Reviews #204 & 205: Michter’s 10 yr Bourbon (2025) and Michter’s 10 yr Rye (2024)

I’ve enjoyed a couple Micther’s 10 Year Bourbon and Rye pours at bars before, but I’ve never owned my own bottle, but it’s always been a bottle I wanted. They’re not necessarily hard to find around me. I would say 2 or 3 times a year I see them on shelves in local stores, but I’ve never seen anyone asking for less than $399 for them at which point it’s a hard pass for me. 

A few months ago I put a bid in an auction for a bottle of Micther’s 10 Year Rye (M10R). When I found out I didn’t win, I saw who did and it was a good buddy of mine! He messaged me about it and said he was going to hold off opening it until we could both sit down together and enjoy it (Afterall, that’s what good whiskey is all about).

A couple of months went by, and life has just been busy so we hadn’t had a chance to sit down together and pop it open. But in September, he, I, and a couple of other friends spent a weekend in Louisville. While we were sitting at West Sixth Nulu enjoying a beer after lunch on a Sunday, I checked what the release at Michter’s was that day and saw it was a Micther’s 10 Year Bourbon (M10B). I told the other guys I wanted to try to get a bottle, so we finished our beers quickly and hopped on some scooters and took off to the other end of Whiskey Row. I beat them all there by a fair amount, so I decided to go in instead of waiting for them. They had 6 bottles of M10B left and there were only 2 people in line. I jumped in line to get mine, and a couple of minutes later the other guys walked in as I was checking out with my M10B bottle. My buddy who had the M10R opted not to get the M10B and we decided when we got back home, we’d open his bottle and my bottle together to enjoy them side by side.

Again, life got busy, but we finally got together and made it happen! Let’s check them out!

Review 204: Michter’s 10 Year Bourbon Batch 25A0156

AGE: 10 yr

MASH BILL: undisclosed (≥51% corn)

PROOF: 94.4

COST: $200 MSRP for 750mL bottle

This bottle is from batch no. 25A0156. Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Honeyed mahogany (1.6), oily with fat legs. 

NOSE: Rich and sweet, dessert in a glass! Creamy vanilla Brule, caramelized brown sugar, warm cherry pie, and milk chocolate truffles. Fig and plum chutney adds more dark fruit sweetness but with a light herbal spice and earthiness (comes across faintly minty at times). An orange peel twist tops it all off and heightens the sweetness. A faint hint of oak shows up at first but builds with intensity the more I sip this.

PALATE: Thick, creamy mouthfeel. The decadence from the nose transfers to the palate wonderfully. Cherry pie, chocolate custard, and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. Burnt brown sugar and vanillin rich toasted oak provide a little bitterness while complementing the sweetness. Cinnamon sugar and rye spice tingle the palate.

FINISH: Medium to long finish, mostly sweet but leans into a tannic dryness at the very end. Cinnamon sugar, a touch of maple syrup, mint chocolate, and Luxardo cherry. There’s a slight butteriness to this as well. Charred oak outlasts the sweeter notes with a nice touch of nutmeg and cinnamon. It’s a lovely finish that I wish lasted longer.

RATING: 9.2/10

OVERALL: This really resonates with my palate. The big cherry and dark fruits notes, caramelized sugars, and touch of chocolate and spices. The one thing that surprised me was how minor the oak presence was. I was expecting this to have a lot more balanced oak presence (though the oak did build over time). But instead, it was a very fruity profile. Also, what type of sorcery is Michter’s doing to get this much flavor and distinct notes with a 94.4 proof whiskey? I’m guessing this is largely contributed to the low barrel entry proof that Michter’s uses.

Review 205: Michter’s 10 Year Rye Batch 24D1566

AGE: 10 yr

MASH BILL: undisclosed (≥51% rye)

PROOF: 92.8

COST: $200 MSRP for 750mL bottle

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Burnt mahogany (1.7), oily with thin, slow legs. 

NOSE: Sweet with bright spice. Vanilla extract and tart Granny Smith apples strike me first. There’s a definite rye spice, but it’s fairly soft. A grassiness and some mint allude to the rye dominant mash bill as well. The back end of the nose has a deep oak note. I occasionally get a hint of maraschino cherry.

PALATE: This has a slightly creamy mouthfeel. It has the common notes I find in Michter’s rye with orange peel, earthy rye spice, white pepper, and green apple. It also has some sweeter notes more common in bourbon (though not necessarily dominating nor consistent), perhaps hinting at a decent amount of corn content in the mash bill or perhaps the yeast that’s used: raspberry sauce, fig, and tart blackberry. Caramelized sugar and charred oak provide a solid back drop. I find that the oak on this M10 rye is more dominant than in the M10 bourbon.

FINISH: Long finish with a surprising amount of sweetness that lingers. Toasted oak, milk chocolate and vanilla standout. There is a light rye spice and a mild earthy hay note that replace the chocolate and vanilla and bring this to a close with the toasted oak. This has a nice warning hug in the middle of the chest sip after sip, which was surprising for the low proof.

RATING: 8.1/10

OVERALL: I was expecting to like the M10R more than I would the M10B. While it’s still a very good rye whiskey, that M10B just has notes that resonated with my palate more. One thing that I found interesting with the M10R is that while the mash bill is undisclosed it seems like it probably still contains a large amount of corn to give it a lot of sweetness – there are some notes that are even similar to the M10B. It could also be the yeast they use bringing out fruitier notes, but whatever it is, it’s not as apparent in the standard US-1 Micther’s Rye expression. The oak was more present in this expression than the M10B which was nice and blended well with the earthy spice notes of the rye whiskey (which could also be enhancing the presence of the oak). Again, so much flavor and well-defined notes in a 93 proof whiskey! It makes this an extremely pleasant pour without blowing out your palate from proof heat.

1 | Disgusting | Watershed Apple Brandy Finished Bourbon

2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage

3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28

4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select, Hillrock Estate Sauternes CS

5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, BBCo Origin High Wheat, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, Maker's Mark Wood Finishing releases, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Woodford Reserve Batch Proof 121.2, BBCo Disco #7 and #13, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08, RR15