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#102-108: Michter's Galore!

Writer's picture: S&PS&P

Good day everyone. Simon checking in here with a Michter's tasting review. Shoutout to Craft Cellars for organizing this. We've got a sample of the US*1 Single Barrel Bourbon coming our way for the whole crew to review so look forward to that.


#1: Michter's US*1 Single Barrel Straight Rye, 42.4%, $87 CAD.


Nose: Vanilla. Sweetened fennel.


Palate: Honey vanilla on the front. Spicy fennel on the back. Rye spice and honey finish with a slight bitterness.


Overall/Review: This is a nice rye. Fairly mild for a rye, which makes sense as we're told the mash bill is closer to the minimum 51% rye. It's good, nicely balanced, but we've had some other ryes on S&P that were similarly priced and a tad more interesting. 77.


#2: Michter's US*1 Small Batch Bourbon, 45.7%, $87 CAD.


Nose: Toasty. Corny. Oaky. Caramel.


Palate: Nice sweet toasted oak. Really nice mild spice. Burnt caramel.


Overall/Review: This is a bourbon I won't mind coming back to. Really nice flavors that are somewhat hard to find. Really toasty. Looking forward to sharing this with the crew. 80.


#3: Michter's US*1 Small Batch Sour Mash Whisky, 43% ABV, $86 CAD.


Nose: Sourdough. Cinnamon. Apples. Honey.


Palate: Nice sourness. Little honey. Fennel. Sour salty finish.


Overall/Review: This is nice. Easy drinking, nice sourness. We're told during the tasting that everything Michter's makes uses sour mash (the process of saving a part of the mash and re-using it in the new one) and that the reason this one was named Sour Mash is not because of the sour mash process which it shares with all other products, but because of the mash bill, which is more evenly distributed between rye-corn-barley. But this is distinctly sour. So I'm not sure if there's a placebo effect or whether maybe they use more sour mash in this one, or it just happened to be a sour whisky so they coined it sour mash for appropriate marketing. Either way, this is good, but personally not a flavor profile I'm excited to go back to. 73.


#4: Michter's US*1 Small Batch Unblended American Whisky, 41.7% ABV, $87 CAD.


Nose: This has got some of those wheated bourbon more red notes. Cherry vanilla, cinnamon. Kind of a hot nose. Hard to dig in.


Palate: Copy paste really. Cherry vanilla, cinnamon, little oak.


Overall/Review: I was banking on this being wheated but I probed the Michter's rep and they said it's a very similar mash bill to their small batch bourbon and that the main difference is that some of the barrels mixed to get this whisky are refill barrels. This is so different from the small batch bourbon that I feel there's gotta be something else. They put in the word ''Unblended'' because otherwise you could legally mix vodka into it and still call it American Whisky. Anyway, I like this flavor profile but it lacks some of the aspects of their small batch that were unique and it's very light compared to Maker's and other similar profiles that are half the price. 73.


#5: Michter's 10 Year Old Bourbon. 47.1% ABV. $212 CAD.


Nose: Corn candy, malty, pastries. Nice complexity to it.


Palate: Vanilla. Some sourdough notes. Baking spices. All very balanced and medium flavors. Super easy drinking.


Overall/Review: I had the highest hopes and most excitement for this one but... I honestly like the Small Batch Bourbon just as well, maybe more. This is well done but it doesn't wow me the way I expected. It doesn't have the toasty notes from the Small Batch Bourbon either, it's more like a mature, better balanced, smoother version of the US*1 Sour Mash. 80.


#6: Michter's 10 Year Old Straight Rye. 46.4% ABV. $240 CAD.


Nose: Vanilla. Floral, like some lightly scented tulips. Golden apples. Shortbread. Rye spice.


Palate: Honey/vanilla on the front, pine/cedar on the back. Very woody. Beautiful rye spice. There's a really nice fresh fennal, and a tasty bitter finish similar to chewing on cedar leaves.


Overall/Review: This is going to be tough to beat. It's so good, it's got some uncommon notes, full flavored but not harsh, really impressive. It's got a full and complex experience from nose to finish. I love this, and it's one of the very few $200+ bottles along with Lore, Octomore, and Kavalan Solist Port that I will go ahead and purchase. By far the best rye I've ever had. 91.


#7: Michter's Barrel Strength Rye. 53.2% ABV, $200 CAD.


Nose: Very sweet honey/vanilla. Shortbread. Pastries. Rye spice.


Palate: Warm, but not spicy. Syruppy. Full guzzer warmth. Viscous. Lots of dried green spices: rosemary, oregano, fennel. It's got like a honey/molasses finish to it. It's thick and sweet but with a touch of espresso bitterness.


Overall/Review: This is nothing like the 10 year rye or the single barrel rye. This is way warmer, it has a completely different feel to it. Some of the flavors overlap but it's not the same animal. Michter's dilutes their whisky down to 103 proof before barreling it, hence why this is way lower than your typical barrel strength rye which is more often than not in the low/mid 60% ABV. I would have a hard time picking between this and the 10 year rye... I'll give the 10 year a slight edge because I love the flavors a bit more and it was an adventure from nose to finish whereas this one has a better feel and is more potent. 90.


Well there you go. I've been wanting to dig into the whole Michter's line for a long time and prior to this tasting had only tried their Small Batch Bourbon which as you can tell I was and am impressed with. This was a great opportunity to try the whole line up. It did not turn out the way I expected with their two fancier ryes being mindblowing and everything else underwhelming, but you gotta let your palate dictate! You can expect the Small Batch Bourbon, the 10 Year Rye, and the Barrel Strength Rye to end up on my shelf at some point.


Cheers!

Simon from S&P.

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