RICH IN FLAVOR AND TRADITION, THIS LEGACY SERIES BOURBON FROM THE LONGSTANDING AMERICAN WHISKEYMAKER MICHTER’S WAS BORN FOR SWAPPING STORIES BY A ROARING FIRE THIS SIPPING SEASON
BY ERIK SCHONING
Few distilleries boast more compelling origin stories than Michter’s. Founded in 1753 by Swiss Mennonite farmer John Schenk, what began as Shenk’s Distillery evolved into Bomberger’s in the 1800s, as whiskeymaking became a large-scale industrial enterprise. In the 1950s, the modern Michter’s brand was launched. Today, the company pays tribute to its rich heritage with a series of releases that honor its long, multi-century journey, including Bomberger’s Declaration Kentucky Straight Whiskey.
As part of the brand’s Legacy Series, Bomberger’s Declaration pays tribute to the company’s onetime home in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, the site of the old Bomberger’s Distillery. Michter’s has since moved its distilling operation to Louisville, Kentucky, and that old site is now a U.S. National Historic Landmark; its surviving still house, warehouse, and jug house date back to around 1840.
This is real history, and since 2018, Michter’s has been paying tribute to its past with the Legacy Series. In each release, Michter’s has debuted new small batch whiskeys, each honoring American whiskey history in its own way.
The 2024 expression of Bomberger’s Declaration continues the brand’s tradition of aging its whiskey in Chinquapin oak barrels. White oak is the de facto oak of choice for bourbon barreling, and Chinquapin oak is a varietal especially prized for the flavor it imparts to the finished product. For this year’s release, Michter’s uses Chinquapin oak that has been air dried and seasoned for three years before being subjected to the toasting and charring process that gives the bourbon its signature smoky flavor. For each year of the Legacy Series, the distillery has tweaked the char levels of the barrels, meaning that no two releases are the same.
The 2024 Bomberger’s Declaration is, like its predecessors, a rich mahogany in color. On the nose, this 108-proof bourbon carries notes of dark fruit with nuts and maple. On the palate, a molasses richness gives way to layers of jammy fruit before transitioning into rich chocolate and baking spice. For the second year in a row, Bomberger’s Declaration also includes malted rye in the mashbill for a touch of spicy earthiness to round it out. This is an unpretentious bourbon with a wellrounded, bold flavor.
As with previous releases in the series, Bomberger’s Declaration is bottled with deliberately retro labeling, a throwback to bygone days of distilling, when labels would be printed and finished by hand. It is joined in 2024 by a release that pays tribute to an even earlier era in the company’s history: Shenk’s Homestead Sour Mash Whiskey, a nod to humble early days of the business.
As American whiskeymakers build on generations of experience, more and more are looking to the past to define their future. Special releases like the Legacy Series allow brands to dig into their vaults, to marry the wealth of modern knowledge with the processes, techniques, and flavors of yesteryear. For the past seven years, Bomberger’s Declaration has been exactly that: a declaration of commitment to whiskeymaking in its purest form.
Circus Wines, Beer & Spirits