Maker's Mark Cask Strength Batch 20-04 (109 Proof)

Just a little stronger, fuller, and flavorful than regular MM, but still identifiable.

Oak and faint apple spice in the nose, with a nice corn/wheat taste that reminds me of regular Maker's Mark, before the big boozy finish kicks in. Worth the few extra bucks more over regular MM.

Rating: 15/23 When I first opened this, I got a lot of beets and mushrooms. It was essentially two of my least favorite profiles thrown together. I bottled this back up and gave it a couple of weeks with about 100ml removed, hoping that it would improve. N: Lots of wood. It's very tannic and goes a bit toward beets, but it balances that nicely with some chocolate that has appeared. Color me optimistic. Digging deeper, I get a waft of tangerine, then a light but persistent layer of corny sweetness. A bit of tartness comes out, initially bringing out more of that woody beet flavor, but then moving toward cherry. Some dustiness and spiciness start to emerge, bringing in dried ginger, clove, a little cinnamon, and faint jalapeño. An occasional bit of vanilla richness echoes out, but then it vanishes. I start getting a little bit of a floral layer coming off of the tangerine. This isn't the deepest or most complex nose I've encountered and I'm worried by the persistence of a bit of that beet; however, this is rich and full in a way that gives me hope. P: Bold with wood that turns into tannins and chocolate. The beets are now faint and much easier to overlook. The tannins have smoothed out too. There's a bit of spiciness about the tannins like baking spices. This has gone from not as good as the regular Maker's Mark to substantially better. The chocolate develops a little bit of a tootsie roll flavor as it starts to pick up the moderate caramel, a little licorice, and some of the vanilla. Chocolate, wood, cinnamon, black pepper, apple, orange peel, green apple, with a substantial vanilla backing. F: Tootsie rolls, spices, wood. Occasional hints of tangerine. Not a lot going on hare, but it's hedonistic and lasts. - Conclusion - I'm enjoying this pretty well. I'm not sure it's quite worth the money - which was also my original conclusion when trying this - but possible paying a bit too much for this one doesn't make me all that sad. I can say for sure that this is no Wild Turkey Rare Breed (18-19/23). A 17 would be a tough sell for this, but I could maybe believe it. Really, this seems closer to Wild Turkey 101 (14/23). This is somewhat richer and fuller than the Wild Turkey, but it's also far less complex. I like that both of them have profiles that aren't that common elsewhere. This seems like it might be a bit more sippable because it's less challenging, but it also seems like a better mixer because it's fuller and richer, so I'm thinking that this is at least a 14, though not necessarily more than a 14. At times, I wanted to go up to a 16 for this because of the rich chocolate notes I got. It really improved substantially a while after opening. I don't think that this is below a 14, but it is kind of simple and doesn't really hit me with that old of a flavor. I find this highly competitive with Old Grand-Dad 114 (15/23), but at the same time this doesn't seem to be able to shake Wild Turkey 101 off of its heels. Russell's Reserve 10 isn't crushing this though This also does well against George Dickel 15 Single Barrel. It's a tough call, but I'm going to land in the middle and go with a 15. As a sanity check, I compared this against a few others before committing. This. crushes Ancient Ancient Age and Buffalo Trace (11-13/23). On the other end, Wild Turkey Rare Breed (18-19/23) isn't as far away as I'd expected. The Geroge Dickel 15 increasingly seems flawed to me. On the other hand, Resilient 15 (18/23) (a Dickel independent bottling) is more complex, mature, and refined than this is. So this is in the 14 to 17 range. Which means that a 16 is more likely than I had thought before. Really, I'm looking at a 15 or 16 here now that this has had some air. It's pretty enjoyable. Ehh, I'll give this another rating before killing it, but right now I think it's a 15, and I think I've given it an extensive chance.