ContemplativeFox
Maker's Mark Wood Finishing Series 2021 FAE-01
Bourbon — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed
June 11, 2021 (edited August 29, 2021)
Rating: 14/23
N: Some spicy, kind of dusty wood comes through, along with a clear cherry wood scent (thin cherry mainly; fortunately, I don't smell mushroom), a bit of oiliness, some faint apricot, and a kick from the alcohol. There's sort of an Irish whiskey lightness going on here.
P: It tastes like fairly young, characterless bourbon that had some lightly toasted cherry wood soaked in it at first. I get that bright but kind of thin mineral cherry flavor alongside that typical mushroom funk. I start to get a bit of glacé apricot after a while too, but the cherry and funky mushroom are more pronounced. There's definitely a big spiciness (lots of pepper with some lighter ginger, cinnamon, and clove) here as well. The mushroom funk brings out a little bit of oversteeped wood chip flavor from time to time.
F: Thin cherry with mushroom, spice, and just kind of a light presence that belies the alcohol a bit.
- Conclusion -
I enjoy this decently, but I'm far from impressed. Aside from the apricot, this tastes like I took a decent, young bourbon that had been bottled at a highish proof (or perhaps just tossed some Everclear in) and let it sit for a bit in some lightly toasted cherry chips.
This is too aggressive and thin in flavor with substantial flaws for me to recommend it. When the apricot comes through, this is very enjoyable; however, that is not the majority of my experience with it. The complexity is actually quite good at times, but the mushroom, alcohol, and thin cherry throw the balance off a lot.
Oddly, this actually kind of reminds me of a spicier, less balanced, and less fruity Redbreast Cask Strength. That isn't to say that I would mistake this for an Irish whiskey, but that there are some notes in that direction.
I can understand any rating down to about a 9. The balance is totally out of whack and there are some seriously off notes here. I treasure those moments of apricot and complexity enough to give this a somewhat higher rating though. Side by side, I find that this is pretty close to Old Tub (14) and Kings County Barrel Strength (13), possibly comparable to Wild Turkey 101 (14), and not quite good as Elijah Craig Small Batch (15).
I've seriously considered ratings from 12 to 16 for this one and I've landed in the 13 to 14 range. I'll give it the 14.
Thank you @PBMichiganWolverine for sharing a sample of this.
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@ContemplativeFox That makes sense. An earthy bitterness that can be in high percentage dark chocolate or mushrooms plus a vegetal note of jalapeño for me.
@pkingmartin It was interesting reading your notes and comparing the flavors. I wonder whether what i described as mushroom is what you described as chocolate and jalapeno?
Based off your notes, it seems we had a similar experience with this one.
@PBMichiganWolverine I wonder that about a lot of limited releases too (JD SiB BP Rye comes immediately to mind). Commencing rampant speculation. The more charitable takes I can provide are that (1) they're testing the waters and for a release that goes over extremely well (like this one) they plan to eventually add a new code offering and/or (2) batch consistency is really difficult, so they may not be able to produce it as a core offering (contrast reception among the EC BP batches, especially B520 and B521). Less charitably, they may not have very good data about how long a limited release sat on store shelves, whether people liked it as a fun one-off vs a replacement for their staple, or what people were buying it instead of (i.e. they don't want to compete with themselves). Even less charitably, it could be that they just are running their business how they always did and they have a lot of inertia.
@ContemplativeFox what I’m curious about, and probably my ignorance is showing, is that if this was one of the better Maker’s ( I didn’t score it too high, but I did like it over any of their core offerings), why can’t they elevate their game and have these as their core offerings as well? Maybe not enough of a market relative to price point I guess
@PBMichiganWolverine It was fruitier and more complex, which I liked too. This reminded me though too much of some batches of blended/artificial aged whiskey I've made that didn't turn out as intended. Of course, those batches weren't all bad, but I do associate their profiles with mistakes.
This might be the only Maker’s I liked ——Seemed fruitier than their standard.