Table Of Contents
The Details
| Rating | 96 |
| Style |
Bourbon American Whiskey Whiskey |
| Produced In |
Kentucky United States |
| ABV | 59.65% |
| Availability | Limited |
| Price | $174.99 |
| Reviewed By | |
| Review Updated | 2024-10-03 |
Maker's Mark Cellar Aged (2024) Review
In 2023, after 70 years in business, Maker’s Mark gave bourbon fans something they had long clamored for: an age-stated release. While normal Maker’s Mark expressions are typically aged for somewhere between five and seven years, Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged launched as a blend of 11 and 12-year old bourbon. The whiskey spent the latter part of its aging cycle in a special cellar carved into a limestone hill, which was originally designed to age Maker’s 46.
Among other factors, this environment slows the impact of temperature on aging bourbon. According to the brand, this helped keep the whiskey from getting overly oaked. Both the distillery’s head of innovation (Blake Layfield) and senior manager for blending (Beth Buckner) have expressed their desire for Cellar Aged to honor the brand’s traditionally sweet, not-heavily-tannic flavor profile.
(To be fair, I’ve tried a control sample of 12 year-old Maker’s Mark aged fully in the producer’s normal warehouses. I found it delicious.)
Whatever the flavor goals, the 2023 version of Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged was a hit and one of my favorite new releases of the year. Cellar Aged is back in 2024, this time a blend of 12 year-old (15 percent) and 13 year-old (85 percent) bourbon. It’s made from the distillery’s traditional mashbill of 70 percent corn, 16 percent soft red winter wheat, and 14 percent malted barley. It’s bottled at 59.65 percent ABV, a bit higher than last year’s 57.85 percent.
Let’s see how the latest Cellar Aged release stacks up!
Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged 2024: Stats and Availability
Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged carries a $175 MSRP, up from $150 in 2023. It’s currently available nationwide in the United States. International rollout is currently underway in the U.K., Germany, and some travel retail locations. It will be released in Korea, Japan, and Singapore in early 2025.
We don’t have a specific bottle count for 2024, but the 2023 release numbered about 30,000 globally. This is a highly allocated, sought-after release, and prices for the inaugural version were commonly well above retail in major markets. Between the line’s already solid reputation and a higher base starting price, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some bottles listed for above $200 on shelves.
Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged 2024 Review
As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.
Nose
Compared to last year’s very (very) good nose, we’re off to a great start — maybe even better. Rich cooked fruits lead, including baked apples and pears, along with homemade cranberry sauce and pomegranates. Toasted orange peel layers in shortly thereafter. A couple more sniffs, and those scents become gradually sweeter without losing an undercurrent of tartness, moving from baked and stewed to candied fruit and marmalade. Dark cherry cough drops bookend the early nose, which I didn’t pick up when reviewing the same expression last year; it's as if an additional component was layered on top of 2023’s version. One wonders if cherry — a scent I often pick up on older wheated bourbons — will increase in potency as the Maker’s mashbill ages past 13 years.
It’s all too easy to get my nose stuck in those aromas, but so far, the 2024 Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged is hardly one-dimensional. There’s oak aplenty, roughly on par with last year’s and perhaps just a smidge more tannic. (I’d liken it to strong black tea more than the leather or tobacco often associated with oaky bourbons.)
Barrel char and cinnamon punctuate the nose further in, along with a pronounced nutty component. Paired with the lingering, wood-and-fruit sweetness, it reminds me of an almond-crusted pastry, filled to the brim with fruit preserves.
Taste
I thought the 2023 Cellar Aged release drank at or slightly below its proof. This year’s version quickly coats the tongue with a buttery mouthfeel suddenly enough to mute the ethanol. (I’m not really complaining, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have minded just a little more heat up front.)
Flavors open up on a second sip, with loads of caramel, cocoa, and dried raspberries. Tannins are more pronounced here compared to the nose, and instead of black tea, hints of leather mingle with medicinal black cherry/raspberry and (once again) pomegranate.
Taste evolves a number of times throughout the sip, but the whiskey never loses the central grounding of tart fruit and barrel char. To be clear, I’ve never tasted raspberry filled pastries baked in a wood-fired oven. But if and when that day comes, I wouldn’t be surprised if they reminded me of this version of Cellar Aged.
Vanilla extract builds toward the midpalate, along with baking spice (clove, nutmeg). Notably, things get a little less sweet by the third and fourth sips. That moves things along from chocolate bar and pastry to — for lack of a better term — really old bourbon. Last year’s Cellar Aged showcased classic Maker’s notes with a bit more room for the barrel to come out and play. This year’s bottling builds on that accomplishment — though perhaps with more freedom to let the oak talk. For drinkers, that’s a good thing.
Finish
We’ve got a long finish that mostly undulates between red fruit and sweet oak. An early hint of spice on the back palate leads to sweet mint gum. After that, the fruit and oak dominate. It’s not the most complex finish for a bourbon I’ve sampled in recent memory, though it’s still plenty satisfying. Most other aspects are nearing superlative territory.
Maker’s Mark Cellar 2024 Aged Rating
96/100
Recap
Maker’s Mark set a high bar with 2023’s Cellar Aged release. I’m impressed with this latest version, which eclipses its predecessor by just a hair.
Last year, I finished my Cellar Aged review by musing on how the program might develop and push the brand’s flavor profile with even older bourbon. After sampling this older whiskey for 2024, my thoughts are similar — only amplified.
*Image retrieved from Maker's Mark
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