Michter’s has been bottling its 10-year-old bourbon for a quarter-century, for the reason that early days of its rebirth in Kentucky. (Initially primarily based in Pennsylvania, the model was defunct for a number of years within the Nineties.) 

Nevertheless, the age assertion — referring to the age of the youngest whiskey within the mix — has all the time taken a again seat to taste. Which means that every batch they bottle could be considerably older than 10 years. “As a lot as you attempt to have the whiskey in each barrel age precisely the identical, it doesn’t in actuality,” says Michter’s president Joe Magliocco. “Our grasp distiller Dan McKee and our grasp of maturation Andrea Wilson can watch for a whiskey to be prepared, be it 11, 12, or 15 years outdated, moderately than be underneath strain to bottle it when it’s 10 years and a day outdated.” 

So, how outdated is the bourbon within the newest batch of Michter’s 10-Yr Bourbon? The Michter’s staff isn’t saying, although Andrea Wilson, who has been with the distillery since 2014, confirms that “as soon as once more, it’s overaged.” 

Whatever the actual age, the flavour profile echoes that of earlier releases. “We would like Michter’s 10 to take you on a journey,” Wilson says. “We would like there to be stunning shade and engaging aromas that draw you into your first sip, a posh concord of flavors from fruit and spice via to confectionary notes, beautiful maturity with out being too oak-forward, a creamy wealthy texture, and a pleasant lengthy end to go away you with an unforgettable expertise.” 

That taste profile has been the purpose ever for the reason that late Nineties, when Magliocco was driving round Kentucky trying to supply aged bourbon — a a lot simpler activity again then, when the American whiskey trade was within the thick of a decades-long stoop. 

“In these days, there was little to no marketplace for age assertion bourbons,” the 67-year-old alum of Yale and, later, Harvard Legislation College, remembers. “Kentucky was awash with extra whiskey that distilleries have been anxious to eliminate. We tasted via great whiskeys of various kinds and picked our absolute favourite bourbon to be the one first launched as Michter’s 10-Yr Bourbon.” 

Just a few years later, with Brown-Forman alum Willie Pratt on the helm, Michter’s started distilling its personal whiskey at numerous Kentucky distilleries. “Section 2,” as Magliocco calls it. And in 2015, Section 3 culminated with the opening of Michter’s very personal distillery in Shively, Kentucky. 

All through this journey, Michter’s has sought to copy the flavour profile of the unique 10-Yr Bourbon. Some years have been trickier than others. Take 2022, for instance, when Magliocco had signed off on the discharge of a batch that had already been growing old for a bit of greater than 13 years. Nevertheless, he remembers, “Dan McKee and Andrea Wilson determined to carry it yet another 12 months till it reached 14-and-a-half years outdated to bottle it as Michter’s 10-Yr Bourbon. They felt that one additional 12 months would take that individual whiskey from great to actually memorable. 

So customers wound up ready till one other 12 months for the 10-Yr launch.

Michter’s 10-Yr Bourbon occupies an important center floor inside the Michter’s portfolio, in between the no-age-statement US*1 bourbon and the rarer 20- and 25-year-old expressions, which usually promote for 4 figures n the secondary market. At $195, it suits the value vary of a sipping bourbon, although Wilson additionally recommends it for cocktails, notably, “in an attractive traditional just like the Manhattan.”

As the primary Shively-produced bourbon reaches a decade of growing old, and thus turns into eligible for inclusion in Michter’s 10-year-old bottlings, a brand new chapter within the model’s historical past is about to start. However Wilson would be the first to let you know that she doesn’t know exactly when that shall be. 

“We aren’t growing old to achieve a quantity,” she says, “we’re growing old to achieve an distinctive ingesting expertise.”