Maker's Mark 46 Cask Strength and 12 Year

[BigBoldBully]

Surely they can't be releasing an older version of MM. After all, during the distillery tour and tasting the tour guide stresses MM is the perfect age as released. I mean, they even pour an over-aged sample during the tasting portion to demonstrate the negative effects of over-aging on MM.

My understanding is MM12 comes from the basement levels where the whiskey is slow-aged. :grin:

[squire]

Makers has maintained for years their barrels are rotated so all of them age the same.

Not that I've ever taken that as gospel.

[heydobro]

My friends and I toured Makers last Sunday. Right after giving us a copy of the label that states the batches are no larger than 1o barrels, our guides repeatedly told us they mix 150 barrels at a time. When I asked which number was correct she said it was 150. She seemed new, bit it looks like they are changing a few things as demand increases

[shoshani]

My friends and I toured Makers last Sunday. Right after giving us a copy of the label that states the batches are no larger than 1o barrels, our guides repeatedly told us they mix 150 barrels at a time. When I asked which number was correct she said it was 150. She seemed new, bit it looks like they are changing a few things as demand increases

A distillation batch is, or used to be, 19 barrels. When producing in full, they were putting out two batches - 38 barrels - per day. But they had only one distillery then. Now they have two working, and a third in preparation; the two newer distilleries are on the same grounds and are basically replicas of the first one. They're aiming for consistency and seem to feel that replicating one small distillery several times will maintain the profile better than building a gargantuan plant and doing everything on a much larger scale at once.

A bottling batch may well be 150 barrels at a time these days. I'm sure that as time goes on and the whisky reaches bottling age, they're going to be mingling barrels from all their stills.