Just a word about the way we are going to approach this review series. A maximum of 10 points will be available for each visit…with 2 points available for “presentation” (basically the first impression the place puts on based on the sites, sounds, friendliness, etc), 3 points for the “experience” (whatever tour or tasting we did…which can include just doing a flight at the bar), 3 points for the Gift Shop (this will encompass all the gift shop has to offer EXCEPT for the final category), and 2 points for bottles exclusive to the distillery.
After several hours of driving from Chattanooga, our first distillery visit on our first trip was a place that I am no stranger to: Maker’s Mark. I counted it up later and before this trip, I had visited the Loretto, Kentucky home of Maker’s Mark at least four times. It had grown to be…and remains still…my favorite distillery to visit because of how much they obviously care about the campus and how it looks to the visitors.
PRESENTATION
As noted before, the initial impression of Maker’s Mark was always something hard to fully convey to people…but since I had visited, they had put on an entirely new face. The visitors center was moved and there was a very pleasant garden area to walk through to get there. The property is still immaculately groomed with large grassy fields around well-painted black buildings with red trim. Artwork pieces had been added in selective places, too, which was a nice touch.
2/2
EXPERIENCE
Our guide at Maker’s was very thorough and easy to understand, and didn’t get so deep in the weeds or go so fast that bourbon-newbies, like my wife, couldn’t keep up and enjoy the process. They make a huge deal about the family roots for their brand and how Bill and Margie Samuels were both very involved in the creation of the product and its marketing. We got to see the relatively new cellar area where they do Private Selection and Wood Finishing Series aging, in much the same way that they do the extra aging for Maker’s 46. Maker’s is one of the only major companies that still rotates their barrels throughout the warehouses to ensure that each barrel is just about like the last one. This creates a wonderful consistency, but also makes Single Barrel expressions fairly pointless…but their extra aging with a variety of different wood staves shakes that whole process up and creates some amazing variants on their core product. The tour ended with a tasting that included core products and a Private Selection available exclusively in the gift shop that day, Panna Cotta.
3/3
GIFT SHOP
Maker’s Mark’s keeps a wide range of products in their gift shop, which is sure to appeal to just about everyone. And they seemed to be very well stocked on apparel in most sizes. The one big problem is the price…just about everything they sell is 10 to 20 percent higher than most other distilleries sell the same type of products for. Apparel is even worse…some of their prices are pushing 50% higher than what I would have expected to see. That may account for why they had so many things in stock, though.
2/3
EXCLUSIVES
The gift shop does keep a rotating variety of Private Selection distillery exclusives. When we were in April, we picked up Panna Cotta and Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, both of which were very nice, as well as the 2024 Heart Release (not exclusive, but hard to find). The one problem with the way they rotate their exclusives is that you won’t always be able to find the same thing. And whatever bottles you buy, you have the option to hand-dip them in the signature red wax. The previous time I did this, I got a 7-drip bottle…this time around, I got an 8-dripper. Hard to get better than that.
2/2
Maker’s quickly became my wife’s favorite distillery to visit, as well. This place is almost magical…a “Disney” experience for discriminating adults with good taste. I really can’t imagine coming back to central Kentucky without at least stopping by this place to see what the gift shop has to offer that day.
Total 9/10 – Must See!
