Michter’s Distillery keeps putting out excellent whiskeys. The 2025 Shenk’s Homestead Sour Mash is no exception. The Sour Mash is called Sour Mash because it does not have enough corn to be a Bourbon or enough rye in the mash bill to be a Rye whiskey. Shenk’s Homestead Sour Mash is one of the two heritage brands created by Michter’s to honor the original Pennsylvania distillery that was the home of Michter’s Distillery until it closed in the late 1980s. The 2025 release is an excellent whiskey. There is no age statement because Michter’s Distillery does not believe that age is as important as quality. They heat their warehouses and this, they believe, adds extra heat cycles making the whiskey mature more quickly than whiskey aged in an un-heated warehouse. They only release whiskey when it meets their flavor requirements and that might be after four years, but can be a much longer time. They sent me a bottle to review and Matt and I sat down to taste it the other day. Here are our tasting notes.
Shenk’s Homestead Sour Mash Whiskey
Proof: 91.2
Age: No Age Statement
Nose:
- Mike: Caramel, apples, pears, baking spices and oak wood.
- Matt: Caramel, blackberries, cedar and oak woods.
Taste:
- Mike: Caramel, apples, allspice, ginger and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and the ginger comes forward. Tasted with a pecan and the caramel becomes a rich salted caramel with notes of citrus joining the party.
- Matt: Caramel, blackberry cobbler, cedar and oak woods. The dried cranberry enhanced the blackberry. The pecan brought forward the cedar wood.
Finish:
- Mike: Medium long with oak wood and allspice. The dried cranberry added ginger spice to the finish. The pecan made the finish long with oak wood, citrus and lingering caramel.
- Matt: Medium long with oak and caramel. The dried pecan made the finish longer. The pecan made the finish very long with oak wood, caramel and lingering cedar.
I would pair this fine whiskey with a Don Pepin Garcia Original cigar. I think the rich vanilla and spice in the smoke would pair well with the caramel and spice in the whiskey.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller