Exploring the Historical Present: Whiskey - No.1 (Maker's Mark)

Dear Readers,

This is the first post in our series Exploring the Historical Present. In these posts I will be sharing some thoughts on present-day spirits that have some sort of historical precedent or lineage. I'll be walking you through the spirit with as much empirical information as possible, and citing information that isn't common knowledge as best I can. This is my attempt to understand if these lasting brands have intrinsic symposiastic or epicurean value, and maybe you have some thoughts on the matter too...

An important caveat: there are many authors who have written glossaries and lexicons of whiskey terminology. I recommend Whisky For Everyone - basics glossary; Undiscovered Scotland; Whisky.com. I will avoid defining industry standard terms, and common nomenclature.

This post will explore the iconic Kentucky straight bourbon Maker's Mark. I encourage you to watch this brief Youtube video of the distillery and process. As for the brand/distillery itself, it certainly has a direct historical connection to 19th-century United States. Maker's has been recognized, and holds the title as "the world's oldest operating bourbon whisky distillery" by Guinness World Records! 

To employ the some-what over-used term "iconic," doesn't really do the brand justice. Their bottle is distinct, and instantly recognizable. Their amber/gold color bourbon comes in a unique, handsome, squat and squared glass bottle, hand-dipped in their signature (and trademarked)  red wax seal, each bottle sporting unique drips (also known as rivulets, cascades, dribblets, or trickles), and a die-cut label printed on their 1935 Chandler & Price printing press. 

Maker's Mark has a curious history, one filled with engaging mythos. Search their website and you'll find a succinct history. The brand and whisky, as we know it today, was created in 1954 by Bill Samuels, Sr., however, the family name is one of the enduring titans of the American Whiskey pantheon. Taylor William (known as T.W.) Samuels started commercial distilling on the family farm in - I believe - Nelson county, around 1844. The family stayed in the bourbon business until the Volstead act/18th amendment of the constitution was ratified in 1919. Legend has it that in 1933, following the ratification of the 21st amendment (repealing prohibition), Leslie Samuels reopened the distillery selling "T. W. Samuels" bourbon. After a brief hiatus between 1943 and 1953 the family bought the old Burks' distillery - established in 1805 - in Loretto, which they renamed Star Hill Farm. The final element of this truncated history lesson is the fantastical story of how T.W. Samuels bourbon evolved into Maker’s Mark bourbon. The story goes that tastes had changed in 170 years since the family started commercial distilling, and the family chose to rebrand. Bill Samuels, Sr. apparently ripped up the family's recipe and in a stroke of genius baked several breads with potential mashbills. The most delicious bread clued his tasting panel to the winning mashbill, which became the standard grain structure of the current brand. It must have been a very long stroke because the genius didn't stop with the new spirit, but included Margie Samuels' two most brilliant marketing tools: The bottle (cube, dipped in wax), and the name. You might ask: what's in a name? Remember, most whisk(e)y brands, until the craft distilling boom in the early 2000's, were named for people (ie. Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam Evan Williams, Old Forester, Old Overholt). Since 1958 Maker's Mark has been one of the United States' most successful whisky brands. It is currently owned by the Beam-Suntory conglomerate.

A lot of information can be found on the label:
Maker's Mark
"Kentucky Straight bourbon WHISKY"
Handmade

Distilled, Aged and Bottled by the Maker's Mark Distillery, Inc.
Star Hill Farm, Loretto KY, USA 45% Alc/Vol [90 proof]

Wax sealed screw cap.

No age statement: (their website explains " [it] usually takes six to seven years and is determined by our Master Distiller and expert tasting panel.")

Technical background:

500-pound, 53 gal barrels are hand rotated and stored at various levels of the rickhouse.

Mashbill:
Corn (70%) + Red Winter Wheat (16%) + Malted Barley (14%) {No rye}
Samuel's Family yeast strain (said to be approximately 150 years old)
Open air wooden fermentation vats (aka washbacks)
Short copper column stills, still proof 130 (65% abv)
Barrel Char #3
Barrel entry proof: 110 proof (55% alc/vol)

Observations:
A light amber/golden color; very transparent, and clean looking
Strong legs, quick evaporation

On the nose and palate:
Prominent and well defined esters: fruity sweetness, vanilla, strong alcohol aroma, caramel, citrus, cooked corn
Some prominent phenols/tannins: char, band-aid (medicinal/plastic), toasted/ burned almond

Mouth feel:
High on the palate, back of the tongue, coats the tongue, lots of lipids, gentle
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dilution:
I followed a very simple proportional dilution pattern. I filled three different glasses with 1 oz (29.6 ml) each of Maker's Mark. I added charcoal/ion-exchange resin-filtered water in graduated degrees of 10%, 20%, and 30% by volume, respectively. Keep in mind that as I add water I am also lowering the proof of the spirit. With each increment I lowered the spirit from 90 proof down to 81.8, 75, and 69. The formula is (volume of spirit)/(total volume with added water)x(proof) or as I like to think of it (V/(W+V)) x P = product proof.

Glass one at 10% dilution (81.8 proof) - strong vanilla, and burned almond on the nose; bitter and burning in the throat; very high and back on the palate.
Glass two at 20% dilution (75 proof) - complete loss of esters and aroma; strong taste of molasses
Glass three at 30% dilution (69 proof) - vanilla, sweet cherry esters, medicinal, almond on the nose; sugar, grass, oak and some burning in the throat.

While any dram of whisky is a drink best served, I would conclude that Maker's is certainly worth its status in the pantheon of American whiskey. And, while there are significant and interesting changes after dilution - 30% brought out a lot of complexity for me, and 20% was shockingly neutralized -  it seems best just the way it comes out of the bottle.

In conclusion, it is not one of my favorites, but as one of the most lasting brands since prohibition and with the Samuels family's rich history it certainly deserves a spot on the shelf. The bottle looks so damn great. I wouldn't call it at a bar, and I wouldn't mix with it personally, but I'd gladly sip it with friends around a camp fire or on the fire-escape.

Thanks for checking out the blog!
JojoCocco

For an in depth walk-through of the facility check out Whiskey.com's Distillery Tour Video lead by Benedikt Leuning. Full disclosure: Mr. Leuning's information is valuable but the editing, sound, and script is not very good; it isn't an easy viewing, but it is informative.

One additional sources for Maker's Mark information Whisky Buzz, and a final recommendation for whiskey history, dates, and info is www.pre-pro.com

Additional sources:
[http://bourbonr.com/blog/makers-mark-mash-bill-breakdown/]
[http://drinkwire.liquor.com/post/mash-bills#gs.sC_8cJ8]
[https://modernthirst.com/home/bourbon-whiskey-mash-bills/]

Disclaimer: All opinions and reviews are my own, unless otherwise cited.

Exploring the Historical Present: Preamble

Dear Readers,

I just can't keep it to myself any longer. I have been on a serious whisk(e)y* kick for the last year and a half. I've visited 14 distilleries (4 in Scotland), read article after article, blog after blog, book after book, and I am still voraciously - and responsibly - consuming the delicious and fascinating spirit. It's a love affair.

My bar-keep/cocktail mentor once said "I only buy whiskey from companies who have paid their bills." This concentrated and cynical principle sparked a curiosity in me. I started asking the simple questions: which was the first distillery in the USA? ... in the world? Which is the oldest? Which has continue to today? The questions flowed and the answers seemed to be increasingly idiosyncratic and confusing, if not elusive. Like Roger Maris' 61st home-run, most answers to these mundane queries come with glaring caveats.

It's my intention to make several posts under the title Exploring the Historical Present; sharing some thoughts on present-day spirits that have some sort of historical precedent or lineage. I want a literal taste of the past. While we'll probably never really know what these brands tasted like to the people of the day, I want to experience and explore drams that were available to the common person when their founders started distilling. I want to understand if these lasting brands have intrinsic gastronomic value.

I will first focus on those whiskey brands and companies with more-or-less direct historical connection to the 18th and 19th-century distilleries and brands of the United States. I will include some historical information about colonial, revolutionary, and Jeffersonian-era whiskey. I'll move on, based on my taste and whim, weaving through history while exploring international whisky and other boozes. In no particular order will I begin to fold in to the posts brands that have no direct connection but have adopted advertising tactics to entice the consumer.

One major advantage to this particular approach to tasting and exploration is cost-efficiency. It is cost-efficiency that my sardonic mentor was talking about. Decades and century-old brands don't pass the buck and obligate the consumer to spend extra on the product to fund their logos and marketing, as they usually have a solid and reliable customer base. Of course there are premium, super premium, rare bottles, and special releases but those are generally outside the scope of my aim. Because this is a hobby, and I'm no money bags, most of my selections will be under $75.

As for a background of why I care and have any interest see below:

My love affair with the grain-based distillate started the week of Valentine's day 2017. Up until that portentous moment, I had no taste for hard liquor at all. It was 13 years earlier that I had a typically disastrous and embarrassing episode with tequila, and had since never cultivated a taste for it and its spirited cousins. As an 18 year old, I learned to love wine in Italy. As a graduate student transplanted from New York to Georgia I educated myself at fine craft/local breweries. It was then, in my second year as a citizen of Detroit, Michigan, when I made the choice to - once and for all, after years of turning away - give whisk(e)y a fair shot. I declared: I will make every concerted effort to appreciate whisk(e)y and if it doesn't speak to me now, I will give up and resign myself to beer and wine. Dramatic? Sure. Effective? YES!

I set my aim at the fortuitously located, and aptly named, Whiskey Parlor in down town Detroit. I could not have been in better company: my wonderful partner, and my best friend are both time tested whisk(e)y lovers. We were guided by the infamous, and best dressed bartender Joe M. Schubert (yes, that Schubert). I was thus nurtured and, we three, guided into the depth of whiskey knowledge. Prof. Schubert took me from Quiet Man 8 year-old triple distilled Irish single malt, owned by Luxco, to Stranahan's, Larceny, and Lagavulin... come to thing of it... I don't know if I had a classic bourbon or rye that night. He opened my mind to the 5 whiskey regions of Scotland, peat and phenols, the laws that distinguish bourbon from other American and international styles, coopering, and aging. He was able to prompt olfactory and taste receptors through intellectual engagement.

It was learning from whence the the spirit came, its agricultural origins and its processing that really stimulated my mind and palate to the world of whisk(e)y. I was spoiled. I dove nose first into the rabbit hole, and have been falling ever since.

If you've gotten this far then please leave a message, or comment.

I of course recommend and deffer to the vast and impressive professional tasters and historians in the world. If you do not already know, please check out the brilliant and prolific Chuck Cowdery, Holly Seidewand Fred Minnick, Liza Weisstuch Mark Gillespie from the WhiskyCast, Heather M Greene, Lloyd Chistmas Amy Zavatto. Also check out websites and blogs like Whisky Science Breaking Bourbon, Bourbon Banter, Bourbonr, Bourbon Archaeology and of course Whisky Advocate, and Whisky Magazine.

Thanks for reading,
JojoCocco
Notes:
*Whisk(e)y: I am a lover of Scotch, American, and Indian whisk(e)y, and have enjoyed my fair-share of various international brands from Canada, Ireland, Japan et al.. I chose to use this funky spelling so as to be inclusive of all grain spirits of the "whisky" and "whiskey" varieties.

Post No.1

Welcome to Post Number One!

Dear readers,

Thank you so very kindly for taking the time to check out "Cocco Talks Food."

There are countless blogs and websites focused on, or featuring commentary, reviews, history, photos and science of food, or food and drink. We are also no strangers to the expanding universe of IG, FB, Twitter, Pintrest, and Tumbler accounts, amateur to professional, offering gorgeous insight into those things masticated and imbibed. We at Cocco Talks Food have no delusions of grandeur, but rather a desire to share our opinions and findings publicly, through a forum available to anyone rummaging through and scouring.

If you're reading this post then you have chosen to expend your energy, time, and interest on our musings, and observations. We've spent decades in the "back of house," "front of house," private and public, as patrons, hosts, tasters, travelers, and entertainers. We're excited to share our personal views with you. Thanks again for stopping by.

We will do our best to cite, reference, and acknowledge the sources of our information when not common knowledge. Unless otherwise noted, what you will read on this blog are the thoughts of some randos who like to eat, cook, drink, shake, stir, and pour.

Cheers,
JojoCocco