When you go to do a Maker’s Mark Private Selection it is an attack of the senses. Maker’s Mark is stunningly beautiful distillery and then when they took us to a newly finished tasting house that over looks one of the lakes that provides the water for Maker’s Mark, you needed to remember that you are facing the task of creating the best outcome out of 1001 different possibilities. You also remember that this will be going into the Community Batch that raises money for the Lee Initiative.

Time to put on the game face!

Make sure you put in the comments any bottles that you would like me to review.

NAME – Maker’s Mark Private Selection “COWS Did It On The Lakeside”

PROOF – Waiting for the final number and will update when I get. Probably about 111

AGE – non-age stated but Maker’s Mark Cask ages around 6 years and then the staves rest in the barrel for 9 weeks in a temperature-controlled limestone cellar

Stave Profile – 2 – Baked American Pure, 3 – Seared French Cuvee, 2 – Maker’s Mark 46, 2 – Roasted French Mendiant, 1 – Toasted French Spice

COLOR – dark toasted oak (1.4 tawny on the Whiskey Magazine Color Chart)

NOSE – Sweet caramel, cherry pipe tobacco, newly tanned leather, dried plums, hint of Hershey chocolate

TASTE – Sweet Montmorency dried red cherries, pear, toffee into a caramel syrup, chocolate chips in a crème brulee, tanned leather and a sweet tobacco. There is also a charred oak that finds its way in the back of the palate. An oily and viscus mouth feel.

FINISH – I would call this a medium to long finish. The cherry and chocolate runs to the end with the tobacco, leather and charred oak.

REVIEW – One of the goals that we went into the exercise was to make this a complex and well-rounded bourbon but also, we wanted ours to be viscus that many times is missing in several of the Private Selections as groups chase certain taste profiles. You could tell they don’t hear that very much when we specifically wanted a oily and viscus mouth feel. I feel the group wildly succeeded in our pursuit. I would put this Private Selection up against any of them and as we know there are a lot of good ones out there. The thing about this that separates it from the pack is it is more than a 1 or 2 trick pony and leaning into making sure the entire experience was considered.

FINAL COMMENTS – First I want to thank Maker’s Mark for giving us an incredible experience, allowing us to put together this ridiculously good bourbon and for adding this to their Community Batch. Our goal and my hope is this bottle will provide an attack on the senses for you like what we experiences at Maker’s Mark if you are lucky enough to get one.

To find out more check it out here – Maker’s Mark Private Selection

You can look at all the past Sunday Evenings Reviews and I would still love to hear what your personal reviews are from each of the whiskies reviewed.