Maker's Mark 46 Cask Strength

Maker’s Mark 46 Cask Strength

Cost: $68 at a local liquor store (South Carolina)

Age: NAS

Proof: 110.3 proof

Mash Bill: 70% corn/16% wheat/14% malted barley

Batch 23-01. Reviewed neat in a glencairn.

Appearance: Auburn in color. Very oily looking with many medium, slow legs.

Nose: Burnt brown sugar and barrel char stand out immediately. There’s a sprinkling of orange zest and leather. I’m getting zero ethanol despite the proof.

Palate: Caramel chews with a light chocolate drizzle. There’s a definitely charred oak presence that adds a lot of earthiness to this. There’s a mild bite of baking spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, cocoa powder, etc. All present. It has a fairly soft mouthfeel and coats the palate well. There’s an astringent sting on the backend that lets you know this is cask strength.

Finish: There’s a treat I remember my mom making when I was a kid. When she would make pies, the excess pie crust dough she didn’t use she would cut into long strips about ¾” wide and sprinkle white sugar and ground cinnamon on them and then bake them in the oven until you had these delectable strips of flaky sweet cinnamon treats. That! I get that in the finish. There’s a mix of spicy cinnamon, baked pie crust, and sweetness that lingers, dominating in that order. There’s a mild warmth that lingers on the palate and a mellow hug high in the chest. The finish isn’t too long, but it’s not short either.

Rating: 8.0/10

Overall: This is a stellar product from Maker’s Mark! 46 is what started their entire wood finishing series. While BRT-01 still might be my favorite expression from MM’s wood finishing series, I love that this cask strength variant of the original 46 performs so well. It’s much easier to obtain than a majority of the sought after wood finishing batches (hell, I’ve still yet to see a BEP in the wild!), yet it can still give a hell of a good experience! It’s everything I would expect from a good wheated bourbon and some. For being a NAS bourbon as well, there’s nothing that tastes “young” about this expression. Top notch!

A Moment of Reflection: I love Maker’s Mark. MM was the first “whisky” that really got me into enjoying whiskeys and bourbon. Prior, it was always things like Jack and Coke, Beam and Coke, that was about it – just a vessel to get a buzz back then really. Then I had a Maker’s and Coke and it just hit different. It was so easy drinking that I started trying just MM and a splash of water, MM on the rocks, and MM neat. It was then that I realized MM has a sweetness to it that the other bourbons I had previously didn’t, and that’s why it just blended with the coke so much better. Started digging into it and learning about the difference between rye and wheated bourbons and then down the rabbit hole I went. I was a bourbon guy after that.

Fast forward 15 years. While I’ve branched out to other things that I now more commonly reach for, Maker’s Mark products are a bit of a “homecoming” of sorts for me. I used to always keep a bottle of OG Maker’s on hand, but haven’t really done that in a few years. But I still love picking up a MM expression from time to time and while enjoying it, reflect on the fact it was MM that created this vice I have. But, as Abraham Lincoln once said, “It has been my experience that folks who have no vices, generally, have very few virtues.” And to that, I’ll cheers this delicious glass of Maker’s Mark 46 cask strength with a smile on my face!

1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.

2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.

3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.

4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but many things I’d rather have.

5 | Good | Good, just fine.

6 | Very Good | A cut above.

7 | Great | Well above average

8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.

9 | Incredible | An all time favorite

10 | Perfect | Perfect