{"id":31,"date":"2020-01-12T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2026-10-26T22:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T22:40:14","slug":"michters-sour-mash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/michters-sour-mash\/","title":{"rendered":"Michter&#8217;s Sour Mash"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\"><\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">min read<\/span><\/span><p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;padding:10px\" src=\"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/MichtersRye-scaled.jpg\" width=\"200\" \/> <\/p>\n<h2>Key Details<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Whiskey Name:<\/strong> Michter&#8217;s Straight Rye<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distillery:<\/strong> Sourced Whiskey, but Distillery now operational<\/li>\n<li><strong>ABV:<\/strong> 42.4% \/ 84.8 Proof<\/li>\n<li><strong>Age:<\/strong> NAS, but minimum of 4<\/li>\n<li><strong>Type:<\/strong> Kentucky Straight Rye<\/li>\n<li><strong>Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/michters.com\/<\/li>\n<li><strong>Price:<\/strong> $40 Total Wine \/ 78\u20ac in Celtic Whiskey \/ \u00a369 on <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Ralueg\">Amazon<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I was lucky enough to attend the Michter&#8217;s Fort Nelson Distillery in early July, 2019. I actually hadn&#8217;t heard of Michter&#8217;s before maybe March 2019 when I stumbled onto the brand. I had always thought it was pronounced &#8216;Mitch-ter&#8217;s&#8217; but alas I was wrong with the pronunciation being &#8216;Mick-ters&#8217;. If you&#8217;re ever in Louisville, KY I would highly recommend visiting Fort Nelson, even just for the bar upstairs. They have delicious flights such as this one pictured which give you a great introduction to the brand and the history.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"padding:5px\" src=\"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/MichtersFlight-scaled.jpg\" width=\"450\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>What I found most interesting about their <a href=\"https:\/\/michters.com\/our-process\/\">process<\/a>, other than the fact their stills are actually made by a family producer, who happened to be the same producer of stills for the original Michter&#8217;s production in Pennsylvania back in the 1970s (the distillery&#8217;s roots go back to 1753, when it was Shenk&#8217;s, later Bomberger&#8217;s), was that they &#8216;proof down&#8217; their alcohol BEFORE aging it in a cask. They put it into the barrel at 51.5% \/ 103 Proof whereas most bourbon producers will enter the barrel at 125. I haven&#8217;t heard of any other distillery doing this, so if you have please let me know I&#8217;d love to try them to gain more knowledge about what the lower entry alcohol does to whiskey.<\/p>\n<p>This particular bottle is their Michter&#8217;s Straight Rye. There&#8217;s no age statement on the bottle so it&#8217;s a minimum of 4yrs then according to label requirements. Each of the rye releases are a single barrel release so you may have slightly different tastes than me but if you happen to have Bottle No: 29C557 then you&#8217;re in luck!<\/p>\n<h2>Nose (28\/33)<\/h2>\n<p>In the glass I get a strong rich caramel flavour, like those caramel cubes you can buy in the sweet tubs. There&#8217;s a good bit of rye spiciness coming to the front, with a little bit of charred oak hiding in the background. I put a drop on my hands and rubbed them together, dry, and got this amazing cocoa butter note on it and it&#8217;s there when you go back to the glass, but a little subdued.<\/p>\n<h2>Taste (25\/34)<\/h2>\n<p>Very easy, mellow taste on this, not at all what one would expect on a rye. Feels light with some vanilla and butterscotch lingering there complimenting the nose. The longer you hold this in your mouth a little bit of the spicy rye creeps up but it&#8217;s not overpowering.<\/p>\n<h2>Finish (25\/33)<\/h2>\n<p>The finish is of medium length, no alcohol burn from the 42.4% but a sharp spiciness note at the end to remind you its a rye, which lingers in your mouth.<\/p>\n<h2>Score<\/h2>\n<p>78\/100<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, I was never a rye drinker until I went to the distillery in July and they had their rye expression and barrel strength rye as tasters. If you think you don&#8217;t like rye, please get your hands on this and try it! The price point in the US is better, but for \u20ac75~, maybe a little cheaper if there&#8217;s some sites doing sales, it holds its own in that range. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"padding:5px\" src=\"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Michters-Fort-Nelson-distillery.jpg\" width=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Please let me know on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thewhiskeycompanion\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thewhsikeycompanion\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Carl_TWC\">Twitter<\/a> if you&#8217;ve tried it and agree or disagree and share your notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I visited Michter&#8217;s Fort Nelson in 2019 and mispronounced the name until I got there, so here is how the Straight Rye holds up at around \u20ac75.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,21,22,23],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-american-whiskey","tag-fort-nelson-distillery","tag-mid-range","tag-rye-whiskey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}