Michter's Distillery 10 Year Old Rye is the brainchild of master distiller Willie Pratt. Pratt, a maturation perfectionist with over forty years of distilling experience, is known as "Dr. No"since he often refuses to bottle aging barrels of whiskey. According to Pratt, whiskey that is aged for over a decade hits a "fork in the road,"and can either become incredible or unpalatable. "One of the barrels we sampled was unbelievably woody," Magliocco says. "And we reject that, we literally sewer it. Willie had another barrel that tasted delicious, but the consistency was like molasses, and we obviously couldn't sell that."

A long and patiently aged whiskey is only as good as the grain it's born from. With our oldest expression to date, we're tapping into the time-honored techniques of the farmer distillers who invented the category in America's early days. To kick start fermentation they malted a small portion of their yearly harvest. This delicate heating process opens up the grain, allowing yeasts easier access to the sugars they'll soon convert to alcohol. It also imbues the resulting spirit with floral and earthy tonalities. Our mash bill 79% rye, 15% malted rye and 6% malted barley creates a sipping experience that evolves on the palate from soft and supple to rich and savory. A thrilling encounter accentuated by 18 years of maturation in virgin oak.