Taste Test: Maker’s Mark’s New Limited Bourbon Exaggerates the Core Whiskey’s Best Flavors

Jonah Flicker
·4 min read
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Maker’s Mark has pioneered the concept of finishing bourbon with wood staves, as opposed to putting the whiskey in a secondary cask, since the launch of Maker’s 46 in 2010. The brand-new BEP bourbon is the last entry in the distillery’s Wood Finishing Series, and while there will be new chapters in the future this is one whiskey that you’ll want to bring back for an encore.

The basic concept of the Wood Finishing Series, which launched in 2019 with RC6, has been to place a bunch of custom-cooked wood staves into barrels of whiskey to try to achieve specific flavor profiles. This can be traced back to Maker’s 46, the first new expression to join the lineup 13 years ago that was finished with seared French oak staves. The Private Select program expanded this concept to consumers, bars, and restaurants who wanted to create their own custom finished barrels of bourbon. And the Wood Finishing Series took this concept to new heights with six individual whiskeys (spread out over four releases) over the past five years. These economically named expressions have included the aforementioned RC6, SE4 x PR5 (finished with virgin French oak and virgin American oak staves), and last year’s two-part BRT bourbons which were meant to emulate warehouse position via stave finishes.

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This brings us to the current 2023 release called BEP. That acronym stands for “barrel entry proof,” or the proof at which whiskey is entered into barrels for aging. By law, bourbon cannot be distilled to more than 160 proof and must enter the barrel at no more than 125 proof. Many distilleries choose to go lower than that, and the Maker’s Mark BEP number is 110. What this all revolves around is water—you have to add water to the whiskey to dilute it from the proof it comes off the still (usually lower than the maximum 160), which also results in more bourbon to put in barrels. If you’re going down to 110 barrel entry proof, you have to add a decent amount of water. But that means you’ll have to add less water once you’re ready to dump the barrels and bottle it—and in the case of Maker’s Mark BEP, none at all as the whiskey was bottled at cask strength of between 108 and 114.

The point of BEP, according to the brand, was to “amplify the balanced wood sugars, softer tannins, and lasting finish that can be attributed to the signature Maker’s Mark 110-barrel entry proof.” As with the past Wood Finishing Series releases, particularly last year’s, there’s a whole lot of marketing jargon and brand-speak that goes into these releases to convince you, the consumer, why this whiskey stands out. Practically speaking, 10 roasted virgin American oak staves were immersed in the liquid for this finishing period—which, again according to Maker’s, was meant to “exaggerate the flavors” of Maker’s going into the barrel at 110 proof.

What that translates to on the palate is pretty delicious—if you’re already a fan of Maker’s Mark you’ll be very happy; if you’re not this might convert you. The BEP I sampled was bottled at 110.7 proof, warm but not overpoweringly hot. The color is a ruddy amber, and the nose has a slight bite with notes of apple, orange, and tobacco. The palate is the star, as it should be, rich with notes of vanilla, milk chocolate, espresso, caramel, dark berry, and a nice hit of tannic oak in the background. The finish is sweet and lingers, with a touch of heat.

According to the brand, the next chapter in the Wood Finishing series will have a different focus, with the specifics TBD. There have been some hits and misses in this series over the past few years—nothing bad, really, but sometimes it just left you wondering how the concept really translated into flavor. And maybe that’s the case here as well, but this bourbon is just really, really delicious, and that’s the ultimate marker of success.

Score: 93

  • 100: Worth trading your first born for

  • 95 – 99 In the Pantheon: A trophy for the cabinet

  • 90 – 94 Great: An excited nod from friends when you pour them a dram

  • 85 – 89 Very Good: Delicious enough to buy, but not quite special enough to chase on the secondary market

  • 80 – 84 Good: More of your everyday drinker, solid and reliable

  • Below 80 It’s alright: Honestly, we probably won’t waste your time and ours with this

Every week Jonah Flicker tastes the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Friday for his latest review.

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