Simply nosing the latest particular release bourbon from Maker ’ s Mark ’ s Wood Finishing Series one might not immediately surmise that dial in the very well-integrated dollops of sugary caramel and round vanilla was a building complex job. But glimpsing the launch code-like name on the bottle of the 2020 Limited Release—officially designated “ SE4 X PR5 ” —you start to get the idea that this whiskey is more complicate than these two top notes suggest .
unplayful fans of Maker ’ s Mark know the Loretto, KY-based distillery long resisted the whiskey diligence ’ s swerve toward limited edition bottlings and special turn whiskeys, opting rather to focus on what it does so well : providing an excellent and much-loved wheated bourbon sold under a singular label in a singular construction ( in an iconic wax-dipped bottle, no less ). The addition of a single new expression—Maker ’ s 46—to the distillery ’ sulfur core image in 2010 was a momentous consequence for a distillery that had for so long chosen to do one thing very well, and entirely one thing .
But once you start tinkering it ’ s unmanageable to stop, and the newly annually released Wood Finishing Series—now in just its second edition—is an outgrowth of the experiment that delivered Maker ’ s 46. alternatively of playing around with cask finish or shading, Maker ’ s 46 is crafted by taking a barrel of original recipe Maker ’ s Mark bourbon and inserting a stave of particularly cured french Oak into the liquid toward the end of its maturation, imparting extra flavors to the bourbon. Getting to that specific forest finishing summons with that specific type of french Oak naturally produced a distribute of stave experiment and a huge ( and hush growing ) body of cognition around stave-finishing and its impacts on Maker ’ s Mark ’ s alone liquid. It would ’ ve been a shame to leave all those experiments and all that cognition on the cut room floor.
With its beginning restrict edition, Maker ’ s Mark Director of Innovation Jane Bowie and her team experimented relentlessly to find a staff profile—titled “ RC6 ” —that would ratchet up the flavors of baking spice and fruit, notes associated with the distillery ’ s proprietorship yeast strain. For this irregular iteration, Bowie and her team wanted to nod to the particular regimen of extra-long air drying and toasting all of its wood staves undergo prior to being constructed into barrels and filled with bourbon—a process that helps bring out specific flavors in the whiskey .
The taste sight was straightforward : heavy vanilla, heavy caramel, some spice for remainder, and no tannin. “ We thought, ‘ this is gon sodium be sol easy, ’ ” Bowie says. “ Vanilla and caramel, the two most common tasting notes that come out of people ’ s mouths when they talk about most bourbons. ” But it soon became apparent that those specific flavors were coming from two different parts of the stave cook serve, and were in fact good imparted by completely different types of wood. “ We started realizing that we were going to need to use two different staves, ” Bowies says .
furthermore, experiments showed that vanilla notes very started to shine between two and four weeks after the stave was inserted into the bourbon barrel, while the caramel notes began to pop more like five or six weeks in. In other words, they couldn ’ metric ton put both staves in the lapp barrel, they were going to have to make two different bourbons and blend them.
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In the end, they ended up making three. The bourbon finished with the vanilla-enhancing stave—labeled “ PR5 ” —makes up more than half of the blend. The caramel enhancing “ SE4 ” stave imparted importantly different ( but desirable ) caramel notes at five weeks and six weeks in the barrel, so Bowie and ship’s company formulated their final blend to include two SE4 bourbons, one at five weeks of finish and the other at six weeks .
That might seem a long road to travel just to punch up the vanilla and caramel notes in a Kentucky bourbon, but the results speak for themselves. On the nose this bourbon works as advertise, with a walloping acid of ardent dessert olfactory property ( or possibly a gooey, decadent, cinnamon-dusted breakfast pastry is a better analogue hera ). But on the palate, you ’ re reminded that despite the marquee notes of vanilla and caramel, this is ultimately a tribute to woodwind. The aforesaid flavors are there, but besides a healthy dose of piquant, toasty oak to balance out those sweet notes. You end up in the kingdom of butter pecan ice cream drizzled with caramel, which is a fantastic place to be. This is dessert bourbon through and through, though a lot like dessert you can in truth enjoy it anytime .
With this barrel lastingness ( 110.8 proofread ) offer, Maker ’ s is nowadays two-for-two with its limited edition offerings, suggesting we have more good things coming from the distillery ’ second ongoing stave finishing experiments. Given all the work and experiment that went into making it, the very fair suggested retail price of $ 60 seems abject.
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