Maker’s Mark has been on a tear over the past few years, releasing two fantastic versions of its Cellar Aged bourbons that were the highest age statements to date from the Kentucky distillery. The distillery also has its Wood Finishing Series, which kind of ended in 2023 and sort of returned again in 2024, although you’d be hard pressed to tell what the differences really were between the two chapters. Regardless, there are some excellent whiskeys in that lineup, and Maker’s just dropped the first edition for 2025.
The new Wood Finishing Series bourbon is called the Keepers Release, and it’s meant to be a tribute to the team that works in the distillery’s warehouses overseeing the maturation of the bourbon produced there. A source of pride for the distillery is that each barrel is rotated by hand to ensure that the whiskey within ages to the exacting specifications of the team, led by eighth-generation whisky maker and managing director Rob Samuels (Maker’s spells it without the ‘e’ like the Scots). “The Keepers Release was born from our close collaboration with the Maker’s Mark warehouse team, the guardians of our barrels,” said master distiller Dr. Blake Layfield in a statement. “Their sensory experience of Maker’s Mark is unlike anyone else’s—the aromatic oak at different times of the day, evolving tasting notes of our whisky as it ages over multiple seasons—which provided inspiration and helped us shape the flavors of this release.”
Each Wood Finishing Series release undergoes a unique secondary maturation in which custom wood staves are inserted into the barrels, as opposed to the typical finishing method of dumping whiskey into a new set of casks. That process has its roots in Maker’s 46, a bourbon created by Bill Samuels, Jr. (Rob’s father and son of founders Bill Sr. and Margie) in 2010 that was finished by inserting 10 seared French oak staves into barrels of whiskey after being transferred to the distillery’s limestone cellar to mature in a more controlled climate. As far as the Keepers Release, not a lot of information was provided about the types of wood staves that were used, but the official tasting notes describe a flavor profile with “rich, oak-forward aromas of seasoned wood, brûléed sugar, and tobacco, leading to a long, enveloping finish characterized by dried dark fruit and a lingering roasted sweetness.” We do know that the bourbon is marriage of two different batches, each finished with 10 staves for five to nine weeks before being blended together and bottled at 109.2 proof.
Maker’s Mark Wood Finishing Series The Keepers Release is available now (SRP $75) at specialty retailers around the country. You can also find the rest of the lineup, including previous Wood Finishing Series bourbons, available to purchase at ReserveBar.
Authors
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Jonah Flicker