For years — 70 to be exact — Maker’s Mark has stayed true to the taste vision set forth by founders Bill Samuels Sr. and Margie Samuels. The mash bill churned out day after day at the distillery is as much part of the brand’s identity as the red wax that drips from every bottle: 70% corn, 16% soft red winter wheat, 14% malted barley.

That’s why you’ve never seen a rye version of Maker’s Mark, a Maker’s Mark finished in port barrels, or an ultra-aged 20-year-old Maker’s Mark — because those would go against what the founders set out to create in 1953.

(In 2010, the company did launch Maker’s 46, which introduced wood finishing staves to the process — but more on that in a bit.)

Now, with some forward-thinking innovations from the talented team behind the brand — including Beth Buckner, senior manager of innovation & blending, and Blake Layfield, senior director & head of innovation, blending and quality — Maker’s Mark will finally release an older bourbon in September called Cellar Aged.

And fans are going wild (myself included), because it’s also being bottled at a whopping 115.7 proof!

Cellar Aged is a blend of 12-year-old bourbon (87%) and 11-year-old bourbon (13%) that still fits inside the parameters of the Maker’s Mark taste vision. How is that, you ask? Well, the team took fully mature Maker’s Mark barrels (typically around 6 years old) that had aged in its standard rick houses in Loretto, Ky., and rehoused them inside the limestone whiskey cellar that was constructed onsite in 2016 for the Maker’s 46 product.

The temperature inside this bourbon bat cave, as I call it, is a constant 50 degrees, so the barrels were now free from the extreme ups and downs of the Kentucky weather. In other words, they could just chill out for another five to six years — much like a scotch does in the moderate temperatures of Scotland.

This mellow environment helps round out the flavor and adds more depth and richness to the taste, but it doesn’t allow for those sometimes sharp bitter and tannic notes from the oak to permeate, which is sometimes common in bourbons aged over 10+ years.

Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged will be released in mid-September with an MSRP of $150. It’ll be a limited annual release, and the ages and batches will likely differ from year to year.

Tasting with the Team

Last week, a small group of local media descended upon Maker’s Mark to catch up with Buckner and Layfield — and of course be one of the first to try the new release. We were taken around to see all the new things at the distillery — including bountiful herb and vegetable gardens, new artwork both inside and outside, a renovated visitor center complete with a stunning cocktail bar, and even a new chef at Star Hill Provisions.

While you might see those topics come up in later posts here, I’ll focus on what we learned about the Cellar Aged release for now.

Buckner explained that although bourbon fans have been clamoring for a well-aged Maker’s Mark for some time, until they built the limestone cellar, it just wouldn’t have worked. Why? Well, her and Layfield showed us firsthand as they marched us up seven floors inside one of their standard aging warehouses.

The temperature that morning was pretty mild for August — in the upper 70s — but inside the rick house, it increased by at least 3 degrees every floor we climbed. These rick houses stay hot, hot, hot in the summer and chilly in the winter, pushing that distillate in and out of the barrel year after year. And so Maker’s believes, by about 6 years, the bourbon has finished its aging cycle, according to that important taste profile first developed by the Samuels.

Sure, they could leave a barrel for 12 years or more inside a rick house and bottle it up to please their fans, but it would not fit within the perimeters of that taste vision. And that’s what matters most to them. Much respect for staying the course.

After traipsing up and down stairs and dealing with the incoming humidity, we were whisked into the cool, calm, dark cellar, where we finally got to try the new bourbon.

And in an effort to further drive home what continued aging in the cellar can do versus what the temperature extremes of a rick house can do, we tried the Cellar Aged release next to a sample pulled from a 12-year-old barrel from a rick house.

I will say that the Cellar Aged sample was definitely the favorite — imagine Maker’s Mark Cask Strength with even more baked apple, caramel and vanilla notes. It is reminiscent of Weller Antique — with those deep bursts of chocolate and fig, and it’s a pour I could sip on all night long no matter what season it is.

But the 12-year-old sample, I admit, wasn’t awful. It certainly had that vintage taste funk, like maybe it was pulled from Grandma’s attic, but I would still drink it if I had a bottle of it. At the end of the day, however, I realized that the flavors in that 12-year sample were so far away from the original Maker’s Mark, I can see why it wouldn’t gel with the founders’ taste vision.

All in all, it was an educational and experiential visit to Maker’s Mark. I’ll always have a soft spot for the brand because it’s what first got me hooked into this crazy bourbon world. If you haven’t been for a visit in a while, it’s worth it to check out. There’s something new lurking around every corner.

If you’ve been keeping up with the Maker’s Mark Wood Finishing Series, then you’ll be happy to hear the second FAE release will be available any day now at liquor stores around the state (and beyond).

FAE stands for “fatty acid esters,” and that’s what Maker’s Master of Maturation and Director of Innovation Jane Bowie focused on while coming up with this second iteration of the FAE line. Here’s the piece I wrote about FAE-01 back in March.

If you’re wondering what fatty acids have to do with bourbon, it’s all about the mouthfeel. These are the compounds that make some bourbons thicker and more viscous than others. And I like a thick, creamy bourbon.

So the focus for Bowie in 2021 was on texture. And she and the team split up the experiments with two separate releases — the FAE-01 and now the FAE-02.

For No. 2, the team started with the finishing staves, which were double heat-treated to really bring out the luscious mouthfeel. The staves were put into a fully mature barrel of Maker’s Mark for eight weeks and four days, and then the bourbon rested for a month in a stainless steel tank (thus ending the aging process).

Why let it rest in the tank?

Bowie says she believes this extra time allowed the fatty acids to “come together.”

“I notice the texture on this before the flavor,” Bowie adds. Flavor notes include milk chocolate, caramel and toasted nuts.

Here’s an info graphic showing the differences between 01 and 02:

The Wood Finishing Series is Maker’s way of sharing the story of distilling with its fans. The FAE-02 is the fourth release in the series. It’ll be available soon for a suggested retail price of $59.99.

Maker’s Mark has been doing some cool stuff with special releases lately — for a recap, check out my pieces on the Wood-Finishing Series here and here — but this one truly takes the cake for anyone interested in the science behind bourbon.

The new Entry Proof Experiment will hit shelves later this month — you’ll most likely find it at the distillery gift shop, and if you’re a member of The Whisky Drop* Maker’s club, you’ll be getting the bottles in the next two installments. Basically, there are four bottles in this release, and all four come from an experiment held at the distillery in 2013.

To see how much impact barrel entry proof has on the taste profile of their bourbon, the folks at Maker’s Mark entered the bourbon into barrels at four different proof levels: 110 (which is what Maker’s has used since the beginning but is considered low in the industry), 115, 120 and 125.

For a quick explanation, entry proof is the proof of the distillate before it goes into a barrel. Many distilleries opt to put it in around 125 and then add water when it’s done aging, thus saving money on the amount of barrels needed. Some choose a lower number — like 110 — which was more common before and right after Prohibition because some believe by adding the water up front, it produces a better-tasting, nuanced bourbon.

Barrel entry proof is just one of the many bourbon-making components that can be manipulated to produce a different result. There’s no right or wrong number here — by legal definition, you can’t enter it into a barrel higher than 125 proof — it’s just the preference of the distillery and its master distiller as to when they want to add the water (before or after it ages).

So anyway, Maker’s decided to play around with the four different entry proofs, and they figured they’d let their fans get a taste of the experiment as well. The cool thing about these four bottles is that the age of the whiskey inside is about 8 years old — definitely older than the standard Maker’s Mark. So just taking that into account, it’s a rare release you’ll want to have in your collection. Plus, these are bottled at barrel-proof, so here’s your chance to try 8-year-old Maker’s Mark at cask strength!

I was invited to a media tasting and explanation of the DNA Project, and I was blown away by the completely different flavors each sample produced. Even someone new to bourbon would be able to tell the differences between each sample.

I was partial to the first sample — 110 — as was the majority of the group. The flavors were more rich, and that familiar Maker’s Mark mouthfeel was present from the first sip to the last.

The other three expressions had some funky flavors — the 120 proof even had strong pineapple notes, which is crazy — and it was easy to see why the founders of Maker’s Mark chose 110 and have stuck to that ever since, even though it ultimately costs them more money.

What this experiment shows is, yes, barrel entry proof does indeed have a pronounced effect on taste profiles. And the best news is that you can try it for yourself.

Maker’s suggests buying the entire four-bottle set (at $99 per bottle), but they will also be sold individually at the distillery and various bars and liquor stores in the area. The bottles are 750ml, and with a purchase of the set, you also get handmade posters from Louisville’s Hound Dog Press, which partnered with Maker’s for this release.

There are only 2,400 sets available, and the release is staying in Kentucky. Each poster will be numbered to match your bottles. Look for these later this August and tell me which one is your favorite.

*Speaking of The Whisky Drop, I hear they’re expanding the membership to more folks in Kentucky and Washington, D.C., so if you want to sign up for that, click here. It’s a membership service where you get two special bottles in the mail every couple months or so.

For the first time in 200 years, average, everyday bourbon fanatics like you and me can stay a night at The Samuels House, a historic home in Coxs Creek, Ky. (just outside of Bardstown), that has been converted into a bourbon museum honoring eight generations of Samuels distillers, including Bill Samuels Jr. and Rob Samuels of Maker’s Mark.

The house was built in 1820 by John Samuels, whose father, Robert Samuels, actually made whiskey for George Washington’s troops in the Revolutionary War. And that’s only the beginning of this home’s story, which is saturated in history and bourbon.

I was fortunate to attend an open house Tuesday evening to check out The Samuels House with Bill Jr. and Rob Samuels. Of course they had a full charcuterie spread for the dozens of guests, plus Maker’s-fueled cocktails, so it was a fun time had by all.

Did I mention it might be haunted, too? More on that in a bit.

The house stayed in the Samuels family until the late 1950s, and it was recently re-purchased by Rob Samuels, Chief Operating Officer of Maker’s Mark. He decided it would be the perfect place for bourbon lovers to stay while they’re tackling the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, and also where the Samuels family could display eight generations worth of family photos, significant artifacts, important documents and dusty old bottles that encompass the original Samuels distillers (T.W. Samuels) and the modern Samuels distillers (Maker’s Mark).

So what’s here?

Well, what I loved seeing the most was the actual deep fryer Margie Samuels used to experiment with when creating the iconic red wax — the same wax that now adorns every Maker’s Mark bottle since her and her husband Bill Samuels Sr. created the brand in 1954. Also on display is Margie’s English pewter collection that inspired her to name the new bourbon “Maker’s Mark.”

The house is a blend of 200-year-old charm and modern updates. Inside the kitchen, for example, there’s a full gas range and a modern sink and cupboards, but across the room is the original fireplace where the residents would cook before electricity and gas lines made it into homes.

The house can accommodate up to eight guests between three bedrooms, and the average nightly price ranges from $1,250-1,500.

Rob and Bill Jr. spoke about how much this home means to their family, and they had a great time filling the rooms with family heirlooms and memorabilia.

“We look forward to sharing this with folks who are traveling here, and even people here in Kentucky who might be interested,” said Rob Samuels. “Folks are drawn to Kentucky culture, and hopefully this can help attribute to that energy and interest.”

Bill Jr. seemed most excited about a pistol that is behind glass in the foyer, which he explained is most likely the very last firearm surrendered in the Civil War.

The weapon was supposedly surrendered in the front yard of The Samuels House by Frank James (of the notorious James Gang), who was part of the last armed group fighting at the end of the war. He turned the gun over to T.W. Samuels, the Nelson County sheriff (and family’s first commercial distiller), and it has remained in the family ever since.

Being in a house that old, we had to ask if anyone had ever experienced something spooky. Of course we were in the cellar, where spooky oozes in most cases, and one of the curators confirmed that indeed there have been incidents of paranormal activity, and that the former owners actually kept a spreadsheet on the encounters.

The only story we got out of him had to do with two construction workers who got spooked while pouring cement and came running full speed out of the cellar doors. They described a demonic roar in the basement, along with lights unexpectedly going out, which made the two grown men exit the basement in 2 seconds flat.

They ended up going back in to finish the job, so it must not have been too disturbing.

Property Info (according to the website):

• Accommodations for up to 8 guests; 3 bedrooms (2 king, 1 queen; 2 additional pullout beds)
• Nearly 3,500 square feet of space (main level, upper level, and basement)
• Set on 2 acres of mature oak trees surrounded by horse pasture
• Parlor room with custom-crafted bar and 50+ historic bottles of family-produced whisky
• Numerous Samuels family artifacts and pieces of bourbon history on display
• Stocked chef’s kitchen with gas range, fridge with premium whiskey icemaker
• Dining room with custom-designed dinnerware and glassware
• Covered porch with outdoor dining area
• Basement media room and game lounge
• Stone patio featuring a gas grill and fire pit
• Whole-home wifi

Amenities:

• Tempur-Pedic mattresses
• Premium ‘Comphy’ brand sheets
• Ensuite bathrooms
• 100% Turkish cotton towels
• Aveda bath products
• Robes
• Iron/Ironing board
• Hair dryer
• Smart TVs with cable access and streaming capabilities

To book The Samuels House or just read more about it, click here. Booking starts in September!

Below are some photos of the property:

If Pop Rocks made a “velvet tobacco” flavor, it would taste exactly like FAE-01, the newest release in the Maker’s Mark Wood-Finishing Series. It drinks like a whiskey from 1962 that you found in your grandpa’s attic, but that’s not meant to disparage it. Quite the opposite. It’s earthy, it’s viscous, it’s spicy, it’s balanced, it’s warm and, most of all, it’s accessible.

This is the third release of the Wood-Finishing Series, and the first of 2021. As with the other releases, there was a goal here — and that was to highlight one component of Maker’s Mark, as lead by Maker’s Master of Maturation and Director of Innovation Jane Bowie. For FAE-01, it’s the distilling process, which produces “fatty acid esters” — hence the term FAE — that Maker’s is known for.

In a Zoom call with a handful of Kentucky media Wednesday afternoon, Bowie went through her process step by step to getting to the final mouth-watering product — her favorite so far of the three.

“For 2021, we leaned into our column stills and nonchill-filtering process, which, simply put, helps us retain the texture and a higher viscosity of the whisky,” Bowie said in a previous press release. “What we got is an expression that highlights the fruit‑forward taste profile in an unexpected and much welcomed way. It tastes just like a barrel warehouse smells.”

She reiterated that last statement during the call, and through a series a samples given to us, she led us through her “shelf of shame” experiments. Let’s just say there was no shame in anything we sampled today, and it was quite eye-opening to see what a handful of staves can do to a final product.

Bowie said she started first with an American white oak stave (un-charred) and a French oak stave (un-charred) to compare the two flavors. By doing this, she was able to determine she wanted to go with the American oak for this release.

The next three samples were examples of aging fully matured Maker’s Mark with the FAE stave (American oak, seasoned and toasted on one side) and aging them for a few weeks in different parts of the distillery: a walk-in refrigerator, Warehouse A and the Private Select Cellar (which I like to call the Bourbon Bat Cave).

Here, she figured out she liked it aged in the Cellar the best.

It was a fun and enlightening time tasting through Bowie’s journey to FAE-01, and I am blown away by the finished product, which packs that delightful sweet caramel and vanilla taste but turns the spice and tobacco notes to a 10. This isn’t one you can shoot back after dinner. You’ve gotta swirl it, nose it and tell it it’s pretty. It’ll hang around a lot longer than some of your other favorites.

Take your time with this one, which is bottled at 110.6 proof, and go on your own journey through all its distinct flavors.

FAE-01 should be out on shelves now, so keep an eye out for it. It’ll retail for $59.99. And stay tuned … there’s a second FAE experiment coming in the fall. It’s so good, it couldn’t be kept to just one release.

Now this is pretty cool! Maker’s Mark is paying respect to one of its founders — Margie Samuels, wife of Bill Samuels Sr. — with this new collector’s bottle, called the Margie Samuels Founder’s Bottle. And what’s also cool: $25 from each bottle will go toward scholarships for the Bellarmine Women of Color Entrepreneurs Leadership Certificate program.

Margie was one of the first women to be inducted into the Bourbon Hall of Fame, and she is credited with not only coming up with that signature Maker’s red wax, but also envisioning bourbon tourism as we know it.

Margie was responsible for creating just about everything that makes Maker’s Mark the household name it is today — from the iconic bottle shape and red wax-dipped top, to the name, logo and inviting distillery visitor experience.

These limited-edition bottles will be available at the Loretto distillery’s gift shop starting Friday, March 5. They will retail for $64.95 and will be signed by Margie’s son, Bill Samuels Jr., former master distiller and chair emeritus of Maker’s Mark. The bottle also features artwork by Owensboro artist Aaron Kizer.

I must get one of these ASAP!

The thousands of aging bourbon barrels perched in black rick houses that dot the vast yet quaint Maker’s Mark Distillery grounds in Loretto, Ky., all hold the same recipe. It’s the bourbon Margie and Bill Samuels Sr. envisioned in 1953 when they created the beloved brand.

So when it came to new products and essentially drawing outside the lines of the familiar dripping red Maker’s Mark wax, nothing had been done until Maker’s 46 was launched by Bill Samuels Jr. in 2010.

Bill Jr. didn’t mess with his family’s recipe to create the new product — he knew better than that — but he did run wild with a finishing process that involved soaking various toasted staves in a barrel of mature Maker’s Mark for about nine weeks.

In that small amount of time, more flavors were imparted into the juice, creating a familiar yet vastly different flavor profile that many today prefer over the original.

And since 2010, there’s also been a Maker’s Mark Cask Strength release (again, not messing with the family’s recipe), a Maker’s 46 Cask Strength (just released last month), Private Selection Single Barrels, and a new line of products Maker’s is calling its Wood Finishing Series. The 2019 release, titled RC6 after the name of the stave, was the first, and now the company is excited to release the 2020 experiment: SE4+PR5.

What does SE4+PR5 mean?

I was fortunate to join a Zoom call with Maker’s Director of Innovation Jane Bowie, plus about a dozen of Kentucky’s top bourbon writers, on Thursday to learn more about the 2020 release and taste through the process with samples the distillery provided.

Zooming with Maker’s Mark and fellow bourbon writers.

The personable and very talented Bowie was eager to let us in on the project that had been consuming her time the last 18 months. The goal was to highlight two prominent flavors found in Maker’s Mark: caramel and vanilla.

“I thought this was going to be the easiest one we’ve done, but it ended up being the most complicated,” said Bowie.

Turns out trying to highlight those two flavors exclusively was not an easy task, and in fact, it took Bowie and the Maker’s team two separate staves to do so. The team ended up using a blend of three finished Maker’s bourbons — two from French Oak staves (SE4) aged different weeks (one at five weeks and one at six weeks) and one from American Oak staves (PR5) aged for four weeks. These staves were toasted and made just for this product by Independent Stave Co.

Bowie said that due to the pandemic, she relocated her mad scientist bourbon lab to her living room for the last six months, trying out 50-60 different staves and more than 1,000 blend trials.

During my call with Bowie, I was able to taste through the bourbons at different ages, ultimately leading up to the final product, and it was truly a glimpse into the tough process of blending and having the end goal in mind during each and every sip.

It’s a lot of this: Maybe this stave tastes better at five weeks instead of two, but at six weeks it imparts too much of its flavors, so let’s go back to four weeks and see if we like it better than five.

So how does the final whiskey taste? It’s like soaking one of those Kraft caramel chews in a small bowl of pure vanilla extract and melted butter. It’s sweet, it’s viscous, it’s creamy and it’s dreamy. And it has a hint of baking spices on the finish.

Let me just say, this masterpiece hits all those harmonizing caramel and vanilla notes better than Barbara Streisand could if she were a bourbon. 

The 2020 SE4+PR5 release (Bowie said you can call it either the 2020 release or those crazy stave codes) is bottled at 110.8 proof, and it’ll start showing up on store shelves on Sept. 1. Liquor stores can charge whatever they like, but you should expect it to be in the range of $60-$70. It’s also a limited release, and you won’t want to miss this one!