The Tasting Panel magazine

July 2010

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N A cOVER STORY Maker’s ew MarK for MAKER’S 46 IS THE BRAND’S FIRST NEW PRODUCT IN MORE THAN 50 YEARS by Fred Minnick On the fi rst day of bottling, new Maker’s 46 is dipped into Maker’s Mark’s signature red wax. s Kevin Smith grabs the shiny new bottle of Maker’s 46, there’s a quiet confi dence radiating off his warm smile. He pours a taste, intently looks at the light brown spirit, brings it to the nose, closes his eyes and for a second, he contemplates and takes a sip. “Boy, that is something,” he says. You might say Smith is proud to be the Master Distiller overseeing and co-creating Maker’s Mark’s fi rst new product in more than 50 years. Or, you might conclude he’s relieved the bourbon is, well, to be put bluntly, good. “My fear was, what if we create New Coke?” Smith says. That is a question Smith no longer worries about. But in their experimentation to create something new, to answer the great demand from consumers, whiskey writers and bartenders, they created 125 different types of new Maker’s. Almost all were absolute failures. “We thought if we can throw the stuff in a bottle to sell to whiskey geeks and in our gift shops, the experi- ment will go away,” Smith says. “We didn’t know we had anything.” But they did have something. And on July 1, Maker’s will release 25,000 Maker’s 46 cases to the world, with a second release of 15,000 cases in the fall. The average retail price will be $34.99 a bottle, a modest amount for a bourbon that will no doubt be an international sensa- tion among mixologists and whiskey enthusiasts. july 2010 / the tasting panel / 37 PHOTO: FRED MINNICK

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