Makers Mark 46

For the last 52 years... Makers Mark has had exactly 1 product. By contrast... Jim Beam has a whole catalog of fine small batch bourbons that prove they actually do know how to make good bourbon... but continue to produce crap in large quantity out of sheer spite.

Several years ago... Bill Samuels decided it was time to offer something new. He was particular though... he didn't want to just... leave something in the barrel longer... or change the amount of water added... That's fine for everyone else... but it doesn't advance the state of the art.

So they started the process by taking the Makers Mark finished product... and deciding how they wanted this new batch to be different.

After much stress and experimentation... They settled on a method. They would take some of their standard Makers... that was almost ready for bottling... then rebarrel in... placing charred oak staves in the barrels with it.

Bill describes the result as a cousin to Makers.

Me?

Its more complex... and the flavors that you love in Makers... the caramel and vanilla... they are brighter in 46. There is a spiciness here to that's not found in the original.

The verdict?

This is damned good bourbon. Damned good.

From the Master's Hand

“And now he stands beneath the rose escarpment above the flash and glare of the magnesium and the whirring film of celluloid immortality. This is the moment, the peak, the pinnacle; after this, all is ebb.” - William Faulkner, May 1962; Louisville, Kentucky

In years gone by Sports Illustrated sent William Faulkner to the Derby to write about it for them. Such a shame we get nothing of the sort these days. An old timer recalls driving Faulkner around to Lexington the week prior to the Derby to visit the farms. Ol' Bill fell asleep on the way back... but near Bardstone the old timer swears Faulkner woke with a start...

"I'd never mistake that smell! There's distillery around here! Close!"

He didn't say if they stopped or not.

The Legacy of Makers Mark

Most folks these days know the most popular spirit in America is Vodka. This has been the case since the early 70's. Not suprisingly... the popular rise of the Dear Little Water happens to mimmick the feminization of the country... but that's a topic for another post.

But prior to Vodka's rise... Bourbon was the king of the mountain. Walk into a package store in 1950 and you'd find dozens more labels than are available today... and it seemed like everyone that walked in the door was after the same thing.

I'll tell you something you might not know though. If you were to taste all of those labels you'd learn one thing. Back then... bourbon pretty much all tasted the same. The variety was purely the result of marketing. And not just that... but if you taste some Evan Williams today... you'd know what virtually everything tasted like back then.

See... the Super Premium Bourbon Market which has led to the surge in popularity hadn't been invented yet... but the interesting thing is... the ground work for bourbon's revival was actually laid before its fall. A fella named Bill Samuels realized that different parts of the warehouse aged bourbon differently... so he began rotating his barrells. It was labor intensive... and was, at the time, mocked as a gimmick. But that rotation... along with careful experimentation with the recipe resulted in the first Super Premium bourbon.

Of course... now everyone from Jim Beam to Jack Daniels rotates their barrels. And they all offer Super Premium products.

See boys.. Bourbon's Golden Age... really wasn't. Bourbon's Golden Age is now. So when you sip your Knob Creek or Rare Breed... say a little word of thanks to Bill Samuels. Because if it wasn't for him and his work at Makers Mark you wouldn't have either.