American Whiskey Review #65: Shenk’s Homestead (2020 Bottling)

Distillery: Michter’s

Region: Kentucky

ABV: 45.6%

Age: NAS.

Price: $100

Batch No: 20F1432

Bottle No: 1261 of 1807

Color: 0.3, Pale Gold. Non-Chill Filtered.

---

Nose: (according to the wife) It smells like you’ve just opened up the doors to a shoe closet full of leather shoes. The leather rushes out mixed in with some shoe polish. It’s followed by the distinct notes of maple syrup and coffee (she specifically called out the Trader Joe’s autumn maple coffee we’ve been enjoying lately). There’s a bit of brown sugar at the end as well.

Palate: It’s rich and rather smooth. There’s a dominate note of a vanilla caramel coffee creamer that’s really delicious. It’s joined by a note that reminds me a lot of Korean sugar candies (달고나) which is very similar to dulce de leche.

Finish: Short in length but rather flavor packed for the brief second its there. There’s a lot of the notes I associate with bourbon in corn mash, cinnamon, and other baking spices.

Conclusion: When I posted my review of the 2019 Bomberger’s Declaration release, a few folks noted that it’s cousin in Shenk’s Homstead would be a lot richer. I’d probably agree with that statement. This release from Michter’s is very rich with lovely notes vanilla caramel coffee creamer and bit of dulce de leche. It does lack a bit in depth compared to the Bomberger’s but is quite tasty in it’s own right. I can see why these fly off of the shelves and I have to say I enjoyed this quite a bit.

Final Score: 82.

American Whiskey Review #65, Bourbon Review #52, Whisky Network Review #313

---

Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.