Maker's Mark Private Select, Star Hill Provisions - Review
Whisky Jean Samuels, the fearsome guardian cat of Maker's Mark Distillery
Age: No age statement (between 5-8 years old)
Barrel type: Charred fresh oak with 10 added center staves
Region: Kentucky
ABV: 54.8%
Price: $85
Additional details: non-chill filtered, natural color
Every Kentucky distillery seems like it now has a special or premium version of its standard bourbon lineup. Several of them are also wising up to the value of selling select single barrels to individual liquor stores, whiskey clubs, or even private citizens willing to pony up for the 250 bottles or so that come out of each cask. The value to these expressions is their uniqueness. When you drink a store's barrel pick from a line like Four Roses Private Selections or Maker's Mark Private Select, you can be pretty sure that you're never going to see that exact bourbon ever again.
Four Roses already sets the bar pretty high by offering ten different recipes by virtue of their two mash bill options and five alternative yeasts. However, Maker's Mark takes things up another notch -- really, two whole orders of magnitude -- through their unique Private Select program.
A spinoff of their Maker's Mark 46 line, all of these whiskies share a common origin story. After being distilled in the same fashion as Maker's Mark whisky (they spell it the Scottish way, in a nod to their ancestral home), the 46- and Private Select-bound juice spends a little extra time in a finishing cask. That second container, unlike any other bourbon barrel in the world, contains ten central staves that increase the whisky's exposure to the wood. Maker's Mark has five different options for those extra staves, each of which purportedly adds or emphasizes different flavors:
Baked American Pure - brown sugar, vanilla, caramel, spice
Seared French Cuvee - toasted oak, caramel
46 (Seared French Oak) - dried fruit, vanilla, spice
Roasted French Mocha - char, maple, cacao
Toasted French Spice - smoke, coumarin, spice
Apparently, it only takes nine weeks of finishing school to add some additional depth and complexity through this aging method.
This particular bottle, named Star Hill Provisions in honor of the distillery's on-site restaurant, is exclusively available at the gift shop (the other two distillery exclusives are the Tasting Panel and the Bill Samuels edition, which is effectively cask strength Maker's 46). Unfortunately, that means it comes at a slight price premium compared to other Private Selects out in the world, some of which are available online for as little as $60-70. Its stave combination is: 1 baked American pure, 4 seared French cuvee, 1 Maker's 46, 1 roasted French mocha, and 3 toasted French spice.
Nose: There is a decadent and darkly sweet note at the beginning, deeper than caramel and more like maple syrup or chocolate combined with some tart orange citrus. It reminds me of Theo chocolate orange bars and orange marmalade. There's also a lot of cherry in the mix. This dram is reminiscent of an Old Fashioned even without the additional accoutrements. One oddity that we noted is that, in a glencairn glass, this whisky has a spectacular, welcoming aroma. However, in a rocks glass with a wider rim, we both got a heavy dose of unpleasant ethanol vapor, along with more oak and vanilla. I've never experienced a whisky that changes so much from one glass to another.
Palate: The bartender at Star Hill Provisions compared this pour to a rye bourbon and noted that its spice level is rare in a wheater, which both my wife and I experienced when having our first dram. There are sweeter fruit flavors like cherry and apple, along with that rich orange-chocolate-maple combination from the nose, but also a strong cinnamon swirl. The spices express themselves as menthol and eucalyptus on some sips. On others, this dram hews closer to the traditional wheated profile with dollops of brown sugar.
Finish: Frosted wheat, caramel, brown sugar, and very little oak are the calling cards of this relatively young but impressive whisky. The finish is not overwhelming thanks to the high but not overwhelming proof, and another set of spices -- including sage and coriander -- come through on the tail end to add some needed bitterness or nuttiness to an otherwise dessert-like dram.
Value for Money and Final Impressions: At $85, this bottle is on the higher end of bourbons that we'd buy, and at the very high end of the price range for Private Selects. It gets points for being a distillery exclusive and a fond reminder of our visit to their lovely campus. And there's something to be said for the experience of dipping our own bottle in the signature piping hot, bright red wax that's the distillery's most recognizable mark. However, it's not the best value for money compared to, most obviously, all of the other Private Selects out there in the world that go for $15 to $25 cheaper. If anyone is close to a store that does barrel picks of Weller Antique 107 or the forthcoming Weller Full Proof, I'd expect that those will be even better value.
Score: B+