Tastes

This is going to be a serious Maker's 46 review and comparison between the new style bottle ( square, similar to standard Maker's Mark bottles ) and the old style bottle ( round, similar to Maker's Mark special bottlings ) because I previously swore up and down that the old style bottling was better. I live in a part of the country where retailers are starting to phase out the older style bottles for the newer style. So places like Total Wine, Bevmo and Liquor stores who cycle through inventory quickly are all carrying the new style, while retailers like Amazon Fresh, Target and generally any place that does NOT come to mind when you think the word "bourbon" still have limited stock of the old style bottles. Why am I being so serious and thorough about Maker's 46? Well, this one is core for me. No matter what I have on my shelf, there's always a bottle of 46. It's one of the bottles I consider my daily drink and has been a long time favorite of mine. It's one of the bourbons that initially got me into drinking bourbon and whiskey. So, I take my Maker's 46 fairly seriously. Both bottles were purchased on the same date, both have been opened and enjoyed with about half the bottle remaining, both were poured into identical Glencairn glasses and are being tasted by myself at the same time. Nose: There is a surprising difference on the nose. The old bottling is soft, sweet and smells of milk chocolates and creamy vanilla. Its almost too sweet of a nose, swimming with sugary delight. The new bottling takes on a harder edge. The chocolate is still there for sure but oddly enough I now smell some faint fruitiness and tartness, like chocolate drizzled raspberries. The new bottling does hit the nose with a bit more strength. Taste The old bottling starts with sugary sweet coconut macaroons. Vanilla dances around the mouth with a little milk chocolate mid taste. The finish comes on quickly, a tad astringent and a little bit tart, raspberries dusted with dark cocoa powder. The finish is quick. The new bottling starts also with sugary sweet cookies but more a molasses spice cookie. Gone was the hint of coconut from the old bottling. Mid taste starts to sing with a little bit of vanilla but then is quickly cut by the rather strong finish. That finish begins with a fairly heavy astringent punch to the mouth, it's a little jarring at first. Tart raspberries quickly pull the edge off the finish before it spirals out of control and that tartness carries the astringency toward a drier finish than the old bottling. Man... I'm going to miss the old bottling. I may just head to my local Target and hoard a bunch. On its own, the new bottling 46 isn't terrible. I'd probably give it a 3.75 on its own and I certainly prefer it over the standard Maker's Mark. But the old bottling 46 still has my heart and on its own it would be a solid 4.25 for me. So combined, I will leave this rating at a nice, round 4.0.

Having tried and been a fan of 12 year Aberfeldy for some time as one of the best bargain single malts on the market, I got a gift pack for a friend for Christmas of 12, 16 and 21. We only recently got into the 16 year and its just fine. Tastes are subjective but I thought this was a little too fruit heavy for my taste. Credit where its due, it is smooth through and through and goes down with no burn. Toward the end of the taste do I detect some dark chocolate sweetness? It's almost chalky. No.. for me, I would save the green and get 12 year or go a little fancier with the 21. But really this whole lineup tastes much pricier than the price point suggests and are actually readily available anywhere. A plus in these crazy times.

What an absolute treat this one was. I'm a sucker for whiskies and bourbons that taste much more expensive than they cost and this one hits right up there with the best of them. For 100 proof you expect burn, but you don't really get it. Yeah, it tastes a little bit hot but overwhelmingly you get that satisfying, sweet and chocolatey Four Roses taste with a hint of spiciness from the proof and a whisp of underlying smokey sweet oak. Honestly, if I didn't look at the bottle and did a blind taste test, I would never guess this is 100 proof. I would be a fool not to keep a bottle of this stuff in my regular rotation.

Reminds me of a higher proof Glenlivet Founders Reserve. Not my favorite, but not awful either. I can't speak for other parts of the country but at a sub-$40 price point out here in CA, this is a bit of a bargain. Comes in just under 100 proof but it tastes of its proof as well. Underlying alcohol hotness throughout the taste, with a hint of chocolatey sweetness. I found there to be a slightly medicinal bitterness about the aftertaste. This tastes rough around the edges but perhaps that was the idea, given the illicit nature of the original whiskey of which this is named after? I don't know about this one. If French Oak wasn't so damned hard to find out here, I'd happily pay the $30-$40 price bump for a bottle of that over this.

What a supremely delicious single malt indeed. Aberfeldy is, in my humble opinion, the often overlooked but value for money stand out. When I tasted their 21 year, I would swear it was a much more expensive bottle than its actual price point. This whiskey tastes of sweet, tongue coating honey. A little bit of herbaceous spice kicks the middle of the taste, reminds me of peppercorns. It finishes with a slight hit of peat smoke but that underlying honey sweetness stays through the whole taste. Their 12 year is a delightful and smooth selection. This 21 year is a complex, robust and supremely rich and sweet whiskey. I have an unopened bottle of 16 and cannot wait to try it. I think Aberfeldy has earned a permanent home in my rotation.

I didn't give Makers 46 Cask Strength a fair assessment prior and now with both this limited bottling quickly heading to extinction AND the old formula 46 being phased out, how could I refuse the opportunity to buy a bottle of Maker's 46 Cask Strength for a good, thorough taste? Likely stemming from the potent 110 proof bottling, gone is the overly sweet nose of standard 46 and with it comes a pretty noticeable wallop of ethanol. However, if you smell past the proof you still get familiar vanilla and maple. There's a bit of herbaceous spice on the nose, too that isn't present in 46. The beginning of the taste is decadent and sweet, absolutely bringing back the sweetness of 46. Caramel swirls with milk chocolate on the front of the taste and then out of left field, some spicy cinnamon prickles you mid tongue. Weird... is this from the increased proof? The finish is dry and oddly reminds me of a high rye bourbon. A warm, familiar mustiness finishes us off, like an old leather jacket. More complex and hotter than 46, but between this, the new bottling and the old bottling of 46... I think I'd rather the old bottling 46. BUT if your goal is to get trashed with as few sips as possible, the 110 proof potency of this bottling will surely get you there.

Man this is a potent whiskey. Bottled at 63.9% ABV, this selection oddly tastes hotter than some slightly higher proof offerings I've tried from Highland Park. ( Westray, for example is bottled at 65.1% ABV ) The front of the taste is very sweet. Its hard to tell that this was aged in sherry seasoned casks because I don't taste the powerful influence of berries or red fruits like I normally would in a sherry cask whiskey. At this proof, the whiskey creates an interesting tingling sensation on my tongue. Not unpleasant but unexpected indeed. Toward mid mouth and all the way through, the sweetness gives way to a sensational hit of peat smoke. This whiskey finishes hot, with a stinging bite and high proof warmth. I get that cask strength selections are intended to be sampled with varying amounts of water drops. However, much to my downfall I cannot bring myself to introduce water or ice to any whiskey in the Highland Park catalogue. Still, for such a high proof offering; this whiskey still sings with the complexity I did not expect to find at this ABV. Even though this might be one of my least favorite Highland Park offerings, it is still significantly better than a lot of competing cask strength whiskies in this price point.

I love Glenmorangie selections and typically find them fruit heavy and delicate. This Cadboll Estate batch 2 is a surprising and interesting departure. Throughout the majority of the taste there is a bit of spicy heat. Not an herbaceous or alcohol type heat but the type of heat that makes your mouth and inside of your cheeks tingle a bit. It isn't unpleasant. The initial taste is very sweet, as you'd expect from ex-bourbon casks. It tastes of creamy vanilla going down and leaves a lasting aftertaste that reminds me a bit of a Werther's original. It's not bad. Given how limited these Caboll releases are, its well worth it to buy a bottle yourself to try.

This is one hot Maker's Mark! Neat on a fresh pour, it tastes like a fiery shield of alcohol heat with that familiar standard Maker's sweetness toward the end of the taste. Not the best but certainly not the worst. Its rather interesting though: I have found that I prefer Makers and Makers 46 on an ice ball while their more limited selections ( any Wood Finishing series or Select series ) I much preferred neat, high proof and all. And some of those limited selections are certainly higher proof than this 101 proof. Yet here we are: a relatively tame proof ( vs other cask strength offerings from Maker's ) that seems like it needs a bit of ice to cool down. After adding an ice ball, this bourbon all seems to come together. Sweet, with a lot of corn on the mash bill. There seems to be an almost syrupy quality about it as it coats your tongue. There is a bit of spice that I have found lacking from standard Maker's or 46..perhaps it's been too long since I've had a taste? Look: for the price of this bottle vs standard Maker's or 46; it is worth a try. But really, if its pure smoothness you're after: 46 won't disappoint. If I'm after Maker's served up high proof, any of the Private Select or Wood Finishing Series is light years better than this... but then again they are double the price or more.