Maker's Mark
Maker's Mark is a Kentucky Straight Bourbon whiskey that has been produced at the Maker's Mark distillery (originated from Star Hill Farm) in Loretto , Kentucky since 1959 . The company is currently run by Bill Samuels jun. directed. Maker's Mark is part of the Beam Suntory beverage company .
The recipe for Maker's Mark Bourbons was developed by Bill Samuels Sr. in 1953 together with Pappy Van Winkle, who is known as a "whiskey pat" . At that time Maker's Mark differed significantly from other brands in terms of bottle design, mash blend and marketing (also due to the Scottish or Canadian spelling "whiskey" on the bottle label) and was also significantly more expensive than other American whiskeys. It is one of the few bourbons in which wheat instead of rye complements the basic mix of corn and malted barley .
Manufacturing
A mash with 70 percent corn is used to produce Maker's Mark, while the remaining 30 percent is made up of malted barley and winter wheat . In contrast to almost all other Kentucky distilleries, Maker's Mark does not use rye , which ensures a mild aroma. Further differences can be found in the manufacturing process. On the one hand, the grain is not ground, as is usually the case, but rather squeezed in a special roller mill. This approach is gentler on the grain because it does not heat up as much and the natural taste does not change. Furthermore, no printing process is used when cooking the grain, since wheat mash, unlike rye mash, would not survive this unscathed. This extends the cooking process to around 8 hours. Fermentation , which lasts up to 78 hours, takes place in fermenters made from cypress wood that are around 100 years old. Fermentation is followed by double distillation , as is customary in the industry, and finally four to seven years of maturation. As with all bourbons, this takes place in charred barrels made from American white oak .
history
It is difficult to trace the history of Maker's Mark. Origin and tradition have played an important role in the marketing of the brand for decades, so that it is hardly possible to differentiate between what the company's history is and what was later embellished or left out through marketing. The distillery , founded in 1889, has been run by the Samuels family for five generations. It stood still for several decades until Bill Samuels had it repaired in the early 1950s. Bill Samuels previously worked as a minority owner in the TW Samuels distillery. When the main owner Robert Block, a son-in-law of Isaac Wolfe Bernheim, sold the distillery in 1943, Samuels was out of business and worked as a baker for several years.
The recipe for Maker's Mark most likely came from Pappy Van Winkle , who was a close friend of Samuelson and who was the first to produce bourbon with wheat mash on a large scale in the USA.
Maker's Mark was launched in 1959 and broke with many of the conventions of the time. The bottle had a different design, the label was minimalist and the wax seal was unusual. A mash with such a high proportion of wheat is still a rarity among whiskeys today. Above all, Maker's Mark was positioned above all competitors in terms of price, making it the first premium whiskey in the USA in the post-war period. While bourbon was considered a drink for workers at the time and premium prices were called for cognac or scotch , Maker's Mark aggressively advertised that it was so expensive because the special production required this price. The first campaign that Maker's Mark ran for a decade in 1965 had the slogan 'It tastes expensive .. and is'. Until the 1970s, Maker's Mark was hardly known on the market and was more of a hobby of rich owners than a real market participant in the industry. The breakthrough came in 1980. The company had it that Maker's Mark was served on flights of certain airlines, which in turn aroused the curiosity of the Wall Street Journal , which dedicated a long history to the company in 1980.
The article started a nationwide interest in whiskey that continues to this day.
The restored wooden buildings of the distillery, decorated in red and brown, date from the time before the American Civil War .
Production volume and varieties
Maker's Mark produces around 40 barrels of whiskey per day, which corresponds to around 4000 liters. The filling takes place after the storage time in downwardly tapering, bulgy-square bottles (predominantly 0,7 l, more rarely, 1,0 l, for America also 1/2 gallon, which is about 1.89 l equivalent). The bottles are manually sealed with wax that runs down the neck of the bottle. This seal is trademarked by Makers's Mark. In addition to the main product, for which red wax is used ( Red Seal ), there are also variants with a black ( Black Seal ) and golden wax seal ( Gold Seal ) as well as from time to time special fillings in very small quantities. After bottling, the Maker's Mark Red Seal has an alcohol content of 45% vol. The other two varieties have a higher alcohol content.
Production site and sales
As with all major bourbon distilleries in the USA, the distillery can be visited and inspected. The building stock and the production facilities (building, fermentation, storage) are largely in their original historical condition. The actual storage of the barrels takes place at various locations in Kentucky, most of which cannot be visited.
The product is particularly successful in Japan . Maker's Mark Whiskey has been available in Germany since 1988.
In 2014, sales (USA) were 50.7 million US dollars, which corresponds to 9th place in the whiskey sector. The market share by bottle (USA) was 1.6 percent.
literature
- Gilbert Delos: Les Whiskeys du Monde. Translation from French: Karin-Jutta Hofmann: Whiskey from all over the world. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1998, ISBN 3-86070-442-7 , p. 139 f.
Remarks
- ↑ CK Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 161.
- ^ A b c C. K. Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 162
- ^ A b C. K. Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 163
- ↑ CK Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 164
- ^ "CK Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 67
- ↑ Top 20 best selling whiskey brands of 2014: No. 9 Maker's Mark North American Whiskey. Dayton Business Journal, July 23, 2014 (slide 12/20).
Web links
Coordinates: 37 ° 38 ′ 51 ″ N , 85 ° 20 ′ 55 ″ W.