Heartwarming Spirit

On the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, we make a stop at Michter’s, an all-American whisky distillery that’s more alive than ever.

- Hannah Choo 

IT WAS 1990, Valentine’s Day, the end of Michter’s. Like a stab to the heart the way this special day went, Dick Stoll, the master distiller at the time, received the news by phone. A bank was taking over the entire property and everyone was to turn the lights off, lock the doors, go home and never return.

Michter’s saw it coming. The American whisky industry was suffering; a 13-year Prohibition nearly drove it to extinction, white spirits had become fashionable and locals were looking global. Back then, it was mostly the export markets that were keeping distilleries alive. On that fateful day, a year after filing for bankruptcy, Michter’s pulled the curtain down, leaving its Pennsylvania premises in disrepair and the ‘Michter’s’ name, left for dead.

It wasn’t long before the name—a deceptively German portmanteau of ‘Michael’ and ‘Peter’, the sons of Louis Forman, the former owner— was resurrected by two men. There was Joseph J Magliocco, a young man running Chatham Imports, who needed a whisky label to tie to his wines and spirits. He was familiar with its great history (it was originally known as Shenk’s in the mid-18th century) and sold it on a summer job during college, and he knew it would have been a shame to let a historic American whisky brand disappear. Then there was Richard Newman—the thenpresident and CEO of Austin Nichols, the distiller of Wild Turkey—who knew a thing or two about bourbon. In the late 1990s, they acquired the trademark for US$245 and set out to continue its legacy in Kentucky, the beating heart of American whisky. Their goal was to do whatever it took to make the best whisky possible. ‘Cost be damned!’ remains the motto.