

The original Michter's is most known today as the source of the A.H. Hirsch bourbon, a series of private bottlings of bourbon distilled in 1974 (For more detail, see Chuck Cowdery's book The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste).

But A.H. Hirsch was a one-off; Michter's had its own brands, the most known of which was their Original Sour Mash Whiskey.  According to Whiskey Advocate's resident Michter's expert Sam Komlenic, the Original Sour Mash mashbill was 50% corn, 38% rye and 12% malted barley, and it was aged in a combination of new and used cooperage. It couldn't be called bourbon both because it had less than the required 51% corn and because some of it was aged in used barrels.

When Chatham took over the label, they put out bourbon, rye and an "American whiskey" but they didn't use the Original Sour Mash label, until now.  Last December, Chatham released an Original Sour Mash.  They don't give much of a description of it so there's no telling if anything about it is similar to the original version, except they say it is aged in new charred oak and it appears to be distilled in Kentucky, two things that were not true of the original Michter's brand.  Of course, the use of the term "sour mash" tells us nothing since sour mash is the process used by nearly all American whiskeys to keep a consistent environment for their yeast from batch to batch.  But let's see how it tastes.



Michter's Original Sour Mash, 43% abv, Batch 12 LID ($45)

The nose has candy corn and wood.  The palate starts with lots of sweet corn and some grassy notes.  Then wood and spice kick in.  The spice takes over and gets peppery into the finish, then turns to corn flakes.  It certainly tastes like bourbon. The prominence of corn reminds me of one of the Beam Small Batch bourbons, but the way the spice mixes in is more akin to Elijah Craig or another Heaven Hill product. 

The new Michter's isn't bad at all, but there's nothing in it that is at all compelling.  It's a decent whiskey which I would be able to recommend if it were about half the asking price.

How does this new label compare to the original Pennsylvania Michter's Original Sour Mash?  There's only one way to find out.  Tune in tomorrow for Dusty Thursday.

Whiskey Wednesday: Michter's Unblended American Whiskey

Michter's was the name of a Pennsylvania distillery that produced the venerable A.H. Hirsch Bourbon. The distillery closed in 1991 and the name was purchased by Chatham Imports, which uses it to market whiskey that it purchases from other distilleries which remain unnamed. Currently, the popular Michter's line includes a number of Bourbons and ryes as well as their unblended American Whiskey.

Like Early Times, Micther's Unblended American Whiskey is essentially a Bourbon that was aged in used barrels. This is the first Michter's I have tasted


Tasting

Michter's Unblended American Whiskey, 41.7% alcohol ($35-$45).

Strong maple syrup, candy and sweet brandy on the nose. Smells Canadian! The taste is candy sweet as well, with not much depth. Again, this American unblended whiskey tastes very much like a Canadian blended whisky with a sweetness that grips you by the collar and won't let go.

To sum up: Way to sweet for me.