Michters Toasted Rye

To see our blog post about the Michters distillery click here!

• History of distillery
  • Founded by John Shenk, a swiss Mennonite farmer in Schaefferstown, PA in 1753
    • Called the Shenk Distillery
  • Mostly a rye product
  • Legend is that washington purchased the rye for his men during their winter at Valley Forge
  • "the whiskey that warmed the American Revolution."
  • Mid 1800’s purchased by Abraham Bomberger 
    • Now the Bomberger Distillery
  • Hard times during prohibition had the shut the doors, but did return after
  • Changed hands many times, but in 1950’s, Lou Forman was one owner, and created the Michters brand
    • Named by combining the names of his 2 sons, Micheal and Peter
  • 1989 is the end of the brand.  Owners go bankrupt and abandon the distillery
  • 1990’s the name is back!
    • Joseph J Magliocco and Dick Newman Buy the trademark to continue the legacy
      • Dick Newman 
        • Purple heart in the Marine Corp
        • Ran old Granddad, Old Crow, and Old Taylor for National distillers
        • Became CEO of Austin Nichols, distiller of Wild Turkey
      • Joseph J Magliocco
        • Went to Yale and Harvard Law
        • He drank a lot in school
      • They opened up shop in KY, and have 3 locations, a farm, the main distillery, and then a public distillery
• Barrel process
  • Dried 18-48 months before use
  • Barrels are toasted first, before any kind of charing
  • This draws out the sugars and creates the red line
  • After charing, the whiskey will seep through the char to the redline where the flavors are
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• The juice
  • Enters the barrel at 103 proof instead of standard 125 proof
    • This results in fewer bottles, but they believe better flavor
  • The warehouse is heatcycled
    • This creates more expand and contract through the same season
    • Costly because it creates more angel share
  • Chill filtered
    • They say instead of carbon filtering which removes flavors
    • Process is different for each expression