Michter's 20 Year Single Barrel Bourbon Review
This is some serious ass bourbon. Michter's is a powerhouse in the bourbon / whisky world and truly can alter the market with their special releases. I absolutely love their 10 Year Bourbon and Rye and had the absolute privilege of trying the 25 Year Single Barrel Bourbon which was the best bourbon I have ever had. But we're not here to talk about those. We're here to talk about the 20.
My bro-in-law and I got a little cray cray and wanted to try this bourbon while I was visiting on my no children R&R adventure. We found a place in Charleston, SC that had it - The Gin Joint. Fantastic place with great prices and lots of high end whiskies to sample. If you're ever there and are a whisky fan please make time to stop in and see them.
ON TO THE TASTING! The nose had all the traits that it should - yada yada. However...
I'm dreading what is about to be written on the screen but here it goes: it was not what I thought it would be and is not worth the secondary price and honestly...I'm not sure I would pay $600 retail to drink it.
The reason I say this is I do not believe that it was 5 times better than the 10 year offering and was miles off of the 25 year release. The 25 year drank like a vintage Cognac and its flavor lasted 5-10 minutes off a small taste. I was hoping for something similar but it reminded me more of the 10 year in taste, feel and finish. Now for those of you flipping your shit I want to re-enforce that it was delicious and I sure do wish I had it in my cabinet.
My understanding is the 20 year is released annually while the 25 is released when the batches are ready. This would certainly be a big reason the 25 was so much better and it would be hard to constantly offer up a product of that caliber year after year. I'll try to do some more research on this but that's what I've got for now.
Would love to hear what y'all have to say about it if you've tried it. If you have some invite me over and let me give it another go!