Makers Mark 12yo Cellar Aged 2024

Makers Mark 12yo Cellar Aged 2024

Official bottling
Single bourbon - Kentucky
Amber red
59.7% ABV
Dram

Nose: Peanuts, chocolate, wet stones, pencil lead, coffee, black pepper. With water, raisins, damson jam, ink. 
Mouthfeel: Heavy body, tingly, hot, astringent. 
Tasting:  Bitter sweet. Bananas, damson jam, chocolate, peanuts, pencil lead, cough syrup, black pepper, sea salt. With water, ink, damson jam, raisins, blackcurrant cordial. 
Finish: Medium. Cough syrup, blackcurrant cordial, peanuts, chocolate. 

Comments: 

Rather sweet and minerally, lots of jammy notes, with graphite and wet stones making it interesting. The strength helps, creating complexity.

Verdict:

I like this a lot. 

Makers Mark Private Selection - The Community Batch

Makers Mark Private Selection - The Community Batch

Official bottling 
Single bourbon - Kentucky
Amber

54.1% ABV
Dram

Nose: Peanuts, milk chocolate, brown paper, black pepper, orange peel, sandalwood, hints of oak. With water, sea salt, peanuts, milk chocolate, caramel. 
Mouthfeel: Light body, hot, astringent, turns watery around the edges. 
Tasting:  Bitter sweet. Peanuts, milk chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper, sea salt, brown paper. With water, caramel, peanuts, vanilla, sea salt. 
Finish: Short. Brown paper, black pepper, cinnamon, oak. 

Comments: 

Unexpectedly savoury, lots of peanuts dripped with milk chocolate. There’s a fair bit of spice too, mainly cinnamon, and a little hot edge of black pepper, but it merges very well. Quite enjoyable.

Verdict:

I like this.

Makers Mark Cask Strength

Makers Mark Cask Strength

Official bottling 
Single bourbon - Kentucky
Amber, hints of red
55.05% ABV
Dram

Nose: Corn syrup, honey, fresh baked bread, polenta, vanilla, golden syrup. With water, vanilla ice cream, sandalwood, corn syrup. 
Mouthfeel: Light body, slippery, cool, slightly tingly. 
Tasting:  Bitter sweet. Fresh baked bread, orange peel, golden syrup, polenta, vanilla, hints of black tea. With water, vanilla ice cream, fresh baked bread, hints of black tea. 
Finish: Short. Vanilla ice cream, corn syrup, orange peel, hints of golden syrup. 

Comments: 

Batch 20-01. This is a blast from the past, I used to really like Makers Mark before I started drinking whisky seriously. It’s still sweet and laden with vanilla, this time larded with a huge amount of corn cereal flavour. Pleasant enough.

Verdict:

I like this.

Burks Distillery

Burks Distillery
3350 Burks Spring Road
Loretto
Marion County
Kentucky

Kentucky, USA - Active

Flavour profile

Burks distillery is where the iconic Maker's Mark bourbon is made. Alternate expressions are hard to find. Legend has it that the recipe of Maker's Mark, the mash bill, was not developed by actually malting and distilling the whiskey, but instead by baking a loaf of bread using the mash bill's proportions and sampling the results. Maker's Mark contains red winter wheat, corn and barley.

It is an atypical bourbon, although there are a lot of sweet, estery notes in the whiskey. There is less of that musty, papery tang, and more interesting flavours abound. Fruit, chocolate and honey abound, and I detect a lot of bananas and strawberries (although bourbon always tastes somewhat of banana anyway). There aren't a whole lot of expressions here - only three, and two might be expected to be fairly similar - so the variation is small. Nevertheless, it is deliciously sweet and fragrant, and quite satisfying. The widely available red wax expression is probably meant to be a cocktail ingredient, but stands up fairly well on its own.

All the Burks whiskies I have tasted so far are here.

Maker's 46 - good
Maker's Mark Select Black Wax - very good
Maker's Mark (original red wax) - good

Distillery history

Burks Distillery was founded in 1805 by, yes, you guessed it - Charles Burks. Charles died a couple of decades later, but the distillery continued to operate under the guidance of his family. George R Burks, a descendant of Charles, rebuilt and expanded the distillery in 1878.

Like the vast majority of American distilleries under Prohibition, this distillery was silent from 1920. The Burks family sold the distillery and the surrounding land to an Ernest Bickett in 1920. It is not known (at least not by me) when the distillery became active again, but T. William Samuels Jr (otherwise known as Bill) bought the distillery in 1954.

Bill created (or had access to the recipe for) Maker's Mark, and sold the first bottle in 1958. Sales have gone from strength to strength since.

Potted distillery facts

Water source: Water from Bourbon Lake, on the distillery property 
Washbacks: Four, cypress, unknown capacity 
Wash stills: One
Spirit stills: One
Spirit still Lyne arm: nothing unusual
Production per year: up to 12,000,000 litres a year

Maker's 46

Maker's 46

Official bottling 
Single bourbon - Kentucky
Golden
47% ABV
Dram

Nose: Banana, brown paper, corn syrup, strawberries, cream, hints of chocolate. 
Mouthfeel: Medium body, static, loose, smooth. 
Tasting: Sweet sour. Bananas, orange peel, strawberries, cream, chocolate, hints of black tea. 
Finish: Short. Bananas, strawberries, corn syrup, chocolate, cream. 

Comments: 

Very tasty and fruity, for something that is less than 5 years old. This certainly packs a big, sweet, fragrant punch. Doesn't taste like 47%, loose and smooth, a nice little piece of Americana.

Verdict:

I like this.

Maker's Mark Select Black Wax

Maker's Mark Select Black Wax

Official bottling
Single bourbon - Kentucky
Amber
47.5% ABV
Dram

Nose: Sweet banana, honey, ballpoint pen ink, wheat, pear, magic marker, hints of brown paper, hints of strawberries.
Mouthfeel: Light body, smooth, turns watery, very loose.
Tasting: Sweet salty. Brown paper, banana, honey, pear, magic marker, cream, vanilla, hints of orange blossom, hints of honey.
Finish: Long. Banana, brown paper, honey, cream, vanilla, strawberry.

Comments:

This is a version of Maker's Mark made for the Japanese market. Shame about that, because this is great bourbon. Smooth, light and flavourful, this is a grade more complex than the regular Red Wax. Very, very good indeed.

Verdict:

I like this a lot.

Maker's Mark (Burks')

Maker's Mark (Burks')

Official bottling
Single bourbon - Kentucky
Amber
45% ABV
Dram

Nose: Apple sours, coffee, chocolate, caramel.
Mouthfeel: Light body. Watery, smooth, thin around the edges.
Tasting: Sour bitter. Bubble gum, corn mash, coffee cake, smoke, iodine.
Finish: Medium. Coffee, seaweed.

Comments:

No rye in this (according to legend, the recipe was decided by baking loaves of bread and using the grains for malting and distillation). Just corn, barley and wheat. That enhances the bourbon bubble gum trademark a lot. The other interesting note is coffee. There's a lot of it! Small hints of smoke too.

Verdict:

I like this.