Maker's Mark Review

Maker's Mark
Maker's Mark Distillery - Beam Global
$42.95 -- 90 Proof (45% ABV)

Maker's Mark is one of the greatest branding success stories in the spirits world -- scratch that, one of the biggest successes period. They apparently sell out of their complete volume every year -- despite that, you can find it pretty much everywhere. The red wax is iconic and the distillery aimed for a premium market from the get-go; one of their first advertising campaigns is brilliant:

 For decades, Maker's entire strategy has been to tout their consistency; they rotate barrels in their warehouse and claimed to put out only a single product. (This is false -- one of my collection's treasures is a bottle of 100 proof extra-aged premium Maker's from the early 90s; the lower dilution and extra time really makes the normally-mild wheat shine compared to the current offering.)

Maker's is, above all, incredibly easy to drink. While most bourbons are made with corn, rye, and barley, Maker's substitutes wheat for rye. Wheat is a more subtle flavouring grain than rye; it takes very well to aging, backing off and allowing complexity from the wood to shine through, but as Maker's is typically 6 years old (according to their official line; it has no age statement, so it could be as young as 4), the mild wheat takes center stage.

For people who want their drinks to be "smooth" above all else, Maker's is probably the way to go. There's not a lot in the nose -- corn and wood chips, really; it's hard to tell if Maker's is so basic because that's what the company taught us normal bourbon should smell like, or if middle-of-the-road was entirely what they were aiming for. The taste is very sweet, a tiny bit of the wheat tingle, a little diluted syrup. It's smooth, smooth, smooth; well balanced but thin. The finish is blink and you'll miss it -- sweet; wheat; spice; gone. It really requires a shot for the taste to linger at all, and that doesn't overwhelm, which is probably why it is so popular for bourbon shots.

Makers is a completely average bourbon (2 out of 5) and a great introduction to whiskey. There's nothing wrong with it, just not a lot that's interesting. That makes it the perfect thing for a lot of folks, and there's nothing wrong with that -- I like a good well-balanced pilsner every now and then.

Value-wise, the whiskey itself isn't a fantastic value. 90 proof for $42 isn't great, and there's a ton of competition from more interesting whiskeys around that price. What a bottle, though! That, and its universal appeal, means it deserves a place on most shelves, bumping it up to an OK value. Just don't hoard it or anything.

Wild Turkey 80 Proof

Wild Turkey has always had the reputation of being a harsher bourbon. In a movie, when someone is on the down-and-out or a tough country boy, he's usually hoisting a 750 of Wild Turkey to his lips. For many years, this sorta made sense: Wild Turkey's only whiskey was at 101 proof, higher than the 80-90 proof counterparts by other distilleries, but that doesn't keep it from being a pretty tasty whiskey. I've been lucky enough to sample some WT from the 80s, back when they had one major flagship label, and it was pretty great back then. The 101 was my go-to bar bourbon for years in the states -- it could stand up to a couple ice cubes, just to make it last longer, and went great before or after a beer.

Up here in Ontario, we're stuck with the 80 proof version. Wild Turkey is interesting in that it keeps a pretty similar flavor profile through all of its releases -- the super premium stuff, like American Spirit and Rare Breed, tastes to my tongue like really good and strong Wild Turkey. (Beam, for example, has similar notes across the releases -- namely the yeasty finish -- but not the same sort of flavor profile). Unfortunately, my tasting of Wild Turkey is essentially going to be influenced by my memories of 101, but thus is life.

Wild Turkey has a pretty strong smell --  and it's pretty recognizable. It's less so in the 80 proof version, since it smells a bit thin and watery, but there's a strong ethanol smell, some old orange rind, and some turpentine. I don't mean to characterize it as unpleasant; I kind of like the smell of gasoline, and WT 80 has the same sort of unhealthy goodness to it. The taste is unlike the nose: entirely sweet and simple. It's like sugar water mixed with irish malt. The finish is distinctive but muted, strong sour corn, with hints of grapefruit and bitter root. It lasts a couple seconds.

Overall, Wild Turkey 80 Proof is very sweet and not very sophisticated. It's worth trying to sample the Wild Turkey flavor but nothing like the much more distinctive 101. The LCBO is doing us a disservice by providing the 80 proof rather than the company's flagship. Value-wise, it's cheap, and was worth buying back when the only other cheap option was Jim Beam, but now that it faces some competition at the the bottom-shelf, I would much rather giver or take a dollar and drink Four Roses or Jim Beam Black. I guess if you want to look tough while drinking something pretty mild it's a good choice.

WOODFORD RESERVE

90.4 proof  -- $47.00

Woodford Reserve is a great example of brilliant marketing, and a pretty decent bourbon. Woodford is owned by Brown-Forman, and is made – sorta – at a beautiful old distillery in the horse farm country outside my old hometown of Lexington, Kentucky. It’s one of the first whiskeys I tasted, and I’m using my old notes on it, since I didn’t know much about it back then and I think it’s interesting to do so. Since then, I’ve been on several tours to the distillery, as it’s a lovely place to take tourists. Brown-Forman is, of course, the owners of Jack Daniels, the best-selling American whiskey. They also make Korbel, el Jimador tequila, Early Times Kentucky whiskey (not bourbon, as it isn’t made in new barrels), Canadian Mist, and that terrifying stuff known as Southern Comfort. They also own some pretty great Scotch distilleries, like Ardbeg.

Woodford Reserve is their premium American whiskey brand. Their big name is obviously ol Jack, but Old Forester is their old-school brand, with its distillery outside Louisville. The Woodford distillery was the first bourbon distillery to really take advantage of the whisk(e)y tourism industry that BF pioneered with their Jack Daniels brand and distillery. They re-opened a closed distillery and installed a fancy new brass set of old-school pot stills (more on those after the review). Now, Woodford Reserve isn’t all made at Woodford – it’s made from whiskey made at the Woodford distillery mixed (either before barreling or vatted after, not sure entirely, but assumedly the post-barreling vatting) with whiskey from the standard Brown-Forman Old Forester distillery. Probably the best of that whiskey that doesn’t go into their Birthday Bourbons. (Now, I polished off a bottle of Old Forester last year, and I’m a bit sad we can’t get it – I drank it before but never owned a bottle, and it grew on me quite a lot for its price.)

Brown-Forman’s huge Jack Daniels-fueled pull is why Woodford, despite being a relatively small brand, gets such broad distribution. After Maker’s, Woodford was the first premium/super-premium whiskey I remember encountering in local bars. Anyway, on to the review…

In general, Woodford has some pretty standard flavor notes for bourbon – oak and vanilla dominate the nose, taste, and finish, and that’s pretty much what I think of, other than the flavoring grains and some spice, when I think of bourbon. The nose itself is pretty pungent, almost like an Irish whiskey. This makes sense, as I would later find out, as my favorite Irish whiskeys are made with a pot still rather than a column still, which apparently gives it a creamier, rounder flavour (or are, as Woodford is, a mix of pot and column stilled whiskeys.) This review is already getting lengthy, but at some point I’ll do some more research on the two types of stills and write up an explanation.

The taste is pretty standard, with some cinnamon at the edges, and a nice viscosity – a bit oily and it coats the mouth. The finish is pretty darn good. Oak and vanilla, again; medium length, 2-4 seconds, with some nice spice at the back end. Overall, Woodford does nothing wrong and a lot of things right, but nothing about it is very exciting or unique (other than that pungent, and not always pleasant, nose). Honestly, it pretty much tastes like a bourbon should – it’s just not bold or interesting.

The only problem is the price. It’s the most expensive of the standard LCBO bourbons, but it’s also typically among the best bourbons available. It’s a premium that doesn’t do anything premium but taste pretty good, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m just not sure if I want to regularly spend almost $50 on it when I could be trying interesting and unique new offerings at that price.

Another note about Woodford – like Elijah Craig, it has better and worse batches. It doesn’t swing as much as EC does from sublime to not-great (so its highs aren’t as high and its lows aren’t as low, but it is more expensive). I’ve been pleased with it every time I’ve drank it here in Ontario, barring a couple of less-than-great glasses that probably were from a bottle sitting open on a shelf forever at a bar. The bottle itself is pretty and functional but nothing too mindblowing, either, kind of like the whiskey inside.

Woodford's price hurts it, but I wouldn’t begrudge any high-rollers out there who keep a bottle of it as their go-to. 

Next time: either Wild Turkey 80 or Maker’s Mark. Woooooo.

Jim Beam Black Label - No Age Statement

Here’s a fun activity to do with your buddies: organize a quick tasting of Jim Beam White, Black, and Knob Creek. They’re all the same stuff, but aged a different amount of time, and bottled at different proofs – White at 80, Black at 86, and KC at 100. For best results, water down the KC to around 80 so things are standard across the board, and you’ll get a great idea of what aging does to a whiskey. Beam White is 4 years and Knob Creek is 9 years old. Note that the age statement isn’t how old all the bourbon is, just the minimum age of the barrels included (so they could put older bourbon in the mix

There are actually three different versions of Jim Beam Black (henceforth called J.B. Black) I’ve drank since moving to Toronto. The J.B. Black you can get in the states (and, IIRC, the Duty Free) is an 8 year old whiskey. It’s marketed as being twice the required age, which it is – Straight Bourbon must be at least 4 years old. When I first moved here, Beam transitioned their J.B. Black sold in Canada to a no-age-statement bourbon (so we don’t know how old it is, but minimum 4 years). Then, a few months later, they introduced the 6-year-old Jim Beam Black now on the shelves of the LCBO. (You might be able to still find some No Age Statement bottles if you go looking, but I wouldn’t worry about it.) Funnily enough, they advertise the 6-year old as being TRIPLE AGED, since the minimum for regular bourbon is 2 years. We get an an extra age multiplier despite our version of Beam Black being two years younger!

The whiskey I’m tasting tonight is one of the no-age-statement bottles. I don’t have a 6-year on hand, but I’ll try and do a side-by-side if I end up with one anytime soon. The nose is already a bit smoother than the Jim Beam White. The bourbon itself still has the nutty/yeasty Beam taste, but is sweeter, and the finish has more burn and char, but the burn is more the pleasurable, wood-driven kind I like in my bourbon, with a little bit of spice (probably from the rye) peeking through. There’s still a tiny bit of that yeast-driven Beam aftertaste there that I’m not entirely fond of, but it’s pretty drinkable.

As long as you're doing more than just ordering a bourbon and Coke at a bar, it’s definitely worth the three dollars more a bottle than Jim Beam White, and goes toe to toe with Four Roses at the same price point. It doesn’t blow my mind or anything – I’ve had some really decent pours of 8-year J.B. Black, but even then it’s only a 86 proof whiskey with the standard Jim Beam flavor. I’m actually surprised – I thought it was a few dollars more than Four Roses Yellow Label, but at $28.50 it’s a pretty decent deal! It’s also one of the few bourbons where I’m only paying $10 more than what I paid for it in the states, but I guess technically what we’re getting isn’t the same as what they are, and not as valuable.

Jim Beam Black is good option to convert your buddy who drinks only Jack Daniels and thinks he’s a tough guy for it, since it’s got a bit more heat but still has that “smoothness” that people seem so crazy about. Just don’t pay a premium for it if you’re out at a bar (especially since it doesn't cost a premium price).

Jim Beam Black is average or above-average on most of its ratings, but value is a solid 2/2.

It's better tasting than most bottom-shelf bourbons and a few premium ones, and a great value. It lost points on the nose and finish, since I'm not a fan of the yeasty funk, but if you love plain old Jim Beam (and you're not a rich dude who drinks Bakers or Booker's every day) then Black should probably be your everyday pour. If not, but you don't hate Jim Beam completely, check out my next review:  Knob Creek.

Buffalo Trace Longform Review

Buffalo Trace (owned by Sazerac Co) is probably the most exciting and hyped distillery in Kentucky. They do cool crazy stuff like the Single Oak Project and other experimental releases all the time, and their yearly Buffalo Trace Antique Collection of 3 Bourbons and 2 Ryes are consistently some of the best reviewed whiskies in the world. They also put out the Pappy Van Winkle line (more on this in the future), which is probably the most hyped American whiskey line among people vaguely in the know. Their marketing is pretty clever -- premium bourbon is a niche they (and Maker's) practically invented, since they came up with Blanton's, the "first single barrel bourbon." Their main product is the Ancient Age line of cheap-os, and their flagship bourbon is named after the distillery.

(They have a hooey reason why the distillery and bourbon are called Buffalo Trace - something about Buffalo trails or whatever. I think it's because buffalo pee is funny to drink.)

When I first tried Buffalo Trace years ago, as a person who drank only cheap bourbon, Maker's, and sometimes Knob Creek, I hated it. It's much more of a traditional bourbon than Maker's, with some peppery char throughout. The nose is surpisingly light for a 90 proof whiskey (or maybe just right, 90 proof isn't a lot), with strong floral and citrus notes, along with a little vanilla and, oddly (I might be wrong here) raisins or grappa. There's definitely some grappa in the taste, which flips the switch into ginger and ethanol. The taste definitely has a decent amount of char burnt in, along with the also-expected and tasty oak flavor.

The finish is notable for how I don't really care for it AND how essential it is for a bourbon neophyte to try, since I think experience the BT finish is essential in figuring out what the proper, basic bourbon flavor should be, especially up here in the cold north, absent cheaper old-school bourbons. It's of a medium length (not huge and forever-seeming like Booker's, but not almost-non-existent like Maker's or Jim Beam White Label). The fruit and floral flavors continue, and give way to an alcohol-y, almost aspertame sweetness, all the while buoyed in a lot of wood. Given a little time to rest, the finish becomes delicious -- limes and oak and pine, yum.

Like I mentioned before, Buffalo Trace might not be as appreciated by bourbon beginners, who will be overcome by the spicy and peppery tastes and miss out on the floral and citrus flavors that are carried throughout. I found the balance difficult to rate, since the bourbon's tastes are executed consistently all the way through -- citrus and char from first smell to last dregs of finish -- but I'm not entirely a fan of the tastes that are executed. The presentation is pretty nice, with a cool buffalo on the bottle, and the marketing is lovely, but I traditionally prefer the higher-end Buffalo Trace products. Quality skyrockets right above this product, with the Eagle Rare being quite tasty (and often available here) and higher-end stuff (like Hancock's Reserve and the BTAC, all unfortunately not yet available here) being either my regular pours or some of the best whiskey I've ever tried.

Value-wise, in the States, at $20 it's hard to beat. When base BT is $20 and Eagle Rare is $30, it's tough to decide if the upgrade is worth it. Here in Toronto, at $40 vs. Eagle Rare's $50, I would have to side with the Eagle Rare as the better value.

Booker's Batch # C03-A-29 longform review

It’s been over a week and I promised reviews, so here’s a couple. But first, Elijah Craig 12yr seems to be back in the LCBO, so go and pick up a bottle.

BOOKER’S

It seems odd to review Booker’s (Jim Beam’s top-end small batch whiskey) before I review normal Jim Beam, but I plan on reviewing all the standard LCBO bourbons in quick succession in June, when I have an excuse to get some cheaper whiskey (I currently am out of Maker’s, Woodford, and cheap Wild Turkey). So, then you’ll see reviews for Jim Beam (white & black), Knob Creek, Bulleit, Woodford Reserve, Maker’s Mark, and Wild Turkey 80 Proof.

Booker’s is a mighty whiskey, at barrel strength – my bottle weighs in at a hefty 127.9 proof (almost 64% alcohol) -- only the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection bourbons outweigh it in my collection, and nothing else at the LCBO comes close. It also commands a mighty price. That gives it a hefty burn. Be aware when tasting and smelling it – it can easily burn out your tastebuds and sense of smell! I tasted and rated it without the aid of water, but I will mention what I think of it after going back and sampling it a few more times.

The nose is traditional Beam, well within the company’s standard flavor profile, if quite a bit more weighty. There are hints of vanilla and caramel at first sniff, which gives way to a strong vanilla burn. Burn is the operative word here, as I also detect a bit of almond and burning oak chips.

The taste, undiluted, is very harsh and sharp, even compared to its barrel proof  counterparts (largely unavailable up here) like George Stagg, Noah’s Mill, Rare Breed, and Parker’s Heritage Barrel Strength. It has notes of black licorice  and pepper on the tip of the tongue; it’s hot and spicy like black cherry cinnamon  candy, with a bit of that nutty taste Beam often has.

The finish is looooong, the child that is the father of the man that is 60+% ABV, and almost suffocating (please don’t blame this entirely on the nature of the beast – as noted above, there’s some much less obvious high ABV bourbons out there, and I’m not looking for smoothness; the finish really comes down hard and heavy like smoke, rather than a sharp burn). There’s some stone fruit – peach maybe? – hidden in there, next to the walnuts and almonds and vanilla.

As noted before, this stuff is strong, expensive, and, ultimately, pretty good. It’s not a life-changing whiskey and won’t win over folks who aren’t yet fans of bourbon, but it’s worth having on the shelf for novelty’s sake. In fact, I’d call it an experienced bourbon drinker’s bourbon, unlikely to be appreciated by folks who haven’t gotten used to the allure of Kentucky’s finest export – novices will learn more from Knob Creek (and enjoy it more), or, if particularly adventurous, they can try Baker’s for an easier transition into the world of higher-proof bourbons.

I give it a 6.5, which can inch up to a 7 for the novelty, if you are an experienced drinker who lacks access to anything but the LCBO.

However, with a few splashes of water and time, the bourbon opens up a bit. Some mint appears in the taste and finish, and the vanilla slips open and reveals other sweet floral scents.  It’s still a strong hoss of a whiskey, but it’s a lot better than the lower end beam products. Watering it down further still reveals its superiority to base beam, but while adding your own water does make the drink a bit more of a bargain, the price difference up front is pretty significant. Of the whiskeys I own, this is the one I’m mostly likely to add water to – even the 70% ABV George Stagg I’ll often drink neat – and this is the whiskey I find benefits most from a splash or two.

Elijah Craig 12 (Heaven Hill Distilleries) Longform Review

I'm cheating a little here - posting a review before I tell you exactly what I'm talking about. However, I wanted to get started on the meat of the blog, so expect the full rundown of scores and what nose and finish and all that crap means next time.

Elijah Craig is a good friend of mine. I first heard of the crotchety old minister in the nascent days of my whiskey-drinking, when we chugged Kentucky Tavern* from the handle** or the plastic $2.50 half-pints we kept in our back pocket (or, sometimes, both). Maker’s Mark was for rich people and Jim Beam was a luxury.  A dude named Corey, a skater and, if I remember properly, a good man (lost to me in the sands of time and memory) asked me if I had ever had Elijah Craig 18 year, cuz that was the real fucking shit, the good shit, man. I sure hadn’t but I filed it away (remembering an incorrect year statement and a slightly wrong name). Well, fast forward three or four years and I finally make the acquaintance of the Good Reverend Elijah Craig, in both his 12 and 18 year expressions. Oddly enough, I’m not an enormous fan of the 18 year, but the 12 year was my regular pour up until moving to Toronto. It’s a crying shame that Heaven Hill’s finest son isn’t regularly available up here, but I at least managed to snap up a couple bottles when it came out back in November and relive the memories.

Elijah Craig 12 is a value bourbon (not in the “No-Name Brand” sense but in the ”bang for the buck” sense). In the States, it’s usually a buck or two cheaper than Maker’s. The big thing about EC12 is that it is strongly in the Rye category of bourbons – bourbons are at least half corn, but they draw a lot of flavor from the other grains mixed in, the main two being the spicy rye and the smoother, sweeter wheat. Rye bourbons are the “traditional” bourbon style; spicy and sweet. Wheat bourbons, like Maker’s, tend to be milder and lacking in “bite” (which lets them gain in complexity, which is why some notable long-aged bourbons are wheated). Another interesting phenomena about Elijah Craig is its inconsistency – while Maker’s Mark and Four Roses have entire advertising campaigns based around how consistent their bourbon is and how you’re always guaranteed to have the same drink, Heaven Hill (and a couple of other distilleries, like Buffalo Trace) doesn’t go for that angle. I’ll go into this idea in the future.  Just know that EC12 is sometimes heaven, sometimes good, and sometimes a completely average bourbon. Of the eight or so bottles I’ve drank in the last few years, I’ve only had a bottle I wasn’t impressed with once, so I wouldn’t worry too much about missing out on the “honey” bottles.

As for the review itself:

Elijah Craig will serve as a good benchmark for my bourbon tastings. It doesn’t set the world on fire, but it is one of my favorite regular drinks. It costs around as much as Maker’s (a little less in the States, but a little more here since it’s not a regular release and they can charge a premium), but is a much better example of what makes a bourbon a bourbon, not just because it’s a rye instead of a wheater. It also comes in a simple, iconic bottle with its big cork stopper. It gets a bonus in its intangibles for all of these reasons.

The nose has a lot of sweetness to it – a common characteristic to bourbon, but also a theme carried throughout the bourbon. I get a strong note of brown sugar, vanilla, oak, leather, and a little bit of that good spicy rye at the end.  The downfall to the nose is its harshness – the bourbon itself isn’t very harsh for a 94-proof whiskey, but the alcohol has a quick burn that can cut off the rest of the nose if you’re not careful. The nose is average, if distinctive of the Heaven Hill brand of bourbon.

The sweetness and rye continues into the first taste, with cinnamon and sugar burning the tip of the tongue. The whiskey gets smoother as it slides back along the tongue - the vanilla getting stronger, but is tempered with chili powder at the edges.  I’d rank it slightly above average.

The finish is smooth, sweet, and warm. There is a bit of oak without it being overpowering (a weakness of some older bourbons, including, by my reckoning, the 18-year-old version of this bourbon which hasn’t seen fit to arrive in Ontario yet);  a little bit of char gives It a nice, round taste, and the finish burns out slowly without “coming back” with a heavy nut or oak aftertaste. Quite good. The overall balance is a big advantage – the sweetness found in many Heaven Hill bourbons is present all the way through, while the age of the whiskey tempers and gives it some muscles to flex. It’s not enormously remarkable, but perfectly drinkable.  

While it does make a fine Manhattan, it doesn’t deserve mixing – it’s a perfectly capable sippin’ bourbon; not really complex but still very good, with a strong rye character and lovely finish propping it up over its peers.

*Kentucky Tavern, aka Old Kentucky Nightmare -- a monstrous bottom-shelf bourbon the likes of which I’ll certainly expound upon in the future

**a handle: a big ol’ 2-gallon bottle, usually with a handle on it