Michter’s Barrel Strength Rye Review: Does It Still Deserve the Hype?

This week on the Bourbon Bytes podcast, we’re diving into a packed lineup of new whiskey releases before revisiting one of my favorite barrel-strength rye whiskeys of all time: Michter’s Barrel Strength Rye. New Riff is releasing its oldest Headliner blend yet, featuring 10+ year components including malted rye bourbon, rye, and Balboa rye. Bardstown Bourbon Company is getting tropical with Victoria Pineapple Finished Whiskey, a bourbon and rye blend finished in pineapple rum casks with fresh pineapple added to the barrel. Yellowstone is back with a limited edition finished in ruby and tawny port casks, and Heaven Hill is unveiling a first-of-its-kind Double Mash Bottled-in-Bond bourbon that blends its traditional bourbon mash bill with its wheated bourbon mash bill. Then it’s time for a Byte-Sized Review of Michter’s Barrel Strength Rye. This 2016 release is one of the earlier batches of Michter’s barrel-strength rye, likely around 113–114 proof, and it gave me a very different experience than I remembered from later releases. Expect an herbaceous rye nose, mint, citrus, vintage copper notes, brown sugar, burnt sugar, oak, plum, cinnamon, clove, and a long holiday-spice finish. I used to think of Michter’s Barrel Strength Rye as one of my favorite rye whiskeys ever — but does this older bottle still hold up in 2026?