Michter’s “Whisky of the Year,” finished in new toasted casks for added complexity.
How often can you say that your Whiskey recipe dates from 1753? That’s when John Shenk founded Shenk’s Whiskey in Pennsylvania. It was America’s first production distillery from before America was a country. In fact, it is said that George Washington himself set out from nearby Valley Forge and personally requisitioned casks for his soldiers wintering there. Cool, right? The company has gone through several name changes and eventually moved to Kentucky. Now, more than 260 years later, they still do it the right way, producing a range of American Whiskies.
Michter’s US*1 Toasted Barrel Sour Mash Whiskey is a 2-part story. It starts with Michter’s US*1 Sour Mash Whiskey which was awarded “Whisky of the Year 2019” — the first American Whiskey to receive that award. Anyway… they took THAT Whiskey and gave it a second round of finishing in new, lightly toasted casks made from air-dried wood. Now I could get all scientific and talk about the chemistry of air-dried wood vs kiln-dried and how the addition of toasted wood adds complexity over the charred wood in the base Whiskey. But whenever I do that people’s eyes glaze-over and I get called a nerd. The point is, they made great stuff even better because the folks at Michter's are even more nerdy about this stuff than we are. Interestingly, this award-winning Spirit is legally neither a Bourbon nor Rye because neither grain comprises more than 50% of the top-secret mash bill. But they will tell you that it is a small batch at 43% ABV and quantities are severely limited.
Smartass corner:
George Washington famously loved his Rye Whiskey. In fact, after he served as the first president of the United States, he returned to his farm at Mount Vernon and started a small Rye distillery of his own.