Maker's Mark 46 French Oaked

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.