Description
Michter’s Sour Mash 700ml is Michter’s US*1 Sour Mash Whiskey, a Kentucky whiskey that is neither a bourbon nor a rye. Michter’s says its grain selection cannot be classified as either, and describes the result as one that starts out like a bourbon and finishes like a rye. It is matured in fire-charred, new American white oak barrels and bottled at 86 proof, which is 43% ABV.
The name comes from the sour mash method, in which part of a previous mash is used to start the next one, much like a sourdough starter. Many American whiskeys are made this way, but here it became the name on the label, because the grain recipe rules out the two better known American categories. Michter’s does not publish the mash bill, so any percentages you see elsewhere are outside estimates.
Buy Michter’s Sour Mash Online in NZ
Pour it neat or over a single large cube to follow the shift from sweet to spicy. It is a natural fit for an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan, where the rye-like finish keeps the drink from getting too sweet. At the table it suits smoked brisket, pecan pie or a cheese board with aged gouda.
- Not a bourbon or a rye, by Michter’s own description
- Fire-charred, new American white oak barrels
- Small batch, 86 proof, 43% ABV
Michter’s tasting note runs to warm toasted burnt sugar and spice, sweet and smoky fruit, candied cherries and honeyed vanilla. The Whiskey Wash reviewer found fried banana and nuts on the nose, with butter, a lemony tang and ground nutmeg in the mouth, moving from sweet to spicy and back again.
The brand traces its heritage to 1753, when Swiss Mennonite farmer John Shenk began making whiskey in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania. The business later became Bomberger’s, and the Michter’s name was created in the 1950s by Lou Forman, from his sons’ names. Sour mash was a popular part of the line in the 1970s and 1980s, before the old Pennsylvania operation went bankrupt in 1989.
In the 1990s Joseph J. Magliocco and Richard Newman revived the brand in Kentucky. Today Michter’s distils at Shively in Louisville, on a site with a custom-built copper column still and a copper pot still doubler for the second distillation, and it ages all of its whiskey in Kentucky rickhouses.
A good bottle for bourbon or rye drinkers who want to taste what sits between the two, and a thoughtful gift for someone who enjoys American whiskey history.
