Maker’s Mark Puts A New Stave Into Private Barrel Programs

By Richard Thomas

When Maker’s Mark carved its new Bourbon-aging cellar out of the adjacent hillside, the first of its kind in Kentucky, it was ostensibly to further the Maker’s 46 brand. In creating Maker’s 46, a Bourbon partially matured with French oak stave inserts, it was discovered the best results were obtained during the winter season. The need for colder weather put a natural crimp in the production of Maker’s 46, hence the construction of a wine-style aging cellar, complete with natural climate control.

Although expanding the capacity for Maker’s 46 was the main purpose of the new cellar, it was not the only one. The cellar was also intended to become the new home for the Maker’s Mark private barrel program. In keeping with having a one of a kind aging cellar for an innovative Bourbon, Maker’s Mark has made their private barrel program something special.

Making Your Own Maker’s 46
Most of the major distilleries and even some craft distillers and bottlers have private barrel programs, whereby retailers, restaurants and bars can select their own barrel for a personalized bottling. Often times these specially chosen private bottlings are drawn from particularly good barrels, and are a cut above the standard offering.

The problem confronting Maker’s Mark in creating a private barrel program of their own was that the distillery rotates their barrels in warehouse, so as to exercise tight control over the maturation process. Whereas other distilleries will experience noticeable, sometimes even profound variations between casks based on the particular warehouse and floor they were aged on, the differences between individual barrels of Maker’s Mark Bourbon stock are small. It made little sense for the distillery to offer private barrels of standard Maker’s Mark when it would differ so little from the main product.

Yet even if the other private barrel programs allowed for a personalized bottling of some particularly nice whiskey, it was still just a version of the main brand all the same. A private barrel version of Four Roses Single Barrel or George Dickel Barrel Select may be specially chosen from an outstanding barrel, but it’s still Dickel or that particular recipe of Four Roses. However better the whiskey was, there was a limit on how personalized it could be.

Not so with the Maker’s Mark private barrel program. Building on their experience with Maker’s 46, the House of Samuels has created a program whereby customers can create a tailor-made set of stave inserts for their own Maker’s 46-style finishing process. Whereas Maker’s 46 used all new French oak for its stave-insert finish (similar to the process used in the original Spice Tree by Compass Box), private barrel customers can choose from a range of wood types and create their own recipe of staves for the insert finish. The stave options include:

• Baked American Pure 2: a new American oak stave given a long, slow and low temperature oven baking, amplifying the sweet side of the oak.
• Seared French Cuvee: this new French oak stave receives the same cooking process as a normal Maker’s 46 stave (searing in an infrared oven), only not as much of it. However, the stave is also carved with ridges, increasing the surface area and also the absorption of wood factors. The result is that whiskey can pull quite a lot of butterscotch and nuttiness from the wood.
• Roasted French Mocha: this French oak stave was put in an oven like that of the Baked American, but given a hotter bake. The result is a stave that imparts earthy coffee and chocolate notes.
• Toasted French Spice: another French oak stave combining both of the treatments we have seen thus far. First it was seared in an infrared oven, and then transferred to a conventional oven for a slow, low temperature bake. The outcome is smoky, spicy and a bit astringent.
• Standard Maker’s 46

Customers come down to Loretto, Kentucky, receive a class on how Maker’s 46 is made and how the staves work, and are then guided through a tasting of Bourbons finished with a full set of each type of stave. From there they experiment with blending to create facsimiles of different stave finish recipes, so as to create their own potentially unique version.

Since each barrel receives 10 inserts, there are just over a thousand potential combinations of staves to choose from. During my visit to Maker’s Mark to see the new aging cellar, a group from the Buckeye Bourbon House in Columbus, Ohio was there taking the class and working on their own private barrel bottling, and were reportedly attempting to create a Bourbon tailored to making Manhattans. After a nine week stave finish, the Bourbon is bottled at cask strength.