Review: Michter’s Bourbon 25 Years Old

While we’ve kept pace, year in and year out, with the core expressions, special toasted and barrel strength releases, and limited-edition single barrels from Michter’s Distillery, it has been nearly a decade since we’ve reviewed anything over ten years old from them. In fact, the 2015 release of Michter’s 20 Years Old has been our only opportunity to share how this well-regarded Kentucky distillery manages the delicate dance of decades-long maturation.

The 20-year-old makes a fleeting appearance – perhaps only a few hundred bottles – every couple of years, but the distillery puts out small allotments of 25-year-old bourbon even less frequently (and rye, as well, but those releases are even rarer). Last seen in 2020, the Michter’s 25 Year reappeared at the end of 2023, and we were able to enjoy a small sample recently at the Bar at Fort Nelson, Michter’s exemplary cocktail bar on Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville.

Unlike the 10- and 20-year-old, single barrel releases, this is a batched bourbon drawn from an undisclosed but surely minuscule number of barrels. And since Michter’s wasn’t making whiskey in the late 1990s, this is drawn from sourced bourbon (from an undisclosed distillery). Like the 20-year, the abv clocks in on the higher side (well north of 100), what might be considered batch strength, although it isn’t advertised as such.

Despite the glorified status of most 20+ year bourbons (ahem, Pappy 23), I haven’t personally encountered one worthy of the praise or the price tag. Until now. This latest Michter’s 25 Year Old offering is one of the few old bourbons I’ve found that manages to almost entirely avoid coming across as tired or leathery or overoaked. To the contrary, the intensity and complexity of flavor and aroma on display here is impressive and rare in American whiskey.

The nose is sultry and pleasantly damp, like a walk-in-humidor, with early notes of oiled wood, cigar box, ginger snaps, molasses cookies, and chocolate mint. All that sits atop a rich, creamy foundation of torched sugar and dark vanilla bean – crème brulèe with a perfectly caramelized shell. As things open further, the fruits begin to blossom, starting with a bit of baked pear and apple butter and then darkening to cocktail cherry and blueberry crumble. Classic old bourbon aromas – old oak, chocolate biscuits, and soft baking spice – are in the mix, as well, but this goes so far beyond the traditional set list with encore after encore of aroma adding a depth that I’ve found in very few other whiskeys. I nosed my glass for what may have been an hour.

The palate shows more of that traditional, older bourbon profile. It had to be in there somewhere. Top notes of molasses and toffee, buttery and rich, are briefly interrupted with barrel char, baking chocolate, and a mild, gingery astringency — elements that in most old bourbons would persist and intensify into the finish. It’s a necessary cue that this is a bourbon that spent a quarter century in the barrel, but the reminder is short-lived as char and clove fade as quickly as they arrived on the midpalate, giving way to pralines and dark caramels, chocolate-covered raisins, and coconut macaroons. The finish kicks off with a flourish of old oak, star anise, and black licorice – another fleeting reminder of its impressive age – followed by a long, decadent conclusion of maple candies, clove syrup, and chocolate-covered cherries. Simply put, it’s one of the best bourbons I’ve ever tasted.

116.2 proof.

A+ / $1,500

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