2021 Holiday Shopping Lists, the Bourbons: Makers Mark Private Selection & Wood Finishing Series

Our concluding entry for the 2021 bourbon shopping list is a bit of a conundrum: it is everywhere and nowhere. It is all the flavors and yet no two variants have the exact same flavors. Each is unique, and who among us doesn’t get a little thrill when our gifts have just that little bit of exclusivity to them?

From where I’m standing, Makers Private Selection and its sibling the Wood Finishing Series might be the best wheated bourbon nameplate I’ve ever tried. This is the bourbon that basically invented the concept of stave finishing, and spawned as many imitators as other famous wheaters with names like “Weller” and “Van Winkle.” And you can see why: this is reliably outstanding, top of class bourbon. The staves provide an accent and add dimensions that a wheated bourbon, regardless of age, rarely can hope to achieve. Yes it’s still Makers, yes it’s still sweet. But much like a Meryl Streep rom-com, It’s Complicated. You could spend hours parsing through all the notes present in some of these.

Look, the holidays are stressful. So instead of shelling out on secondary for an over-oaked, under-proofed elder Pappy — here’s what I recommend: for $70 USD, you buy some barrel proof, stave finished Makers goodness, and if you go Private Selection, you can add single barrel to the descriptors too. The last time I threw this in a blind, it was the unanimous victor over much rarer, prestigious peers. These bottles always end up being one of my favorites if the year, and I’ve had some this year that were among my favorites ever.

But as I like to say, you can’t taste prestige.

Image courtesy of Jon who also writes on Low Class & High Proof.

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