Review #590 - Michter's US-1 Straight Bourbon
While the Michter's distillery is relatively young in its current guise, this brand has a lot of history - it was one of the first American whisky companies, with links dating back as far as 1753. It was originally established in Pennsylvania and known as Shenk's (a name they've given to one of their modern day brands), and in the mid-1800s, ownership changed and the brand was renamed to Bomberger's (another modern sub-brand from the distillery).
Prohibition closed the doors of the distillery in 1919; it later re-opened, but was shuttered in the 1980s due to bankruptcy. In the 1990s, the brand was revived and moved to Louisville, Kentucky by Joseph J. Magliocco and Richard Newman - they launched a new range of whiskies, some of which are sourced (the older expressions with 10+ or 20+ years of aging), but their core range is made on their own stills.
This US-1 Kentucky Straight Bourbon is a small batch product that doesn't carry an age statement; it's bottled at a strength of 45.7% ABV (91.4 proof). Michter's does give us some insight into their production techniques on their website: for instance, they use barrels that are both toasted and charred, and the oak used for these barrels is all air-dried (as opposed to kiln-dried). The distillery also uses an unusually low barrel-entry proof of 103, while the norm in the industry is more like 125 proof. Because of this, the 'barrel proof' Michter's expressions generally have a lower strength than their competitors.
This straight bourbon is the entry point to their brand - how does it fare with an entry level-ish price around $40?
Michter's US-1 Straight Bourbon
USA - Bourbon
Price: USD 40 (2025)
Age Statement: NAS
Strength: 45.7% ABV
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 3 years; bottles at 90%, 50%, and 80% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: Sweeter to start - brown sugar or molasses, vanilla, but then a smoky, spicy oak influence arrives. Some pepper and a bit of toasted wood; in the background, we get subtle fruits like strawberry, cherry, and orange. In one tasting, we found butterscotch and a light nutty note.
Palate: A medium-thin mouthfeel with lots of oak, and actually a bit of minty rye spice. Black pepper, vanilla, yellow cake, and paprika all add to the baking spice profile; the oak is bringing some bitterness or tannins, and we get peanut butter and a dark chocolate note in the background.
Finish: Medium length, and this is a dry finish - lots of wood tannins, cinnamon spice, paprika, and bitter dark chocolate. There are little hints of butterscotch and maybe orange fruit, but they're quite subtle; vanilla lingers in the aftertaste.
Final Note: This is a solid bourbon - nothing exceptional, but there's a decent amount of flavor development here, as well as a few spice notes we don't find too often in bourbon. This whisky definitely leaned toward the dry side of the spectrum for us, and the baking spice notes were the dominant profile; we also saw a little bit of batch variation across our tastings, which led to different flavors being more prominent on different days.
Value here is very good - there's good complexity in this $40 bourbon, and we would be happy to sip on this. We've found that's a theme for these Michter's core range products - for the most part, good value across the board.
Our Average Rating: 6.5 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 7.56
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
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