Makers Mark has made itself a standard shelf bourbon with it's distinct capping style and standout squared genie bottle. Easily found and moderately priced it holds up well with the standards like Green Label Weller, Knob Creek, and Woodford, with it's warmer, softer wheated profile and modest burn. Nose: simply sweet and warm, hints of bread dough and barn door oak rise up with the mild ethanol burn. Nothing fancy and nothing to complain about. Palate: One of the nicer things about Makers is it actually carries forth the notes from the nose, what you smell is what you taste, light oak mustiness combined with the sweet corn/wheat mash and just tad of cinnamon heat. Mid-range sugar variants are a bit lacking as is typical with a lower proof, wheated mashes. Finish: The oak finishes off the overall flavor with a slight oiliness on the otherwise soft finish. Again, just like we noticed off the top, nothing too fancy and also nothing bad. Maybe the biggest difference between Makers and Weller(green label) is the barreling and aged oak notes in the Makers, something largely lacking in the green Weller. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Makers but like so many other "standards" you don't feel like you opened anything exceptional in this bottle. We'll take it happily in place of bar bourbons like McCormicks and be glad it's got a few things going for it besides the nice packaging. A good low end strait drinker or mixer you don't have to be embarrassed to have on your bar.