MAKER’S MARK CELLAR AGED BOURBON 2024

I’d like to thank the folks at Maker’s Mark for providing this review sample with no strings attached

IMAGE: Maker's Mark Cellar Aged 2024 Limited Edition bottle with signature red wax seal, displayed on a crumpled paper backdrop, showcasing the golden bourbon inside.

Busy, busy day today here at the BourbonGuy household. I got up early to throw a couple of pork butts on the smoker, made a batch of the best American cheese money can buy (seriously, if you want melty, gooey cheese that actually tastes good, make your own—hit me up, and I’ll send you the recipe; the email button is at the bottom of every page). Then, I made a stock pot full of pasta sauce from the tomatoes we grow in our garden. Food surrounded me all day.

And I forgot to eat lunch.

Ever do that? I seem to forget a couple of times a month. It’s a wonder I still need to lose weight. Of course, I’ll make up for it when I devour all the food I’m preparing today. I just have to remember that there is such a thing as “too much of a good thing.”

Well, unless you’re talking about extra age on some Maker’s Mark. Last year, they released their first extra-aged bourbon with the inaugural Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged Bourbon. I liked it enough that I hoped to find a bottle at retail, even though the MSRP was $150. I never did, and for that, my wallet thanked me. But here we are again. The 2024 version is out, and it’s even older (and more expensive) than last year’s batch.

"We surprised the world with the debut of Maker's Mark Cellar Aged last year, a bold step in our family's legacy because, for more than 65 years, aging our whisky for a decade-plus wasn't something we did," said Rob Samuels, 8th generation whisky maker and Managing Director, Maker's Mark.  "Staying true to our founders' flavor vision and our relentless pursuit of excellence, we're thrilled to introduce our most mature bourbon yet."

Meticulously crafted, Maker's Mark Cellar Aged 2024 blends 15% Maker's Mark 12-year-old and 85% Maker's Mark 13-year-old, at 59.7% ABV or 119.3 Proof.

So. Yeah. Mostly 13 years old. Let’s see how it tastes.

Maker's Mark 2024 Cellar Aged Bourbon

Purchase Info: This 200 mL sample was sent at no cost for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $174.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $11.67

Details: 59.65% ABV. A blend of 12- and 13-year-old bourbons.

Nose: Toffee, floral vanilla, red fruit, and oak.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy with cinnamon, toffee, vanilla, and oak.

Finish: Very warm and on the longer side of medium length. A ton of oak and toffee notes.

IMAGE: A smile because I like the bourbon. The price leaves much to be desired though.

Thoughts: If you love toffee, this is the bourbon for you. Toffee and oak are the predominant flavor notes here. At just shy of 120 proof, it’s as warm and spicy as you’d expect. It takes water well, though. Just a splash will bring out more vibrancy and cut the sweetness a bit. I like this one, but probably not enough to spend $175 on it. Not sure I could bring myself to pull the trigger on that. That’s a lot of money.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Fox & Oden Straight Bourbon Whiskey

I’d like to thanks CraftCo and their PR team for sending me this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Fox & Oden Straight Bourbon Whiskey bottle on a turquoise wooden table, with a natural background of trees and a fence. The bottle has a classic label and a sealed cork top.

Hey, it’s bonus review time here at the BourbonGuy house. Samples are stacking up faster than we can taste them, so I figured, “Why not just do some bonus posts?” And here we are.

Fox & Oden is one of the many brands in the CraftCo portfolio, along with the CopperCraft bourbon we reviewed back in May. CraftCo, in turn, is part of the DeVos-owned Windquest Group based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Much like its portfolio-mate, this bourbon is also "Distilled in Indiana." According to the brand’s website, this particular bourbon is a blend of eight- and fifteen-year-old bourbons, utilizing both MGP’s 21% Rye and 36% Rye bourbon mashbills.

The company doesn’t provide much more information beyond that. However, I don’t know about you, but for me, "Distilled in Indiana" on an unknown bourbon is a plus. If it’s coming from MGP, it will probably fall somewhere between pretty darn good and great. So, let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Fox & Oden Straight Bourbon

Purchase Info: This bottle was sent to me at no charge for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $99.99.

Price per drink (50 mL): $6.67

Details: 49.5% ABV. A blend of 8- and 15-year-old bourbons using MGP’s 21% and 36% Rye bourbon mashbills.

Nose: Brown sugar, red fruit, and a lot of oak.

Mouth: Caramel, cinnamon, leather, and oak.

Finish: Warm and medium in length, with notes of red fruit, orange zest, almond, and oak.

Thoughts: In a very rare occurrence, my oak-loving wife pronounced this as being too oaky. Once the shock of such a statement from her had worn off, I was forced to agree. But I tend to have a low bar when it comes to calling something "over-oaked." By no means does this taste like you’re sucking on a stick or anything, but oak and oak-derived notes like leather are the predominant flavors here, with other notes playing a supporting role. It’s good, but I’m not sure I’d personally pay $100 for it. That said, this would be an easy recommendation for someone who enjoys oak-forward bourbons and doesn’t think twice about dropping a hundred bucks on a single bottle.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Penelope Valencia

I’d like to thank ByrnePR and Penelope Bourbon for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Penelope Bourbon Valencia bottle with bold gold lettering, set on a turquoise bench, showcasing a orange label indicating it is finished in Vino de Naranja barrels.

The thing I like most about these barrel-finished Penelope releases, other than the whiskey of course, is that I always learn something new about a different style of wine. I’m going to tell you right now, I had no idea what Vino de Naranja was. And if you’re like me—a curious person who enjoys learning new things, especially about unfamiliar drinks we might like—you might find this interesting.

So, what is Vino de Naranja? The simplest explanation is that it’s a Spanish white wine infused with orange peels through maceration. Basically, they soak the orange peels in the wine until they get the flavor they’re looking for. According to Wikipedia, this “orange wine” is primarily produced in Huelva and Málaga in Andalucía, Spain.

Now, let’s talk about this bourbon from MGP’s Penelope brand. As always, this is a blend of different mashbills, some using rye as a flavoring grain, and others using wheat. This is how they get to what they call their Four Grain bourbon. The composite mashbill for this one works out to 74% corn, 16% wheat, 7% rye, and 3% malted barley. The component bourbons were aged between four and five years in barrels with a No. 4 char level (No. 2 on the barrel heads). According to the brand’s website, the blend was then finished for up to a year in Vino de Naranja wine casks from Seville, Spain, before being bottled at a non-chill-filtered 95 proof.

Let’s see how it tastes.

Penelope Valencia

Purchase Info: This sample was provided for review purposes at no cost. The suggested retail price is $79.99

Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.33

Details: 47.5% ABV. A blend of three bourbon mashbills. Composite mashbill: 74% corn, 16% wheat, 7% rye, and 3% malted barley. 4- to 5-year-old bourbon finished in Vino de Naranja casks for about a year.

Nose: Caramel, nutmeg, and a hint of candied orange peel.

Mouth: Syrupy mouthfeel. Notes of Cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel, and a floral orange note.

Finish: Medium in warmth and length, with strong notes of floral orange. Baking spice and oak notes support the orange.

IMAGE: A Smile because I love this in an old-fashioned, but it is too sweet for me to enjoy outside of a cocktail.

Thoughts: This is a bit too sweet for me when neat, but toss some bitters and just a touch of your favorite sweetener in with it, zest an orange peel over it, and boy, do you have a hell of an old-fashioned. I can also see this being a good after-dinner drink or “dessert” whiskey.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Remus Repeal Reserve Series VIII

I’d like to thank ByrnePR and Ross & Squibb Distillery for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Remus Repeal Reserve VIII Straight Bourbon Whiskey bottle on a turquoise shelf. Label shows 101 proof, 50.5% alcohol, with a blend of 2007 and 2014 bourbon. Background includes an outdoor scene.

Went to the doctor this morning for my yearly physical with labs. So far, everything's come back clean, except I need to lose a little weight and exercise more. That last bit, I already knew. I mean, I’m a middle-aged man in the Upper Midwest who loves bourbon, BBQ, beer, and pizza—comes with the territory. But still, I guess it's important to get everything checked out. You never know what might turn up in the labs, and once a year isn’t too bad, I suppose.

Unless you’re talking about the yearly fall bourbon releases, that is. Then, one could hope these things would come out more often. Especially tonight’s bourbon. I’m going to spill the beans right now and let you know this one is delicious.

This year, the team over at Ross & Squibb blended together three bourbons ranging from 10 to 17 years old. The blend includes 9% of the 17-year-old 21% rye mash bill bourbon and 24% of the 10-year-old 21% rye mash bill bourbon. But the majority of this (67%) blend is a higher rye, 36% rye mash bill bourbon. They also upped the proof by one point from previous years, going from 100° proof to 101° proof.

“We wanted to push the boundaries with this eighth edition by doing several things differently than in the past,” said Ross & Squibb Master Distiller Ian Stirsman. “We increased the proportion of the high-rye recipe bourbon compared to previous editions and returned to non-chill filtration to keep the viscosity and mouthfeel intact. We also blind-tasted the final blend at different proofs and found the 101 proof to be the favorite. These changes, along with our history of using the best barrels to create award-winning annual releases, are sure to make Remus Repeal Reserve Series VIII a memorable pour.”

And he isn’t wrong. I had a bottle of Series VII to sip on while on vacation, and this is distinctly better than last year, which is no knock on last year at all. But let’s just jump into the tasting notes before I finish my thoughts on this one.

Remus Repeal Reserve Series VIII

Purchase Info: This 200 mL sample was provided by the producer at no charge for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $99.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $6.67

Nose: Floral and sweet with notes of caramel, vanilla, oak, chamomile, and almond.

Mouth: Caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, oak, and almond.

Finish: Medium length and warmth with lingering notes of cinnamon and oak.

IMAGE: I love this one. It gets a heart from me.

Thoughts: As I said up top, this is delicious. I sipped on a bottle of last year's release over vacation (which was delicious and certainly added to the fun of a week on the Maine coast... and apparently is extremely available in Bangor—just FYI, I saw five bottles on the shelf), and this is even better. I love the sweet and floral nose. The mouth is sweet and rich, and the finish is warm and spicy. I'm a big fan and hope to find a bottle to put on my fancy whiskey shelf. This one gets a heart. I love it.

Did you enjoy this post? If you want to support the work going on here at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch (tasting journals, stickers, pins, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com.

Uncle Nearest 777 Anniversary Blend – The Lost Chapter, Plus a Book Giveaway

This review sample was kindly provided by the PR team for Uncle Nearest Whiskey with no strings attached.

Well, I’m back! I hope no one missed me too much (though, selfishly, I do hope you missed me a little). Vacation was fun. I drove to Maine and realized that the Maine coast looks a lot like Minnesota's North Shore—if Lake Superior had tides and crashing surf, which was pretty cool. I love visiting Minnesota’s North Shore.

Tonight, we're looking at a whiskey sample I received before vacation: the latest release from Uncle Nearest, the 777 Anniversary Blend, nicknamed the Lost Chapter. This 7-year-old, barrel-strength whiskey is bottled between 110-120 proof and celebrates the seventh anniversary of Uncle Nearest’s launch. Only 7,000 bottles were available for sale. I say "were" because it seems to be sold out online. That’s my bad for taking a vacation!

But the folks at Uncle Nearest didn’t just send me this whiskey to talk about the liquid; they also were hoping that I’d mention the best-selling book by Uncle Nearest founder Fawn Weaver. It’s called Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest. As a lover of books about whiskey, I’m more than happy to do so. In fact, at the end of this post, you'll find a giveaway where you can win the copy of the book featured in the photo above.

Now, let’s take a look at the whiskey, shall we?

Uncle Nearest 777 Anniversary Blend – The Lost Chapter

Purchase Info: This 50 mL sample was sent to me at no cost for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $139.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $9.27

Details: 60.85% ABV. Seven years old.

Nose: Black tea, lumber, honey, and a light grassiness.

Mouth: Nice, thick mouthfeel. Notes of cinnamon spice, almond, and caramel.

Finish: Warm and long with notes of oak, honey, and a slight mineraliness.

Thoughts: My first sip caused me to exclaim: “Ooh. that's yummy." And that's the gist of it. This is delicious. It has a lovely mouthfeel. Let's just say that, boy, do I wish there was more than 50mL in that 200 mL bottle. It's good enough that if I saw it on the shelf, I'd buy it even though the SRP is $140. It takes water well, too, which is an added bonus (it is over 120° proof, after all). Some high-proof whiskies, these days, fall apart at a lower-proof, but this is not one of them. Just a lovely product that I wish I’d thought to buy a bottle of while they still had them.

Giveaway

Would you happen to have suggestions for things I can cover on BourobnGuy.com? Books you’ve read, questions you have, whiskies you want to share? Well, nominate them for review/answering on BourbonGuy.com. In return, you’ll be entered into the giveaway for Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest, by Fawn Weaver.

You can enter the giveaway using the form below. You only need to enter once (though you can suggest as many things as you’d like), as I’ll be tossing duplicates to make for a fair giveaway. One winner will be chosen at random. That winner will receive the book mailed to them.

Good Luck! You have until Wednesday, September 25th, 2024, to enter (you need to "log in" so I can receive your email address to notify you if you win, either login method gets me that). I do value your privacy, though, so I don’t keep the contact info you provide once the contest is over.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Hugh Hamer Double Oaked Bourbon & Hugh Hamer Rum Finished Bourbon

I’d like to thank West Fork Whiskey in Indianapolis, IN for providing these review samples with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Two bottles of Hugh Hamer Straight Bourbon Whiskey. The bottle on the left is labeled as 'Finished in Rum Barrels.' The bottle on the right is labeled as 'Double Oaked.' Both are 103 proof, 51.5% alcohol by volume.

Indianapolis is an easy city to drive through. Four separate Interstate Highways converge here, and with a beltway loop as part of the Interstate system, navigating through the city is quite straightforward. I know this because I’ve driven through Indianapolis on the way to other destinations more times than I can count.

However, there has only been one time that I’ve actually spent any time in the city itself. As much as I might wish it was because my beloved Golden Gophers made it to a Big Ten title game, that’s sadly not the reason I visited (and, unfortunately, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen anytime soon either). The one time I spent an afternoon in the city, we visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and took a tour before continuing on to our destination in another state. Once again, I was just passing through.

I’ve spent so little time in Indianapolis that I used to joke it wasn’t even real—that it was just a figment of our collective imagination. After all, other than being an oversized crossroad, what’s the draw if you’re not there for sports or a convention? Plus, it seems almost unnaturally situated at the exact geographical center of the state. Cities don’t usually pop up where there aren’t any navigable rivers, at least not when it was founded. It’s a bit unnerving.

Of course, I’m joking, but until now, I’ve only seen Indianapolis as a milestone on a road trip to somewhere else. It reminds me too much of my home here in Minnesota to make it a place worth visiting without a specific reason. But if I ever find that reason (maybe if my Gophers ever improve their football team to the point where I have an excuse to travel… sigh), I now know of someplace worth checking out.

Tonight, we’re looking at two bourbons from West Fork Whiskey Company, a craft distillery in the area. They produce two lines of whiskey. One, the West Fork Whiskey line, is grain-to-glass, distilled in-house. The other, which we’re focusing on tonight, is the Old Hamer line, sourced from MGP in southern Indiana. They use MGP’s 99% corn/1% rye mash bill to create this line. The two bottles we’re examining are from their barrel-finished Hugh Hamer line extension. Both are non-chill filtered, aged between four and six years, and bottled at 103° proof.

Let’s dig in.

Hugh Hamer Double Oaked

Purchase Info: This bottle was sent at no cost for review purposes. It is available on the brand website for $64.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.33

Details: 51.5% ABV. 4- 6 years old. Mash bill: 99% corn, 1% malted barley.

Nose: Caramel, cherry, leather, and wintergreen.

Mouth: Spicy cinnamon, wintergreen, caramel, oak, and a touch of cherry.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Notes of cinnamon, cherry syrup, dusty oak, and wintergreen.

Thoughts: Pretty darn tasty. It's spicy and sweet with nice oak and cherry notes throughout. I wasn't sure what to expect with a 99% corn mash bill, but I am really enjoying it. Quite good.

Hugh Hamer Rum Finish

Purchase Info: This bottle was sent at no cost for review purposes. It is available on the brand website for $64.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.33

Details: 51.5% ABV. 4- 6 years old. Mash bill: 99% corn, 1% malted barley.

Nose: Sweet ginger and molasses. It's like a cookie.

Mouth: Funky rum and tropical notes are layered over traditional bourbon notes of caramel, baking spice and oak.

Finish: Warm and of medium length with notes of dusty oak and rum funk.

Thoughts: This is also really tasty. I really enjoy the addition of rum funk to bourbon and often will add a touch of Jamacan Rum to a glass if I want something a little different. This is even better as the rum influence is more subtle than my relatively heavy mix. I like this one too.

In fact, if you mix the two together, they are even better yet. Really enjoying these two.

BourbonGuy.com will be off next week as we are on a real vacation with just the two of us. I won’t be traveling through Indianapolis this time and, sadly, won’t have the opportunity to visit West Fork Whiskey. But you can be assured that the next time I pass through, I will be stopping.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Bernheim Original Barrel Proof Wheat Whiskey, B924

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Bernheim Original Kentucky Straight Wheat Whiskey Barrel Proof bottle, Batch B924, 122.6 proof, 61.3% alcohol by volume.

Here we are with the first post of the new schedule. I’m not going to lie; it felt really weird not writing for y'all last night. Instead, I did things like hang out with my wife and read a book. It was nice—strange, but nice.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ve probably heard me gush about my love of science fiction. Whether it’s TV, movies, or books, I’ve been a fan for a very long time. One of the early greats of the genre is Isaac Asimov. I just finished watching the second season of Foundation on Apple TV+, and it put me in the mood to read that series of books again. So I started last night—dug out my 40-year-old copy of The Complete Robot and read a few short stories.

It’s something I do every couple of decades or so. I think the first time I read them was in middle school in the mid-to-late '80s. I did a more complete read-through as a young adult in the early 2000s. And then? There they sat on my bookshelf, almost forgotten, until now. There are certain books that I will just never gt rid of, and the Robot/Empire/Foundation series is among them. Even though some of the parts of it were written almost 75 years ago. It’s fun to read stories about how “the FUTURE” would look from well before the future started—well, at least what I considered the future when I was young. Though I’m not going to lie, the story I read last night could have been written today. In today’s verbiage, it was basically about a group of Google Waymo cars gone, not so much bad, but certainly dealing out righteous justice.

Sometimes, I like going back to old favorites and revisiting them—kinda like I do a couple of times per year with tonight’s whiskey. I’ve never seen it in the wild, but they are kind enough to send me a taste when it comes out so I can tell you about it and hope that if you see it in the wild, you’ll be intrigued enough to buy it.

Bernheim Barrel Proof is a barrel-proof version of the Bernheim wheat whiskey put out by Heaven Hill. It is made from a mash bill of 51% wheat, 37% corn, and 12% malted barley. The whiskeys in this batch range from seven to nine years old. It has been bottled at 122.6° proof.

Let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Bernheim Original Barrel Proof Wheat Whiskey, B924

Purchase Info: This sample was provided at no cost for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $67.

Price per Drink: $4.47

Nose: Caramel, wintergreen, and toasted grains.

Mouth: Bready, sweet, and spicy with notes of caramel, cinnamon, and oak.

Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Notes of toasted grains, cinnamon, and wintergreen.

Thoughts: This is very tasty. Sweet in the mouth but more dry on the finish. The toasted grain notes read as bready on the mouth, which I'm really enjoying. This is perfectly drinkable neat, even at over 120° proof. All in all, I really like it.

Comparison to last batch: The last batch is much sweeter on the nose and mouth. This batch shows more mint. Last batch is spicier, but the new batch has more layers of flavor. They are both very good, but if forced to choose, I'd go with this current batch because of the depth of flavor.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.