Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/12827
cOVER STORY Maker’s 46 at Malone’s, Lexington, Kentucky B ar and restaurant owners are eager to put Maker’s 46 on their cocktail menus. For Lexington, Kentucky–based Malone’s, original Maker’s Mark is its top-selling liquor, and a new Maker’s product probably means a big boost in sales, says co-owner Brian McCarty. “When you combine the same Maker’s recipe with this new finishing and marketing muscle, you know Maker’s 46 will be a winner,” McCarty says. “It will be a nice addition to their portfolio as well as ours.” McCarty says they plan to create specialty drinks around Maker’s 46 as well as incorpo- rate it into the classic bourbon cocktails, such as the Beautiful and the Manhattan. “Maker’s 46 will be a high profile new release, and we’d be ignorant not riding that boat,” McCarty avers. —Fred Minnick Brian McCarty (left) and Bruce Drake own Malone’s in Lexington, Kentucky. The high-end steakhouse prominently features bourbon on its cocktail menu. Something New A Manhattan and a Beautiful are made for guests at Malone’s. 38 / the tasting panel / july 2010 Smith and Bill Samuels Jr. were always hearing, “When are you going to come out with something new?” Consumers have told them that they like the spicy notes of older whiskeys, and some have even said their palate had outgrown Maker’s, albeit they liked the signature flavor of the original classic. Even those in the industry were putting on the pressure: “Everybody else is doing something new. Why aren’t you?” “We’ve always said we wouldn’t do something just because everybody else is doing it. But it was when the consum- ers started coming to us and saying they have been trying these new rye whiskeys—and liking them because of the bite and spice—that we decided to try something new,” Smith says. So, Smith and Samuels sat down, thought, debated and threw around ideas for weeks. How would they get that spice? Single barrel? Add rye? “Bill would say, ‘Smith, focus!’ because I kept shooting arrows to see if something would hit,” Smith says. And that’s when it hit them: Instead of focusing on the how, they shot for the taste—just like Bill Samuels Sr. did with the original Maker’s Mark. In the 1950s, Samuels Sr. wanted to create a bourbon whose aroma could be taken in the mouth and tasted. “There have been spirits that I’ve smelled and felt like I needed to put a crash helmet on before I could throw it back,” Smith says. “That’s not what we wanted to create; we wanted that forward finish Bill’s dad created.” PHOTO: FRED MINNICK PHOTO: FRED MINNICK