Rare and selected A.H. Hirsch Straight Bourbon Whiskey
The A. H. Hirsch Straight Bourbon Whiskey originates from the Michter s distillery, which was finally closed in 1990 and produced 400 barrels of bourbon whiskey on behalf for Adolph Hirsch in 1974, but the sale did not go as expected. After several changes of ownership, the remaining barrels were sold as Boone s Knoll 16 Years, Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 20 Years and A. H. Hirsch 15-20 Years Bottlings and these special bottlings are among the most expensive whiskeys of all.
As Bourbon matures in new oak barrels, which gives it a sufficiently strong taste after 3-4 years and to avoid over-ripening, the existing stocks and barrels were filled and stored in glass balloons, then filled in individual batches and put on the market in different versions. With the award as the first 5-Star American Bourbon, the purchase was extremely successful, the remaining bottles developed into an insider s tip on the market and the Mitcher s Distillery achieved a special reputation among collectors, connoisseurs and lovers within a short time.
What became of the name-giver Adolph Hirsch is not known today and the last A. H. Hirsch 16 Years were bottled and marketed by the great US importer Preiss Imports.
Mitcher s was one of the more famous whiskey brands in the United States in the second half of the 20th century and was founded by Lou Forman in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania in 1950. The name was created from the first names of his sons Michael and Peter. Forman bought the former Bombergers distillery in Schaefferstown, which had not survived the prohibition period. In 1956 he sold it back to Pennco, but in 1975 he bought it back again. Michter s took over both the sour mash technique and the bottle shape from Jack Daniels. The company produced only a small amount of straight whiskey as they were using used barrels for ripening for part of the production and thus did not meet the legal requirements for straight whiskey.
In 1997, Chatham Imports acquired the Michter s brand and started selling whiskey as a so-called Non-Distilling Producer. This means that the whiskey was purchased from other distilleries and only bottled by the company itself. The company did not disclose any information about the origin of the whiskey at that time and although Michter s was not even burning any whiskey at that time, the company was named Distiller of the Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine in 2012. Success in the bourbon whiskey segment since the turn of the millennium and the Michter s brand has prompted Chatham Imports to build its own production facilities in order to become more independent of suppliers. The newly built show distillery with a visitor centre has been the first working distillery in Louisville, Kentucky, for decades, in the so-called Whiskey Row, historically a centre of whiskey production. In the larger distillery in Shively, Kentucky, in the heart of the American Bourbon production, a 14-meter high spirit still has been installed since October 2014, and the distillery should be commissioned in 2015. Since 2013, washback and a filling station have also been installed and the company is experimenting with various production methods on two small spirit stills. The first homemade Michter s Whiskey will be launched in 2017 at the earliest.
