Michter's Today

[Bourbon Joe]

Fricky and I visited the site of the old Michter's Distillery. Sad to see it's gone. Enjoy the photos.
Joe

[bunghole]

Thanks for the photo-tour, Joe! It is a sad sight to see, but it's good to have the ruins documented.

I noticed several vehicles in a couple of shots. Were there folks doing any work there, or were they visitors such as yourself?

ima

[Mark]

Wow, thanks so much for sharing the photo's. It's still a shame to see it looking like that but as Linn said it is nice knowing that the memories will live on and photos such as yours will live on.

[gillmang]

Great pictures Joe, thanks.

Interesting to see that (70's/80's?) Ford truck sitting there, tires wreathed in grass, still poised to deliver slop to local farms. It doesn't know it, but it will never do the farm circuit again.

Why didn't the lienholder repossess the Ford truck? It must have had some value, now it moulders along with the storied old plant, how sad..

Gary

[cowdery]

Thanks for the pictures. Nicely done.

By the way, Part II of the Hirsch/Michter's story in my newsletter went into the mail yesterday. I look forward to a spirited discussion.

[Bourbon Joe]

I noticed several vehicles in a couple of shots. Were there folks doing any work there, or were they visitors such as yourself?

ima

Linn,
The Van was mine and the red pick-up belonged to someone else whom we did not see while we were there. A watchman perhaps??????
Joe

[Bourbon Joe]

Great pictures Joe, thanks.


Why didn't the lienholder repossess the Ford truck? It must have had some value, now it moulders along with the storied old plant, how sad..

Gary

Good question Gary. There is also a fortune in stainless steel around the place. Tanks, piping, etc.
Joe

[gillmang]

The newsletter just arrived. I avidly read Chuck's further description of the Michter's saga which focuses on the earlier and middle years of its operations (the salad days one might say). It is (I add my voice to others') very well done, the facts march down the page smartly and are part of a clear and engaging narrative. Chuck's inference that Adolph Hirsch commissioned the production of a bourbon in 1974 as part of a plan to inject cash in the business is undoubtedly correct. Why a bourbon and not a rye or a blend? Someone as savvy as Hirsch with his extensive background in the distilling industry probably figured that while brown goods were generally in decline, bourbon stood a better chance of being saleable than straight rye which was really tanking by that time particularly in its homeland of Pennsylvania. Or maybe bourbon was simply slated to be made then for some reason, so he bought that.

As for being tipped later to take it away, that is possible, however as the owner of the goods, he would have had a legal entitlement to remove it. Presumably his title (under the warehouse receipt) was superior to the mortgage security held on the property as a whole (although I am not sure how that works under the Uniform Commercial Code in PA). It may be too the withdrawal of the stock was done under some kind of court order or supervision.

A man as smart again as Hirsch was was making, in other words, an investment and it must have paid off although perhaps not with the result one would see today when the market for such whiskey is prized and there is to boot a shortage of aged whiskey.

As for whether it would have been considered over-aged in the old days, I know some distillers and merchants felt and still feel that way. But as we have seen from other threads there was always a small amount of long-aged whiskey in the market and this goes right back to the mid-1800's. Some people always had a taste for it and could pay for it. So this Hirsch 16 (and the other age expressions, 15, 18, 19 and 20), while perhaps not intended by him to become such a specialty, is part of an old tradition and certainly cannot be said to be a freak or a marketing fluke of some kind. While some people do not like old whiskey, many do and this is purely a matter of taste; Hirsch 16 stands out as an excellent example of this specialty product. It gains added interest and allure due to its origins in the now defunct Bomberger/Michter's/Pennco distillery and its broad similarity to the straight rye and straight rye-like Orginal Sour Mash which was a Pennsylvania heritage and a star production of this distillery.

Gary

[cowdery]

While a warehouse receipt is proof of ownership and would be superior to, say, a mortgage holder's claim, as a practical matter when the distillery closed it was, as you'll recall, abandoned, even though there was whiskey there. If one had wanted to claim ones property after that event, there literally would not have been anyone there to open the doors let alone find "your" barrels, move them to the loading dock, prepare the necessary paperwork, etc. If some of the insiders knew, or suspected, it would end that way, they might very well have passed the word that after a certain date, the physical difficulties in actually taking possession of your property were going to get much worse.

[bourbonv]

Chuck,
Excellent article, as always. Hirsch's on again and off again relationship with Schenley would explain why he did not have his own bound correspondence. The Logansport connection might be a way to find out more. There might be some Logansport minute books there.