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image courtesy Maker’s Mark
~$45 for 750mL bottle
- Purchased from Chattanooga Wine & Spirits
Background
I’ve been a fan of Maker’s Mark for a long time…20 years or more, to be exact. I became a Maker’s Mark Ambassador somewhere around 2005 and got my personalized bottles several years later. I’ve actually been to the distillery 3 or 4 times for different purposes, but mostly just because it’s one of the most beautiful and enjoyable distilleries to visit in my experience. Like many Bourbon makers, they went a long time without making anything “new” and even now they aren’t dropping new and different products on the market at the drop of a hat. But a fairly recent addition to the catalog caught my attention: Maker’s Mark Cask Strength.
Like all Maker’s products, the mash bill consists of 70% corn, 16% soft winter wheat, and 14% barley. It enters the cask at 110 proof, but because of the vagaries of different batches, there is no “set” proof for the Cask Strength expression in the bottle. The bottle I purchased was from batch 21-06 (I’m guessing bottled in June of 2021) and has a proof of 110.8 (55.4% ABV).
The company had this to say on their website:
This is Maker’s Mark with nothing added to get in its way. Certainly not a beginner’s bourbon, Maker’s Mark Cask Strength is for the enthusiast who’s after bolder flavors and higher proofs. After being screen filtered to remove wood pieces and char, Maker’s Mark Cask Strength goes straight to the bottle at a range of 108 to 114 proof. This wouldn’t work with just any whisky. Maker’s Mark Cask Strength is well crafted with carefully selected ingredients and aged until it’s just right.
They also note that Maker’s Cask Strength is “at the heart” of all the other expressions they produce…which is true, because it comes out of the cask at one strength, then gets cut with distilled water to a specific proof before being bottled and shipped. I bought my bottle at Chattanooga Wine and Spirits.
image courtesy Maker’s Mark
Notes
I like how they didn’t mess with tradition for the most part. The bottle is the same shape as the standard Maker’s expression and the red wax seal is consistent across all their lines. Instead of a large paper label, this bottle is printed on the glass.
The color was a medium-dark amber color and I got a rich nose of vanilla and oak, caramel and honey. With a whiskey topping 110 proof, you would expect it to be fiery when poured neat, but honestly, it was one of the smoothest high-proof bourbons I could remember. While I would definitely add some water to most Bottled-In-Bond (100 proof) or something like Old Granddad 116, I felt no need to add anything to the Maker’s Cask Strength.
I found the MM Cask Strength to be very sweet, exuding vanilla and caramel mostly, while notes of corn, oak, and baking spice played around below the surface. There was a touch of burn on the finish, but as I said before, not much…either in terms of spice from the whiskey or alcohol vapors. I guess it is evidence of just how much the “soft winter wheat” keeps the flavor profile in the sweeter zone.
I paired this bourbon with a Padron 1926 Serie Natural, in the No. 47 size, one of my all-time favorite Nicaraguan cigars, also high on natural sweetness with a decent amount of pepper spice in the mix, too.
If you’ve been with me here long enough, you know my “Basic Rule of Bourbon”…pretty much any Bourbon will pair decently with pretty much any cigar. In this case, both had some sweetness and some spice. The Maker’s Mark pulled the cigar in the sweeter direction and the Padron pulled the Bourbon toward the spicier side. It was a really nice pairing and I would put this Cask Strength Maker’s up against almost any cigar…it’s sweet and soft enough to go with a mild Connecticut Shade, while being potent enough to stand up to a stronger Maduro or Oscuro.
If you’re a fan of Maker’s Mark already…or just wheated Bourbons in general…this Cask Strength expression is a really nice find. It’s generally available wherever Maker’s is sold and is much more affordable than some other wheated whiskeys on the market these days.
