Maker's Mark Cask Strength

Beautiful color and wonderful taste. Bought it to mix with Larceny to make the poor man’s Pappy but absolutely love it on its own.

Flavor at the beginning with a burn at the end

This was my first cask strength purchase, and I was eager to try this after thoroughly enjoying Maker's 46. This retails for $50 in NC and is widely available, making it one of the few cask/high proof bourbons regularly found on ABC store shelves. The only notes I get in line with the expert review are hints of hay and eucalyptus, but I smell no banana or tobacco. Up front you get a big alcohol burn on the nose after a swirl. This alcohol burn is stronger than other bourbons I've had recently at higher proofs. The other dominant smell is cherry oak, which is expected with Maker's. On the taste that alcohol continues and coats the mouth, with cherries and other dark or dried fruits. I get little of the spices noted in reviews. The oak I'm tasting does not have that sweet spiced dessert flavor, more of a woody vanilla sans cinnamon and nutmeg. The finish is medium-long, still fruit and oak and plenty of alcohol. I splashed a little water in this and it barely changed anything, so it holds up well if you wish to dilute it. Considering the relatively low proof of this cask strength, it packs a ton of flavor because it is distilled at a lower proof. I'm having a hard time deciding whether this is better than Maker's 46. But since they're both much better than Maker's Mark and widely available, I highly recommend trying both. My bottle is from batch #18-02 and is 55.45% abv (110.9 proof).