Maker's Mark Private Select, Barrel finished oak staves (2x Baked American Pure 2, 3x Seared French Cuvée, 2x Maker's 46, 2x Roasted French Mocha, 1x Toasted French Spice), 55.75% abv.

The M&M Private Select has quite a story to it, which I'll add in the comments section instead.

Nose: herbal, "soft", soy sauce, wet soil, wet leaves, reminds me of melting cheese Europeans put on toast. Sweet honey comes after a few minutes.

Palate: dry, sour, spicey, intense, has some heat. After a few sips it becomes less intense and the brown sugar honey pops out. A less intense dehyrdated apple slice. Quite nice for a wheater.

Finish: short, nothing much going on. I think the heat is rolling over though.

Dry glass: dried apples.

Quite nice, a little intense on that initial sour and spice sip (which I think can be interpreted as "dry"), and that tempered honey that continues to peek out is very much welcome. I admit before this, I've never thought highly of Maker's, my Mom even used it for cooking sometimes too, but my repsect has increased significantly. I love the concept of different stave combinations though, perhaps this practice is frowned upon, but it does seem to put one up over single casks... seems impossible to buy a memory however. I'd love to try a few other stave combos to see how it goes, unfortunately it's quite difficult to get this out West. I find it funny that I've seen M&M private select bottles with 10 M&M 46 staves... makes me wonder how lazy some retailers are.

Grade: B+

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

🇭🇰 🇺🇸(LA, SF) -> 🇯🇵 (京都, 東京) -> 🇰🇷 (서울, 부산)