Tasting notes

nose

Toasted oak and cedar with honey, cinnamon and nutmeg, then red apple, peach jam, lemon peel and a hint of campfire

palate

Honey and brown sugar up front, building into cinnamon, molasses and cardamom, with candied fruit, pecan, berry compote and a floral rosewater note through the middle

finish

Medium-long; baked pear, vanilla and toasted marshmallow linger with honeyed pastry spice, then a last flash of cardamom gives way to drying toasted oak

Mash bill

Corn, rye and malted barley, in proportions Michter's has not published. This is the same US★1 Kentucky Straight Bourbon the distillery sells year-round; what changes here is not the grain but the wood it ends in. Michter's says the grain it buys for its Louisville distillery is non-GMO, USDA grade 1 and grown in the United States.

Why it's craft

Michter's introduced this bourbon in the fall of 2014: its US★1 Kentucky Straight Bourbon, moved for extra aging into a second barrel that is toasted but never charred. Without a char layer the whiskey works directly against the toasted wood, and the finishing barrels are built from oak left to air-dry outdoors for 18 months rather than kiln-dried. The base bourbon goes into the barrel at 103 proof instead of the 125 the law allows, and ages in rickhouses that Michter's heats and lets cool through the winter to push the whiskey in and out of the staves. Michter's does not say where the whiskey in this bottle was distilled.