If we're talking bourbon, Maker's Mark was my first love. When I first discovered whisky and I bought a bottle of bourbon, it was most often Evan Williams Black or Ezra Brooks, which were both in the $12 range at the time. Maker's was my splurge bottle, my celebratory sip, the one I reached for when I was shooting the moon, when I was feeling like a big spender and willing to drop $25 on a bottle. It was the early aughts, I was just out of college and making an entry level salary, so this was what I could afford when I was having company. I liked Knob Creek, too, don't get me wrong, but Knob, if memory serves, was a little more expensive back then (still is), and there was something about unspooling the red wax seal from around the bottle top that felt...classy? I don't know if Maker's had a cask strength back then. Whenever the prices exceeded $30 my eyes glazed over, but if they did, it was certainly too dear back then for my wallet. Cut to 2019, pre-pandemic and a bottle of Maker's CS still gave me pause at $60. I had a kid in daycare and that was where most of my "disposable" income went. And thus, I had to be certain a bottle would be really good if I was going to pay about $50. Of course, it helped that the Cask Strength went on clearance and dropped to $52. I snapped one up then, but now, Maker's Cask Strength has become that unicorn among whiskies: that's right, for some reason it dropped to $40 a bottle in the past year. I'm not sure why. If I bothered looking it up I'm sure I could find out. But conjecture is sometimes more fun, right? My presumption here is that, now that they're doing their Cask Series at $60 and the 46 Cask Strength is also $60, they maybe couldn't justify charging $60 for the regular brand cask strength? I, of course, know that price often reflects availability more than quality, so I'm assuming it's not that all the sudden their distiller started tasting these and thinking, "That's terrible! Oh well, we'll put it out anyway and only charge $40." At $40, this is a great deal. Even though I haven't purchased a bottle of the standard Maker's in half a decade, my love hasn't necessarily flagged. And at the end of the day, I'll take this CS offering over their 46 CS any day. That said, it's not going to rock your work in the way that FAE 01 or FAE 02 might, but at $40, I've stocked up on this and it makes a decent sipper. The nose is sweet but not cloying, with cherry, vanilla, oak and hints of tobacco. I tend to think of that as fairly standard for Maker's when it comes to their aroma. On the palate, you can taste the wood with the vanilla and cherry sweetness on the backend with peppery spice on the long finish. The bottle I have opened now is Batch 21-01, and it's pretty similar to the last I had, which I think may have been 20-04. I picked up a bottle of 21-02 and 21-04 as well and am kicking around picking up another next time this goes on sale (usually it's $36.99 on sale where I am). If you like Maker's, this is well worth it. I'd also advise picking this up if you're a fan of Rebel. I tend to favor this, but the profile is similar to Rebel Distiller's Edition and the prices are identical. It does make me wonder what I might have thought of this if I could have tasted it back then. Would it have been too intense for me? I certainly wasn't used to Cask Strength in that day and age. Or would it have blown my mind and have been the best thing I'd ever tasted at that time? It doesn't blow my mind now, but then again, it doesn't have too. It simply has to satisfy, and it does that in spades.