What’s the first word that comes to mind when you think of Maker’s Mark? Antiquated? Reliable? Stubborn? Tasty? Chances are, it’s a combination of words, and the four listed all quickly spring to my mind. To that end, Maker’s Mark’s guiding principle is their “flavor vision” of simply making enjoyable whisky without bitter or sharp notes. Combine this with 70 years of experience and the distilling team effectively has the process down like an experienced chef cooking the perfect meal. Everything from the 110 barrel entry proof to the six to seven year maturation period and top-to-bottom barrel rotation halfway through aging contributes to a unified and consistent goal for most Maker’s Mark products.

This was well and good before bourbon’s popularity surged around 2015. Where drinkers of yesteryear were far fewer in number and more easily satisfied by relative simplicity, the post-pandemic market continues to crave variety and innovation. For some brands, the way to accomplish this is ostensibly simple: release older products. Jack Daniel’s recognized this demand and responded accordingly in 2021 with a new 10-year whiskey. Between that release’s success and probable foresight from Brown-Forman, the fact a 12-year version soon followed was of little surprise.

Why am I mentioning Jack Daniel’s in a Maker’s Mark review? Because whiskey fans all but begged both distilleries to release aged products to the market. In the case of Maker’s Mark, the aforementioned flavor vision was paramount to Bill Samuels, Sr., and his sole advice to Bill Samuels, Jr., was simply to not “screw up the whisky.” One could construe that to mean, “don’t change things,” but the existing product line could also remain as intended while Samuels, Jr., and the rest of the team toyed with their own variations. Henceforth, the introduction of stave finishes for Maker’s Mark 46, Private Selections, and the Wood Finishing Series helped Samuels, Jr., put a new spin on the brand while retaining the Maker’s foundation.

Although each of these products garnered critical acclaim, some folks felt they were a way for the distillery to dance around not bringing an age-stated product. Love him or hate him, Fred Minnick seemingly championed the public griping for this dream to become a reality. We can trace this back to 2015, when Fred tried 12-year-old Maker’s Mark at cask strength with Samuels, Jr., with the two individuals having considerably different reactions to it. Case in point:

Bill: “If we could borrow this nose and throw the whisky away, I’d be perfectly happy.”

Fred: “You don’t like this whisky?”

Bill: “Not really.”

Whether it was up to the team at Maker’s Mark or Beam Suntory (or both), the clamoring for an older Maker’s Mark product finally bore fruit in 2023 with the introduction of Cellar Aged Bourbon. Although it’s easy to look at the age of this inaugural release and call it a day, there’s a reason for this line’s name. For the aforementioned stave-finished expressions, Maker’s Mark transports the already-matured barrels to their limestone cellar, which they regulate to no more than 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Cellar Aged utilizes a similar process: age the whisky as usual for about six years, then transport the barrels to their cellar for another five to six years. Barrel interaction is reduced at lower temperatures, so Cellar Aged allows Maker’s Mark to put an attractive age on their bottle without seeing the same impact if left exposed to Kentucky’s weather for the full aging period. This also gives the distillery more control over the second stretch of aging compared to the version Fred tried, which supposedly spent the second half of its aging at the bottom of a regular rickhouse.

Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged will be an annual, cask strength release moving forward and retail for $150. Ages and proportions will vary, with the initial, 2023 release comprised of 13% 11-year and 87% 12-year. Like all Maker’s Mark products, it forgoes chill filtration.

Nose: Leads with classic Maker’s Mark wheat grain and cornmeal notes while sweet hints of lavender and rosemary add an interesting flair. A potent blast of blackberries, stone fruits (apricot, peach), and vanilla soon form the backbone before buttermilk pancakes slip in while an air of mint lends levity to a rich yet delicate pour. This smells impeccably layered; I keep finding new and exciting dimensions every time I return.

Palate: Lights up with tobacco, tart peach, cherry, and some bright barrel spice. The viscosity becomes more apparent after a couple of seconds on the mid-palate, going from slightly granular to syrupy. Retains that florally cornmeal personality from the nose but laces it with more vanilla and caramel notes, giving off less raw and more roasted corn, while the barrel influence lends a balanced level of dessert-like sweetness.

Finish: The grain presence comes off more raw and hot here after the third sip. Tart, frozen strawberries, vanilla bean, mint, and lavender linger for days after the creamed corn and butterscotch notes hit their apex. It’s here that Cellar Aged feels less like a traditional bourbon and more like a cask strength scotch or Irish whiskey in personality.

I long looked at the possibility of Maker’s Mark releasing an age-stated product similarly to the way I look at any allocated or otherwise hyped-up product. Would I be happy to see it happen? Sure. Would I expect it to happen and be obtainable? Absolutely not. Imagine my immense surprise when I was able to snag a bottle locally for $175. And as you can tell from my notes, this is a spectacular and positively sublime pour. I’ve been a fan of every Maker’s Mark product I’ve tried, even the ones that missed the mark (I had to) oh so slightly. To that end, Cellar Aged feels like the ultimate “for the fans” release for the distillery’s many fans. Those who generally don’t like or are iffy about the Loretto-based brand’s profile probably won’t be won over nearly as much, least of all for the price.

This brings us to another noteworthy aspect of Cellar Aged: its place in the Maker’s Mark portfolio. A big reason I regarded the distillery so highly was the fact they produced high-quality whisky that was generally available and only sold into triple digits when certain stores got overzealous with their pricing. Cellar Aged shifts that dynamic. Here we have a product that, for all intents and purposes, is what many Maker’s fans have long craved, but at a rather prohibitive cost. We could boil it down to Maker’s Mark “going with the flow,” so to speak, by releasing a limited edition benchmark product at a premium price, effectively mimicking what nearly every other whiskey brand is doing. Besides, Maker’s Mark used to pitch their product as “it tastes expensive…and it is,” so one could argue Cellar Aged harkens back to that advertising.

Regardless of pricing and availability, I’m comfortably putting my name into the “love it” camp for Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged. I can see this being a bit of an acquired taste, especially if judged by how it performs in side-by-side tastings. However, as a Maker’s Mark fan, this almost feels like the exact product the distillery was meant to produce and release to the masses. I say “almost” because there’s a point in the pour, namely between the end of the palate and the start of the finish, that I can see a more traditional aging process bringing a more complete and refined experience to the table. Cellar Aged is already a showstopper that goes against the profiles of many other premium bourbons in a way that’s equally unique and exciting. Yet I can’t help but feel that we’d get that final push into masterpiece territory if the distillery gave the fans what they want without circumventing part of the aging process. Time will tell if that happens; I just hope it doesn’t take nearly as long.