Maker's Mark Bourbon Review

Every bottle of wheated bourbon I've reviewed on this site eventually traces back to one of two families: Stitzel-Weller's, or Maker's Mark's. This is the one from the other side of that story.

In 1953, Bill Samuels Sr. bought the old Burks' Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, for $35,000, intending to walk away from his own family's rye-forward recipe entirely. As the story goes, he burned the old family recipe book and started over, testing mash bill ideas by baking small loaves of bread instead of running full distillations — swapping rye for soft red winter wheat until he found the balance he wanted. The first bottles went out in 1958.

The wheated recipe wasn't developed in a vacuum. Bill Samuels leaned on relationships with the Stitzel-Weller circle while working out his approach, the same lineage behind Weller — different distillery, same wheated instinct, arrived at independently rather than copied.

The other half of the story belongs to Margie Samuels, Bill's wife, who designed the bottle shape, the label, the hand-dipped red wax seal, and picked the name itself — "Maker's Mark" was the first major bourbon not named after a person. She's the only woman inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame specifically for that work.

The Bottle

• Distillery: Maker's Mark (Star Hill Farm, Loretto, KY)

• Release: Ongoing

• Classification: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• Proof: 90 (45% ABV)

• Age: No Age Statement (typically around 6 years)

• Mash Bill: 70% Corn, 16% Red Winter Wheat, 14% Malted Barley — one of the few distilleries that discloses its mash bill outright

• MSRP: $30–35

  
  

Tasting Notes

First Impression: Fresh wheat bread and caramel lead the nose, with brown sugar rounding it into something warm and bakery-sweet — classic soft-wheated Maker's.

On the Palate: Bright cherry and vanilla up front, with a gentle cinnamon warmth that keeps all that wheated sweetness in check.

The Last Sip: A touch of anise and charred oak on the finish, closing out buttery and smooth.

Final Thoughts

Maker's Mark is what I like to call home base. When I walk into a bar and can't make up my mind, the first pour is almost always Jameson or Maker's — two wildly different backgrounds, but Jameson was the bottle that kept me going when I couldn't afford much, and Maker's is what I switched to once I was finally making a little more than a little (lol). That's the whole point: it's approachable enough for a newbie and familiar enough for a lifer. They've put out some heavier hitters in recent years, but there's still nothing quite like home base.

Whatever you land on, it's worth remembering this is one of the few bourbons where the mash bill isn't a rumor — Maker's Mark tells you exactly what's in the bottle, which is more than most of the brands on this site can say.

🟢 Buy