Maker's Meditation (Round 4!) - Maker's Mark Wood Finish Series “The Heart Release” Review
Front and center, a disclaimer- this sample was provided to me by Maker's Mark at no cost, no obligation to review and with no strings attached. I thank them for their generosity in doing so.
Background
Ah Maker’s Wood Finish series, it’s good to have you back!Maker’s left the future of this series a bit up in the air after the 2023 edition (BEP), and it’s interesting to see that they are now referring to the 2019-2023 releases as “the first chapter” in their press release. While the chapter one releases focused on Maker’s production methods, the “second chapter” releases highlight different members of the Maker’s distillery team. This brings us to “The Heart Release”, which marks the start of the “second chapter” and is meant as an homage to the distillation team at Maker’s.
A super brief, likely unnecessary breakdown on why it’s called “The Heart”: distillation runs are divided into heads, hearts, and tails. The head is the initial bit of spirit off the still, and it’s usually full of compounds that range from smelly to outright dangerous (like acetone). The hearts is the good shit, high quality spirit made up of the highest ethanol concentration and containing desirable esters. The tails are basically less toxic, more bitter heads, and are often collected and redistilled.
Now, the distillery team apparently provided Maker’s team with their desired flavor profiles, and Maker’s went about crafting a release from there! To do so, they used a stave profile consisting of 10 virgin French Oak staves (similar to Maker’s Cask Strength 46), but utilized a blend of two different bourbons. One bourbon was finished with French Oak staves for 5 weeks, the other 9 weeks. Blended together and then bottled at cask strength, we arrive at “The Heart Release”.
Maker’s Mark “The Heart Release” (NAS, 111.7 Proof)
Nose: Muddled mint, honeycrisp apple slices with a bit of cinnamon and honey. It has a nice balance of fruit and spice forward notes. Gentle waves of lightly toasted oak.
Palate: It has a lovely, almost oily, palate coating. Maple syrup, toasted oak. Candied apple, sometimes presenting as brown sugar cinnamon pop-tarts, other times as French toast.
Finish: Apple strudel, polished wood, anise, and a little leathery. Medium in length, that coating carries through as does a touch of the muddled mint and a slightly leathery impression.
Great (7/10)
Overall: It’s great to see that Chapter Two picks up right where Chapter One left off, continuing a legacy of strong annual releases from Maker’s. It does remind me a TON of Maker’s 46 Cask Strength, which I now probably need to directly compare side by side. The good news is that, at an MSRP of ~$75, Maker’s has a pretty competitive price point for a limited annual release. I do wonder if you could get a close enough facsimile by snagging a bottle of 46 CS, but at this quality and given the price point, you’re in good hands no matter what.
Previous Maker’s Mark reviews:
