Gut Instinct: Meet Your Maker's
IT'S NOT EVERY day that the president of a billion-dollar spirits company picks you up in a silver Dodge Caravan minivan.
Yet theres Makers Marks Bill Samuels, Jr., pulling into the driveway of my Kentucky bed and breakfast. I feel 8 years old again, headed to soccer practice. Samuels saunters in wearing a redcheckered shirt, gray slacks and a gray vest, his silver hair full and lush. I hope I still have my hair when Im 70, is all I can think while shaking his hand. Do we have time for coffee? he asks. Are we in a rush? Were on your time, Mr. Samuels, I say, answering for both myself and Matt, my mustachioed accomplice.
Then were having coffee, he says, settling into a comfy vintage chair. Cups are poured. I request milk. Matt and I take a couch. So, Samuels says, sipping his coffee, youre here to learn about our new bourbon.
Bourbon! When I wore my drinking training wheels, I ordered bourbon (Whatevers cheapest, bartender) doctored with Diet Coke. Oh, youth. Now, I savor bourbon straight up, or perhaps with an ice cube to unleash the woodsy, vanilla flavors. Its my pre-dinner windme-down after a long day toiling at the keyboard. So when Makers Mark invited me to visit its historic distillery, I took .2 seconds to accept. Matt tagged along. After all, drinking alone is no fun.
After finishing coffee, we climb into Samuels minivan and cruise through the Kentucky countryside. Its filled with postcard-pretty farms, galloping horses and army barracks on steroids? Those are the rack houses, Samuels says. Theyre where bourbon barrels age, each building far apart. If one building catches firelightning, errant cigarettethe barrels wont explode out and set the other building on fire. Underscoring the point, we pass the rusty ruins of the original Heavens Hill distillery. When it burned, it destroyed an estimated 4 percent of the worlds bourbon. Precautions are very, very good.
After navigating the backcountry roads, we reach Makers Mark HQ in Loretto, Kentucky. It resembles a pastoral college campus, with manicured lawns, a gurgling creek and low-slung structures painted black, the bright-red shutters featuring cutouts of a Makers bottle. Samuels parks. We stroll to the boardroom to discuss the news that sent bourbon fans into an old-fashioned tizzy. For the first time, Makers Mark is expanding its wax-capped portfolio.
Except for a few brief stretches, the Samuels clan has distilled since 1783. But when Bill Samuels, Sr., launched what would become Makers Mark in 1953, there was no respect for bourbon, Samuels says, surrounded by black-andwhite photos of family friends with names such as Van Winkle and Beamyou know, the fathers of bourbon. Back in the 50s, bourbon was harsh and burning, so Senior concocted a smooth easy-sipper. Wife Marge designed the wax-dipped bottle and hand-torn label featuring her calligraphy. It looked different. It drank different. It worked. We grew by concentrating on the quality of one product, Samuels says.
While Makers Mark has never changed, the industry has. America has entered a golden age for the brown spirit. Hit Char No. 4 or PDT to taste bartenders reverence for whiskey and bourbon. While content with the old, dark-spirits-drinkers crave new flavors. It was time for Makers to expand the brandwith one stipulation: The new bourbon needed to be as smooth and drinkable as the original. Bill set out to do the impossible, says Victoria MacRae- Samuels, the director of operations.
Were in the tasting room. The president has departed. On the table sits a sample bottle of Makers 46. Heres how it got there: Master distiller Kevin Smith powwowed with Brad Boswell, the president of barrel makers Independent Stave. The self-proclaimed wood chef struck upon a plan: Hed sear oak staves with radiant heat, so the woods innards remained uncooked. The seared staves were then lowered into a barrel of finished Makers Mark bourbon. Every few weeks, a tasting panel would taste the progress.
Wed smell it and go, Oh, man, this is really it. Then wed take a sip and say, This is so not it, MacRae-Samuels recalls. Boswell had faith. You just have to wait, he said. They did. After two-plus months of seasoning, the seared wood profile No. 46worked its oaky magic. Makers 46 was born. Its not better than Makers Mark, its different. Theyre cousins, MacRae-Samuels says, pouring us a measure of Makers original.
I sip. Its smooth, sweet and mellow, sliding to my stomach as gently as a falling feather. Next, I test-drive 94-proof 46. The scent of bread baked in a wood-fired oven is sublime, as is the taste. It blooms warm and bright on my tongue, building to a woodsy spiciness that recalls cinnamon. But theres no burn, only a tempered sweetness that lingers after each sip.
What do you think? MacRae- Samuels asks.
I think, I reply, rolling the amber elixir around the glass, I want another drink.
MAKERS 46 WILL BE OUT NEXT MONTH. WHEN YOU TRY A BOTTLE, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK AT JBERNSTEIN@NYPRESS.COM.