My Favorite

Fact is, you just can't beat Bookers... but who really goes out and spends 50 bucks for a bottle of whiskey? It's just to damned expensive.

Nope... I'm about to shock you boys. For all my talk of Woodford's and Knob Creek and 1792... my favorite bourbon is actually little ol' Makers Mark.

See... even though you might see 20 or even 50 different labels out there... there are actually only nine distilleries that make bourbon. Of those distilleries, only 2, Wild Turkey, and Makers Mark, put their name on every bottle they make. There's a lot of folks out there that just don't know that Booker's, Baker's, Knob Creek, and Basil Hayden's are all made by Jim Beam.

But that's what I love about Makers Mark. Every bottle is the same. Every bottle comes from water from the same spring... through the same ancient cypress ferminters.... goes through the same beautiful copper still... and finally into barrels that are aged quite a bit longer than the industry standard... to prevent any green spots or God forbid, sap infecting the bourbon.

While the Four Brothers are Jim Beam's best... there is no "best" of Makers Mark. It's just Makers Mark. While Jim Beam is turning out thousands of barrells per day... the boys at Makers painstakingly produce 40.

Makers is the only brand that has seen its demand increase every year since 1958. So much so that now, they find themselves hard pressed to meet it. They kicked around the idea of building a new still right next the old one... but they couldn't be guaranteed the product would taste the exact same... plus... their production is limited greatly by the limestone spring that provides their water. It only comes so fast ya see.

When it's all said and done Makers Mark produces a smooth... incredibly sweet whiskey with hints of toffey and butterscotch... It's highly refined. So much so that one could call it borderline snooty. Is it better than Knob Creek or Bookers? Nope. But then again... it's half the price ain't it?

If you've never had bourbon... or you don't know much about it, and ya want to buy it for a gift... Make it Makers Mark. There is no better bourbon for the money. You can pick it up for 17 or 18 bucks. For that price... you have no reason to expect bourbon this good...

But ya get it just the same.