The Forbidden Husband

Some details about our 2024 "Forbidden Husband" Special Release Barrel of Maker's Mark, just for our race weekend:

When we convened outside the quaint village of Loretto, Kentucky - inside Maker's Mark's exquisite tasting room overlooking the infinitely rolling hills that make our Commonwealth so famous - the first question we asked one another before sitting down to design our very own Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey was, "what do we actually want out of this barrel?"

One of my own first answers geared around you, our family of runners coming in from all over. Many of you are quite experienced Bourbon connoisseurs, but many of you are also brand new to this hemisphere and to the experience of really good Bourbons.

So I wanted a Bourbon that appeals to both genres - the sophisticated palate but also to the newcomer's sense of curiosity - and often, a touch of timidity. I know 110 Proof can scare some folks when you don't know what to expect.

How the Maker's Mark Private Release design process works:

When special groups are invited down to visit, to craft your very own barrel, you begin with the baseline of their famous 6-7 year old barrel of traditional Maker's Mark.

Then you proceed to taste five different "finishing profiles," they're called, attained over nine additional weeks of aging with very technically-designed oak finishing staves from various parts of France or the U.S., each toasted and cured slightly different from each other through their individualized charring processes.

Some finishing staves are darkly charred, some are much more lightly toasted. Some carry spice notes, some carry sweet notes. One even carries a chocolaty-"mocha" note.

What you are talking about, in the end, are 1001 totally different outcomes you can ultimately nuance between.

Everyone else agreed. Bridget from Boston, Mike and Donna from Memphis, Mark from Frankfort, Kentucky via Ft. Wayne, Indiana and myself.

Something smooth and vanilla-y and caramel-y is what we want, but with a very long, vibrant finish, which is the ultimate hallmark of a truly excellent Bourbon. You don't want your sip to bite initially; you want it to coat your tastebuds like velvet. And you want your senses to dance for many seconds afterward, evolving each moment as all the various flavor notes come to life.

The reason why we decided to call this, "The Forbidden Husband":

Of the five different finishing staves, the last one is quite spicy. Coming from France, and toasted just so, it brings out quite a bit of pizzazz after spending nine weeks in your barrel, doing its thing.

Back in 2021, I absolutely forbade us from using that particular French Spice stave at all - as I felt it ruined our "dark chocolate cake" finish that we had carefully crafted.

So this time around, I started off our day also "forbidding" the use of that French Spice.

However, that short-sightedness on my part led to some dead ends. As we tasted and experimented over and over, last Monday, we kept getting close to our desired smoothness and sweet character, but couldn't quite get the full, true product we all knew we wanted.

Mike from Memphis (husband of Donna from Memphis) was the most emphatic voice for this. He insisted we add a stronger finish to our work.

So I decided to reconsider the once-forbidden French Spice stave.

I allowed ONE such French Spice stave into the mix. ONE. Out of ten.

And voila! The outcome produced was perfect!

What you will taste and experience in May (first tastings at our Thursday night party at Sedona!) is an initial note of molasses with a hint of maple syrup... then a little bit of dark chocolate.

All leading to the ultimate bonanza of that fun French Spice note at the very end which mingles with the rest of your flavors and creates a dance party on your tongue!

It is definitely for newcomers and also experienced connoisseurs, alike. Elegant and balanced, but with the smoothness you want in one of the world's finest ever Kentucky Bourbons!

I sincerely can't wait for you to try it with us, come May!

Cheers, y'all!

Eric