Maker's Mark Cask Strength

Very peppery

Nose - Honeyed vanilla simple syrup, sweet sugary oaky rock candy. Taste - Vanilla rock candy sweet, white pepper/cinnamon heat, light milk chocolate oakiness, faint bitter artificial splenda-like sweet near the end. Finish - Fading heat transitions to sweet oaky vanilla syrup, light cinnamon red hot sweet that ends in this faint herbal young/green wood bitterness. Score - 76/100 Final Thoughts - This, as expected, is pretty much the standard Maker's turned up to 11. Most of the flavors are still present, but there's definitely more of a proof burn, but I think that seems to add an additional layer of spice that helps mask the splenda-like sweetness I get from the standard offering. The odd thing is that I get a slightly different finish in that I get this weird young branch funk bitterness at the end, that although isn't bad, but doesn't help.