Hirsch 16 year old - in Canada

[Gillman]

To my surprise I saw this today at the Vintages section of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Summerhill and Yonge Streets branch.

They want $179 (CAN), which is about $150 U.S. - steep based on prices I've seen in the States.

I'd have bought it (in fact two) but it is the (third and final) gold foil version. I found this one rather disappointing when I bought it in the U.S., rather woody and "closed".

But I'm thinking, maybe they saved the good stuff for the export trade..? But who knows..

I might buy it because it is the last officially available original Michter's distillate. There is a tasting room at this location (you pay a small charge to taste selected bottles) but this bottle has not been chosen as yet for tasting although that could change.

To buy this, I'd like it to be as good as the gold and blue wax versions, or almost, to warrant a place in my bar.

Gary

[Gillman]

Update: I gulped and paid the money and - surprise, this Hirsch 16 year old is really good. It tastes much as I remember the gold wax version (I never had the blue wax). I know my taste buds did not fool me that the one I bought at Sam's two years ago was not nearly as good. Is it possible Sam's got a lesser quality part of the last batch and that is why they were marked down? I don't know. But this current version of the gold foil is really good. It has a strong underpinning of rye and an overlay of smoke and char but without the tannin or astringency I associate with the ones I bought at Sam's. This Michter's from 1974 reminds me a lot of the (original) 1970's-era Michter's Original Sour Mash Whiskey Tim brought to the last Gazebo, in fact I recall we did a vatting of that one and a Hirsch 16 that was superb but even this 16 I bought in Ontario has a lot of the spearminty-like taste Tim's had, spearmint with a pleasing medicinal edge, except with a wooded overlay which (in this case anyay) is soft, like mushrooms off a forest floor, maybe that was the cold Pennsylvania climate getting in when the barrels were still being aged in Pennsylvania.

My bottle has a faux-antique script on the main label, intended as "vague" background on which the product name is printed, which says the product uses 37% rye and 12% barley malt. It may say (although I cannot discern it) that the remaining 51% is corn content, but that is the implication, in any event.

I don't remember if the U.S. Hirsch 16 bottles have this faux script with the recipe details.

The main product of Michter's distillery before it closed was Michter's Original Sour Mash Whiskey which (per Michael Jackson's 1987 World Guide To Whisky) had a mashbill composed of 50% corn, 38% rye, the rest barley malt. No surprise that the label on my bottle states by implication 51% corn, because that would legally make it a bourbon, which it is called on the label. Did Michter's really make a bourbon in 1974 with 51% corn and, contemporaneously or later, an Original Sour Mash Whiskey with 1% less corn which therefore was not technically a bourbon? Well, quite honestly, who cares. Even if two such mash bills were used, at the same or different times, the resultant whiskies could hardly taste much different.

The Hirsch/Michter's I am describing was bought in Ontario, another old home of rye and rye-style whiskies, so the whiskey has come home in a sense (and Penn State is not all that far from here) after a peripatetic journey to say the least. Its availability is a gentle chiding, to the one or two people in this Province to whom this will mean anything, that we too once had a straight rye-influenced whisky tradition, one that is, save for the partial exception of the Kittling Ridge whiskies, completely lost..

Gary

[doubleblank]

I've opened numerous bottles of the gold foil topped Hirsch 16yo's and you'll hear no complaints from me. I've had (and still have) the gold and blue wax ones too and they're extremely similar as one would expect. There were reports here that some thought the foil topped ones were thin tasting relative to the others....but that is not my experience.

Randy

[Gillman]

I am wondering now if the lesser-tasting foil 16's (thin is a good word) were sold for some reason only by Sam's and discounted accordingly. What is striking is that (as far as I know) only Sam's discounted the price when the gold foil was issued. I believe at the time Julian speculated that the product might evolve in stainless but if that were so why would it not all evolve the same way..? Anyway I too am very happy with the gold foil I bought in Ontario and quite honestly, at this point since original Michter's is such a finite supply, it makes sense to buy it no matter where purchased or sold.

Gary

[halpap]

I thought a number of places discounted the foil top Hirschs when they came out, including Binnys and Randalls. Maybe it is a Chicago thing. There was too long a time lag between my tasting of the wax top Hirsch and the foil top Hirsch so I have no opinion on whether they are different.

[Gillman]

Possibly Binnie's and others in Chicago did the same, if only to follow Sam's, but I believe it did not (discounting) occur outside Chicago. But then too it may all have been the same stuff and I agree at this later date it is hard to say unless one did a side-by-side. But for whatever reason, the one currently being sold in Canada is very good. Even the lesser one was good, we are talking about a relative thing here, and I've decided to buy more 16's of any provenance or sealing type that I see since it is the last of the 1970's Michter's still officially available.

Gary

[BourbonJoe]

I had some of the "gold foil" yesterday. It was <font color="red"> SUPER. </font> I can't imagine the wax top being any better, but many who have had them side by side say they are.

[wadewood]

I can't imagine the wax top being any better, but many who have had them side by side say they are.

And there are some people that say they hear the difference between 14 guage lamp cord and $100 a ft speaker cables, which IMHO is BS!

I say bring on double blind taste test.

[pepcycle]

Great Idea Wade!!! I'll bring the lamp cord, you bring the Hirsh. (Did I get that right?)

[RedVette]

And there are some people that say they hear the difference between 14 guage lamp cord and $100 a ft speaker cables, which IMHO is BS!

I can hear the difference. When you whip the ground with them, the lamp cord makes a thwap sound and the $100 stuff makes a thud sound

[jsgorman]

I think this is a pretty poor analogy -- especially in a thread that promotes a +$100 bottle of bourbon.

To be honest, I pity your hearing if you cannot tell the difference in sound between a 14 guage lamp cord and $100 a ft speaker wire.

The question between the foil and wax tops is comparing the same whiskey, albeit bottled at different times. I think the more appropriate audiophile comparison would be a burned-in cable against a new one (a very minor and sometimes difficult comparison).

But comparing a lamp cord to a high quality speaker wire is more akin to comparing some Tennesee shine to the Hirsch -- and nobody is going to mistake those two!

[wadewood]

First, on topic, I have had the blue wax and the gold foil version side by side and could not tell any significant difference. Others have not shared this opinion.

Next, on to speaker wire. Resistance is the key to speaker wire performance. Marketing is what makes you think there is a difference. Read this site and perform some true blind comparisons yourself

Speaker Wire

[RedVette]

To be honest, I pity your hearing if you cannot tell the difference in sound between a 14 guage lamp cord and $100 a ft speaker wire.

I have made my living in the audio industry for the past 30 years and can tell you that speaker wire is like the fuel line in your car, if it is too small, it is bad, but if it is big enough that is all it needs to be. No one can tell the difference between two different adequate wires in a properly run double blind test.