Maker's Mark Whisky Magazine & Binny's Private Select Kentucky Bourbon

VITALS:
- $70
- 110.2 Proof
- NAS

This is the second Maker's Mark Private Select that I've picked up. I loved the first bottle I tried, just as I have absolutely loved every other pour that I've had in bars. The Maker's Mark Private Selects are bottles that, when I see them on the shelves, I just grab them without question. Much like the Four Roses private selections, I feel like I'm guaranteed, at the least, a very good pour.

This particular bottling was no different. For those not in the know, the Private Select program allows a purchaser to create a custom recipe using a combination of ten different oak finishing staves of different types, and each stave adds different character and flavor. In the past the ones I've had were heavy on the Roasted French Mocha and the Toasted French Spice. This one is not so much:

On the nose I smelled a lot of wood and spice, like a peppery spice that tickled the nostrils. Though it lacked those traditional vanilla and caramel notes, as well as the chocolate notes that I've found in previous Private Selects, it did have an interesting buttery note to it as well. Not sure it played really well with the peppery spice, but it was certainly different and unique.

The palate very much matched the nose as well. Up front I was hit with the peppery wood notes. Though a bit dry in that sense, it was still complex and full of flavor, and it didn't strike me as an offensive dry-ness in any sense. Rather, it was a very full-bodied bourbon with an incredibly long, cinnamon finish that kept me salivating long after each swallow.

Towards the end of the bottle, it began to sweeten up a bit. Along with the pepper and long cinnamon finish, the traditional caramel flavor began to take center stage, and all the flavors were not complemented by an orange peel flavor that seemed to blend all the flavors together into one delicious flavor profile. While I enjoyed it from the start, by the end I found myself eager for the nex pour and couldn't get enough of it.

Though I didn't LOVE this one quite like I've loved other private selects, it was still a very good whiskey, and well-worth the price. It's still a complex, bold and spicy whiskey which, if I weren't comparing it to other Private Selects that I've had, would certainly be considered a top-tier pour. I did learn, however, that I'm apparently partial to the flavor profiles provided by the French Mocha and French Spice staves, and, if given options, I can look for that particular profile going forward (though I'll still probably just continue to grab them regardless of the recipe).

Grade: A-