Two Masters Team Up For Michter’s 2018 10 Year Bourbon Offering

How many master craftspeople in the whiskey world does it take to prep a bourbon for release? If you are Michter’s, two apparently, as the Kentucky distillery recently let it be known its current master distiller worked alongside its current “master of maturation” in determining it was time to release the 2018 edition of this whiskey maker’s popular 10 year old bourbon.

The Michter’s 10 Year Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon, according to those behind it, was deemed ready recently after barrel sampling by both Michter’s Master of Maturation Andrea Wilson and Michter’s Master Distiller Pamela Heilmann. The latter is well known both in her position in the industry and also position as a distiller, but to American distilleries someone like Wilson is a little less of a known quantity. As Michter’s put it,

While the position of Master Distiller is well established in Kentucky, the position of Master of Maturation is less common outside of Scotland and Ireland. Wilson’s job is to support Heilmann by managing barrel specifications, barrel procurement, heat cycling and monitoring of liquid temperatures during aging, and tracking the maturation of particular barrels like those evaluated for this year’s 10 year release.

“Our goal is to make the greatest American whiskey,” said Heilmann in a prepared statement. “At Michter’s the standards are incredibly high, and we only release something when it’s ready, not just because it’s 10 years and a day old. It’s great to be able to work with someone as knowledgeable about wood science and whiskey as Andrea. When we tasted this 10 Year Bourbon, both of us were very happy and very excited to release it this year.”

Plans call for this 10 year old bourbon, bottled at 47.2% ABV, to be made available next month for around $120. There was no immediate mention of how many bottles would be part of the release.