Michter’s Sour Mash Whiskey Review

Producer: Chatman Imports/Michter’s. Distiller: Unknown. 43% ABV. Mashbill: undisclosed (sub-50% corn, sub-50% rye).

Michter’s is a brand of NY-based Chatham Imports, which bought the rights to old storied name several years ago. The original Michter’s distillery in Pennsylvania, which produced the legendary A.H. Hirsch bourbon that Chuck Cowdery devoted an entire book to, closed in 1990. The “new Michter’s” straddles the distiller/non-distiller producer line, distributing a line of sourced whiskey and various limited releases while opening their own distilleries — in Kentucky, interestingly, rather than Pennsylvania.

The debates around the new Michter’s provide a kind of Rorshach test for this overheated industry moment. Some praise the new Michter’s for quality and seriousness. Others are furious over Chatham’s fast and loose treatment of the original Michter’s legacy (and poor Photoshop work). Regardless, the new brand has achieved excellent national distribution in a short time, and shows no signs of slowing down.

While we’re deciding where we land on the controversy, let’s have a drink. First thing to know about the Michter’s Sour Mash Whiskey: sour mash isn’t a style, but a distilling method used by nearly all modern makers of whiskey. The “old Michter’s” made a whiskey it called Original Sour Mash, with a mashbill was 50% corn, 38% rye and 12% malted barley. (Being below 51% corn, it couldn’t be called bourbon, and being below 51%, it couldn’t be called rye.) The mashbill on the “new Michter’s” Sour Mash, though undisclosed, is likely close to the original.

The current Sour Mash has some of the flavor of a straight bourbon-rye mix like High West’s fine Bourye, but with a character all its own. I was in a pine forest nosing it. What else? Anise. Coriander. Love the fresh wood notes without the raw underaged “craft distillery” harshness. Vibrant rye, but with corn sweetness rounding off the edges. Low ABV at 43% without seeming underpowered, though I’d love to try a higher-powered version.

Michter’s is one of the few high-profile NDPs to have stayed mum about where their juice is coming from, though their move toward distilling themselves will gradually change the equation — as with other NDPs, like High West and Smooth Ambler, who are distilling but haven’t yet released their own juice. In any event, I suspect we’ll be hearing much more from them in the years to come. – BO