When my wife and I visited Kentucky in April, our first stop was Maker’s Mark and we ended up walking away with several special releases. I previously reviewed the 2024 “Heart Release,” part of their official “Wood Finishing Series,” and thought I had rendered opinions on the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, a distillery-only “Private Selection,” but it turns out I forgot to do that one…so it’s still to come. I do also have a store-pick Private Selection called Four Square that will be in my review rotation, but today I’m featuring the absolute best Maker’s Private Selection that I’ve ever had: Panna Cotta.
Panna cotta is a dessert I’ve never had, but now wish I could find locally and soon…it features a gelatin-thickened sweetened cream flavored with vanilla, coffee, or other ingredients and served with fresh berries on top. The whiskey that is named after it is part of the wood finishing and cellared series that Maker’s Mark embarked upon several years ago. After their initial aging, this whiskey gets rebarrelled along with extra staves for 6 months (or more) of extra aging in their cool cellar. The staves in question for this are 4 baked American Pure, 1 seared French Cuvée, 2 Maker’s 46, and 3 roasted French Mendiant. It’s bottled at 108.4 proof and available in the Maker’s Mark Distillery Gift Shop…when it’s in their rotation.
It is a medium-dark amber color in the glass…probably slightly darker than standard Maker’s but not a huge amount. I swirled it around in my glass and gave it a good sniff, picking up copious notes of caramel and vanilla, along with some dark fruit and a tiny bit of oak. Taking a sip of this is pure heaven…it blasts off on the tip of the tongue with notes of sweet cream, blueberry, and honey. As it hits the mid-palate I started to feel a little of the spice imbued by the relatively high proof point, but there was still just a massive vanilla and berry note that remained throughout the long and wonderful finish. Tiny sips are all that is needed to coat your palate and bring through all these flavors…and this stuff is simply amazing. I will be very disappointed if they don’t have it available on our next visit to Maker’s Mark…my recommendation: buy a case! (Just kidding, they probably won’t let you buy that many!)
I paired this with a mild Oliva Connecticut Reserve, something that would taste nice (it is a favorite mild cigar of mine), but allow the sweet, rich fruitiness of this bourbon to really shine.
