Info Shots

• Price: ~$199.99 (2023)
• Spirit: Whiskey
• Proof: 94.4 proof (47.2% Alcohol)
• Noses (smell): Brown Sugar, Fruity or Oaky wine. Cork Smells like a maraschino cherry
• Palate (taste): Big and bold dark toffee and caramel, charred oak, maple syrup, vanilla
• Age Statement: 10 Years

Distiller information

Background

From the Michter’s Distillery comes their 10 year bourbon. In their words they describe it as the following:

Mature in age and truly exceptional in quality, Michter’s 10 Year Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon has earned its place as an enduring favorite of the most discerning whiskey connoisseurs. The “Best American Whiskey” according to Food & Wine magazine, our 10 Year Single Barrel Bourbon represents the culmination of over a decade of patient aging in specially chosen, new charred American white oak barrels. When a private barrel selection bottling of this whiskey sold for £166,000 (US$ 209,462) at an auction in London on July 12th 2020, it shattered the previous $78,000 record for a barrel of bourbon that had been set at a Christie’s auction.

I won’t bore again with details on this review as the point for me is that if you want to know more, you will go research the company for more information. I’m just here to express my opinions and experience with the bourbon, so onto the review.

Onto the Review

Temperature

I completely will be honest, not much of a fan with the other products they have had. I have had sour mash bills and ryes from them before that are common place to get and was unimpressed. But this one is interesting on a fundamental level for me. This one for me was one of the few bourbons that required me to let it rest or “oxidize” before enjoying. You can see this in the reflected score below what I mean by this.

The immediate harshness is apparent when drinking this before resting. To some degrees it’s downright unpleasurable or even bearable to drink. Flavors end up being shot and non-existent with a persistent alcohol flavor being very known on the front. This alone made me question if I had bought a dud bottle which happens from time to time with the way my palate goes.

As expected, I put that bottle down for the night and picked it up the next day. For some reason, I was distracted and didn’t touch the pour for about 20 minutes. Those 20 minutes allowed for the drink to drastically mellow out, while still being harsh, and the flavors had returned.

When left out to site it is better, but not by much unfortunately. The flavors seem watered down to a degree and it’s really hard for me to find anything that I can recommend. It lingers with oak notes and certainly is smooth with less harshness than others, but were talking $200 dollars for that and I just don’t see that here.

Conclusion

This bottle is really a heart break for me. I really want to like Mitchers really badly and the 10 years reviews fantastically for others, but for some reason not for me. Its just really disappointing as when you oxidize it you get rid of the harshness, but loses the flavors. I drink it straight from the bottle and I get crazy harshness out the gate to the point it down right unpleasant. I can akin it to my bottle of Angels Envy Barrel strength I got in 2022 in terms of just harshness

My only recommendation for this one is to try it before you buy it. This one is certainly on of the most disappointing dude for me as of recent and certainly I can’t recommend it. I’ll keep coming back to this to see if I can pull better results, but at this time its stands at the following scores for me unfortunately.