Maker's Mark

About the Maker's Mark

Maker's Mark is a wheated bourbon whisky made in Loretto, Kentucky. Corn makes up seventy percent of the mash bill. Soft red winter wheat accounts for sixteen percent, and malted barley the remaining fourteen. There is no rye at all. Most Kentucky bourbon leans on rye for its bite, so leaving it out changes everything downstream. The distillery has stuck to this one recipe since the 1950s. T. William Samuels bought the old Burks' Distillery on 1 October 1953. Production started the next year, and the first bottles appeared in 1958. His wife Margie named the brand, drew the label, and came up with the red wax dip. In December 1980 the site became a National Historic Landmark. It was the first American distillery given that status while its landmark buildings were still working. Caramel and cream come first, with brown sugar and a lift of pear behind them. Corn sweetness sits underneath, soft rather than sticky. Then cinnamon arrives, carrying a knock of black pepper with it. Cherry shows up next to the spice, along with a flicker of something floral. Towards the end the oak turns drier. Vanilla, grain and charred oak hold on afterwards, fading slowly rather than sharply. Barrels here move by hand. Workers roll them from the warm upper floors of the warehouse down to the cooler levels below. Rotating stock that way evens out the temperature each cask sees, and few distillers still bother. Every bottle is then dipped in red wax, so no two seals run alike. Maker's Mark stayed with wheat while the rest of Kentucky kept its rye. That is what you are choosing when you pick this bottle.