Maker’s Mark - The Heart Release

COST: $90 for 750 mL bottle from local liquor store (South Carolina)

AGE: NAS (but MM is generally ~6 years old plus finishing time for the wood finishing series)

MASH BILL: 70% corn, 16% soft red winter wheat, 14% malted barley

PROOF: 111.7

I’m a big Maker’s Mark fan and when BEP came out in 2023, I had heard somewhere that was going to be the end of the Wood Finishing series. This saddened me, but I figured something else would be coming around the corner. Fast forward 14-ish months later, I saw the press release about The Heard Release and how this is a new chapter of the Wood Finishing series, I immediately had the thought, “We’re back, baby! Time to prepare for the hunt!”

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn

APPEARANCE: A little darker than standard Maker’s Mark (1.6), thin legs, nice beaded ring is formed with some tiny tear drops raining down.

NOSE: Caramel, a pop of cherry, and a fresh opened bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels lead off. Pulling my nose away from the rim a little bit and I get pancakes lathered with melted butter and maple syrup; dipping the nose deeper into the glass and I pick up loads of baking spice and toasted oak.

PALATE: The mouthfeel is on the thinner side. There’s a cross between a cherry cordial and a caramel filled Ghirardelli square that lands on the palate right away. A little ethanol is picked up on the mid-palate as baking spices begin to show up. Sweet oak enters as it transitions into the finish.

FINISH: The nose and palate are about what I was expecting, but the finish has some interesting aspects. First off, the finish is long and continues to provide notes for a solid 30-45 seconds after the swallow. The barrel character of this shows up the most in the finish with notes of sandalwood, some barrel char, and even a freshly cut, unseasoned oak. There’s a little brown sugar sweetness that lingers as well as a touch of bright, maraschino cherry syrup. I find that the earthy, woody notes and the sweet notes ebb and flow throughout the entire finish. I also find that the chocolate note will occasionally swell up again in the finish. Very involved finish!

RATING: 8.3/10

VALUE: 8.2/10 (this value is based on a ratio of the $/mL to the rating above compared to this same ratio for all other r/Bourbon reviews I’ve made and normalized to 10)

OVERALL: This is noticeably better than Maker’s Mark 46 cask strength, but not by much. It’s also strangely different enough even though both are using all French oak staves for the finishing. The chocolate and cherry notes were very consistent throughout all phases of the sip and would show up in different forms. Whereas all the other notes (other than the oak) would come and go throughout the various phases. I really enjoy this! BRT-02 was my favorite MM release (out of what I’ve tired) and I gave it an 8.1. The Heart Release is now my favorite Maker’s Mark expression to date.

BEHIND THE BOTTLE

The first chapter of the Wood Finishing series focused on using different wood finishes to create various flavor profiles to mimic different points or elements of Maker’s Mark production. For this new chapter of the Wood Finishing series, Maker’s Mark is focusing on creating expressions that highlight different teams within the company, and the distilling team was appropriately the first team to be featured. The distilling team was asked about nuances of their day-to-day job and senses that stand out. The innovation team took this knowledge and created a wood finished product that they thought would represent what the distilling team described, and after their approval, it was dubbed The Heart Release, because the distilling team is the heart of Maker’s Mark.

The Heart Release is a combination of two batches of Maker’s Mark that were finished with virgin toasted French oak staves, 10 staves in each barrel. Each batch was finished a different amount of time: one batch was finished for 5 weeks and the second was finished for 9 weeks. After the finishing was determined to be complete (by taste), the two batches were then recombined and bottled at cask strength to create The Heart Release.

The side of this bottle states that this is “Volume 1 of 5.” I can only assume that this means that there will be 5 different expressions in this new chapter of the Wood Finishing series. I’m very much looking forward to the rest, but The Heart Release certainly sets a high bar!

1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level

2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage

3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28

4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select

5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Widow Jane Decadence

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, WhistlePig PiggyBack SiB, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, JD SiB BiB, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Barrel Bourbon Batch T8ke, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08