Maker's Mark 46 Kentucky Bourbon Whisky, 70cl

Product Information

The design of the Maker’s Mark 46 is more modern without veering too harshly from the tradition of the Maker’s Mark signature design or the Samuels family tradition. Maker’s Mark 46 Specs The Maker’s 46 is creamier and more decadent with bolder cherry and toasted oak notes, more spices with added complexity and an oilier mouthfeel. The complexity continues on the finish. A fantastic glass of bourbon. Elijah Craig Small Batch is nice and oaky and definitely much less expensive than the Lost Prophet! This wood-forward bottle will ring you in at just about thirty dollars. Samuels started working with his family’s mash bill to make his own bourbon. It was a 170-year-old recipe, he believed himself to be the fourth-generation distiller. Small Batch Bourbon is a high-rye content bourbon that is priced similarly to the Maker’s Mark 46 and is oh so delicious! It’s going to give you those great oaky notes that the Maker’s Mark 46 also has.

Samuels Senior achieved that goal by using red winter wheat in his mash bill rather than the popular choice of distiller’s rye. Rye can make the whiskey spicy and sharp, two things that Bill Samuels Senior was trying to avoid. Rich and sweet with heaps of plump maraschino cherries, oak, vanilla and caramel. There are hints of honey and buttery cinnamon toast. Easy drinking with cinnamon and fruity sweetness; it is lovely. However, when you put the Maker’s 46 next to it, you can immediately taste what the extra time in the wood did to the whiskey.Now we get to the distillation process! Maker’s Mark double-distills their bourbon in copper stills. Meanwhile, somewhere outdoors, their virgin American oak barrels are being aired out or “seasoned” for at least nine months to remove bitter-causing tannins that often happen in young wood. (Those bitter tannins can also make the whiskey bitter as it is aged.)

According to the label on the Maker’s Mark bottle, Bill Samuels Senior wanted to create a bourbon that was soft, creamy, and full-bodied. The distillery and its associated brand were sold in 1981 to Hiram Walker & Sons, starting a long line of acquisitions which eventually ended in their current position with Beam Suntory in 2011. The company is the third largest manufacturer of alcoholic beverages, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois (with the holding company located in Osaka, Japan). Product I suppose I can’t write this article without choosing which bourbon I favor. The truth is that I see value in having both of these bourbons at your home bar. One of the more recognizable bottles of bourbon on my shelf is the Maker’s Mark bourbon. With the bright red wax closure, you can spot this bottle at a distance. Today, I want to compare the Maker’s Mark vs Maker’s 46 bourbon whiskey to see how they differ.Starting at the nose, the initial wafts coming from the two glasses are pretty similar. Both have cherries, vanilla and oak. After a while, the Maker’s 46 shows a bolder, creamy wooden note on the nose. Looking at the Maker’s Mark, the vanilla and cherries continue on the palate. Of course, I also mixed the Maker’s Mark 46 in an Old Fashioned. This made a wonderful drink as well, and I wasn’t disappointed. The woody notes in the Maker’s Mark 46 really popped here, and all the burn was mellowed by the sugar and bitters. Maker’s Mark is written below the wax seal in medium font and even smaller in italics beneath it “Stave Profile No. 46” of course with the number ’46’ large and front and center of the bottle. Beneath the 46, in smaller font, are the specs of the whiskey. When I first reviewed Maker’s 46, I stated that everything about it seems to be more refined than the standard Maker’s. A large part of this was the sophisticated looking bottle that broke away from the iconic square influence of Maker’s brand. With the new Maker’s Mark 46 bottle design being reined in and now sharing the same design as standard Maker’s, the bourbon stands out just a little bit less on the shelf from a purely aesthetic standpoint. Thankfully the bourbon inside remains exactly the same.

On the nose, this bourbon is what I call in my notes a “butter bomb”. The nose is creamy, but it’s followed by wood and hints of cigar tobacco. Sadly, the variety of Maker’s Mark bourbon available in South Africa is (currently) limited to these two releases only. So what is the difference between these two bottles? The bottle does not have that signature label from Margie’s creative mind. In fact, only the original Maker’s Mark utilizes that element of her design. Instead of the paper label, Maker’s Mark 46 is a clear bottle with the color of the Maker’s Mark label used as the color of the font. Maker’s Mark has been a household name in bourbon for decades. Starting in 1953 with the husband and wife duo of Bill Samuels Senior and Margie Samuels, this tasty brand has been delivering high-quality and consistent bourbon since its iteration.That distillery, once Burks Distillery and now Maker’s Mark, has been producing whiskey since 1889.