Michter'S Distillery LLC

Michter's is the modern Kentucky operation that revived an 18th-century Pennsylvania whiskey name with the kind of attention to detail that produces $5,000 secondary-market bottles. The original Bomberger's Distillery near Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania began distilling rye whiskey in 1753 under Swiss Mennonite farmers John and Michael Shenk — making it arguably the oldest commercial whiskey site in North America. The Pennsylvania operation closed in 1989 after bankruptcy. The brand sat dormant until 2003, when New York whiskey importer Joseph Magliocco and industry veteran Dick Newman acquired the Michter's name through Chatham Imports and relaunched it as a Kentucky bourbon house.

For the first decade of the revival, Michter's was a sourced operation — buying aged whiskey from established Kentucky distilleries and bottling it under exacting selection standards. The flagship Shively distillery in Louisville came online in 2015, and the showpiece Fort Nelson visitor center opened in February 2019 on Louisville's Main Street, occupying the restored 1890 cast-iron-fronted Fort Nelson Building on what's become known as Whisky Row. The visitor experience runs from the standard tour through a cocktail bar in The Bar at Fort Nelson to seated tastings of the higher-tier US*1 and Limited Release expressions.

The production philosophy is unusually labor-intensive. Michter's air-dries its barrel staves longer than the industry standard (up to 36 months versus the typical 6-12), toasts the barrels before charring, heat-cycles the warehouses in winter to keep aging active year-round, and chill-filters most expressions only minimally or not at all. Andrea Wilson, the company's Master of Maturation, is one of the few women holding that title in Kentucky bourbon, and her oversight of warehouse management is widely credited with the consistency of the brand's higher-tier releases.

The current range starts with the US1 American Whiskey, US1 Small Batch Bourbon, US1 Single Barrel Rye, and US1 Sour Mash Whiskey; ascends through US*1 Toasted Barrel finishes; and tops out at the 10 Year, 20 Year, and the very rare 25 Year — which when released drives Sotheby's-level auction prices into five figures per bottle.