Michter’s Dinner At Repeal

Michter’s is one of our favorite distilleries and Repeal is one of our favorite restaurants, so when we received an invitation to attend this dinner, we could not refuse the offer. It started at 6:00 pm and we were escorted up to the mezzanine above the restaurant where they had a single, long table set for about 16 guests. We were given an Old Fashioned Cocktail made with Michter’s US 1 Bourbon, as we all sat down at the table. Andrea Wilson was presenting the tasting portion of the meal, and the meal was created by the talented Chef Brian Steger and his staff. Andrea started the tasting with a brief history of Michter’s and how the distillery ended up in Kentucky. She then talked about the six things Michter’s does to make their whiskeys special.

The first course was a seared Ahi Tuna dish paired with a Michter’s Sour Mash Toasted Barrel Finish whiskey. Andrea discussed the air dried wood used in their barrels. Each barrel is made from oak that has air dried for at least 18 months. The Toasted Sour Mash had a nice butterscotch note that paired well with the tuna. The second course was a crispy braised pork belly paired with the Michter’s Rye Toasted Barrel Finish whiskey. Andrea discussed how they then have their barrels treated to a long toasting before charring, allowing for more vanilla flavors to develop in the wood. Of course these two toasted products were then re-barreled in a new barrel that was just toasted and not charred. These secondary barrels are charred after they have finished aging the toasted oak products and used to make Michter’s American Whiskey.

Next came the salad and it was paired with the 10 year old Michter’s Bourbon. There was some tangerine in the salad that brought out the citrus notes in the whiskey. I personally, thought this was the best pairing of the dinner. Andrea then discussed the low barrel entry proof of their whiskeys. They have found that the 103 barrel entry proof was perfect for bringing out the sweet notes of the wood during the aging process. It is more expensive to make whiskey at that entry proof because it takes more barrels, but the quality of the final product makes it worth the expense. Next, the main course came out. It was a real Japanese Wagyu Beef with roasted potatoes and carrots, paired with the Michter’s 20 year old Bourbon. The Bourbon is the most oak forward whiskey we drank that evening, but the fat content of the beef tamed the oak and Rosemary thought that was her favorite pairing of the evening.

The dessert course of the meal was a huge slice of chocolate cake paired with Michter’s 10 year old Rye whiskey. The rye whiskey was excellent and the cake brought out the caramel and chocolate notes of the whiskey. Andrea discussed the final two production techniques – Single barrel and small batch whiskeys and Michter’s signature filtration process. Michter’s makes several single barrel whiskeys, as do many other distilleries, and every other product that they make is small batch. The distillery has small dump tanks that only hold twenty barrels at a time, so every bottle of Michter’s is either a single barrel product or a marriage of no more than twenty barrels. Michter’s also treats filtration of each whiskey differently. The late Willie Pratt, their first Master Distiller, was a firm believer in filtration done right. He had several different types of filtration systems installed in the distillery and experimented with each whiskey to determine which style of filtration worked best to remove unpleasant flavors while leaving the desirable flavors of the whiskey.

The dinner came to an end and everyone was pleased with the food and the whiskeys. This was the first time I had been to a presentation where Andrea Wilson discussed all six techniques of production in one presentation. I had heard all of them at one time or the other, but I found this gathering of the techniques very informative and very interesting. We left the dinner satisfied with the great food and exceptional drink.