12/2009 INTERVIEW WITH BILL SAMUELS, JR., MAKER'S MARK DISTILLERYBill Samuel's, Jr., head of the Maker's Mark Distillery of Loretto, Kentucky, was in Washington, DC today. Bill kindly made some time to sit with me at the Hawk n' Dove bar, a beloved watering hole just a couple blocks from Congress. Bill then entertained about a dozen friends of yours truly.

Bill has been at the helm of the distillery for 35 years. Oh how times have changed. Maker's Mark has boomed, going from 60-some thousand cases per year to over 900,000. We discussed the changes that happened at Maker's Mark, and in the Bourbon industry generally.

You can listen to our chat by clicking here. Fair warning---it's 20 minutes long and therefore a rather hefty 18 megabyte file, so your download may take a little time.

Labels: Bill Samuels, Bourbon, Interview, Kentucky, Maker's Mark

 

5/2008 MAKER'S MARK KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKY
A few weeks back, we got a grumpy e-mail from a reader about a review we wrote about eight years ago. He groused that our 3.75 star rating was too high, that MAKER'S MARK tasted like "kerosene" and so forth. The complaints were made so obstreperously that they were hard to take seriously. None the less, we acquired a sample of MAKER'S MARK and decided to give it a sip. The result? This time around we noticed less vanilla and more menthol. For 90 proof, yes, this whisky is a little gassy. That's not necessarily a damnable trait, provided one can add a little water and make it softer. One can; three ounces of MAKER'S MARK plus one ounce of water yields a pleasant whisky. As a judge might put it, "Petitioner's claims lack merit; the appeal is dismissed." (Rating ***1/2)

To see if our retailer can sell you a bottle of MAKER'S MARK, click here. Otherwise, check with the folks at http://www.MakersMark.com.

Labels: Bourbon, Kentucky, Maker's Mark, Whisky