Michters 20 Year Old - Batch L16H956 - 2016 Release

The Michter’s bourbon brand was created by drinks distributor Lou Forman in 1950, combining the names of his sons Michael and Peter. Forman bought Bomberger’s distillery in Pennsylvania in 1942 but was forced to sell it soon afterwards when he was drafted into the army. In 1950 Forman bought the distillery back and began to distil Michter’s, but hit financial difficulties soon afterwards and was forced to sell the distillery again in 1956. Forman kept the Michter’s name and maturing stock, which he sold through his distribution company.  

Meanwhile, the distillery’s new owners Pennco Distillers went bust in 1978 and Forman bought the distillery back once again, reinstating the Michter’s name. Sadly, he had no more luck than before and the distillery closed for the final time in 1990. Around 400 barrels of Pennco’s production from 1974 were sold to a third party and were later bottled as the famous A. H. Hirsch 1974. The Michter’s trademark was revived and relaunched using sourced whiskey in the late 1990s by Chatham Imports, who went on to build new Michter’s distilleries in Kentucky in 2015 and 2019.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.