Bourbon Hunters’ Alert: Heaven Hill and Maker’s Mark Announce New Releases

Heaven Hill and Maker’s Mark both announced new Bourbon offerings today. 

Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel Bourbon

This morning, Heaven Hill announced Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel Bourbon.  The press release described it as “fully matured small batch” that will be secondarily aged in new custom toasted oak barrels.  These new barrels, made of 18-month air-dried oak, were created in cooperation with the cooperage gurus at Independent Stave Company.  These new barrels are described as “first toasted then flash-charred using a moderate toast temperature and moderate toast time”. 

The press release says the process results in “bringing forth dark sugar flavors” and “a balance of smokiness and sweetness”.  The release of a toasted barrel Bourbon is to “pay homage to their namesake (Elijah Craig)” who was “the first to char oak barrels to make Bourbon”.  Toasted Barrel Bourbon will be at the same 94-proof as regular Elijah Craig Small Batch.

Heaven Hill is following the path of offering a double barreled whiskey that has already been traveled by Woodford Reserve, Old Forester, Jim Beam, Buzzard’s Roost, Jefferson’s and others.  The retail price is a reasonable $49.99 and appears to be a permanent part of the Heaven Hill / Elijah Craig lineup.  The press release also stated it will “launch nationally on an allocated basis this September”.  This sounds similar to the manner in which the re-release of Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond and the release of Elijah Craig Rye were handled.  Both of these seem to have been very slow to expand distribution areas.

Maker’s Mark Cask Strength

Maker’s Mark sent out an e-mail this afternoon from Rob Samuels, managing director at Maker’s Mark, that a cask strength version of Maker’s 46 will be released.  This will be to honor the 10th birthday of the Maker’s 46 product.  Cask Strength versions of Maker’s 46 had previously been rare gift-shop only releases. 

Rob also announced that there will be a Zoom event on July 30 at 5:00 PM hosted by his father and creator of Maker’s 46, Bill Samuels, Jr.  The e-mail contained a link for the Zoom event.  With Bill Samuels, Jr. leading the event it is sure to be entertaining. 

“Maker’s 46 Cask Strength is arriving on shelves at select retailers soon”, the e-mail explains.  “But quantities of this limited-release offering are just that: limited”.  There was no mention on number of bottles to be released or a retail price.

I am very interested in both of the new products.  Some double-barrel Bourbons I like and others I find to be over-oaked, but that is a personal preference.  As for the Maker’s special release, cask strength Maker’s Mark is the best Maker’s Mark in my opinion.  My concern is availability.  Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond and Elijah Craig Rye are still not available in Kentucky (at least not that I’ve seen) and don’t appear to be showing up on shelves in new markets very quickly. A “limited” release Maker’s 46 Cask Strength seems like the kind of thing that will likely never even make it to a shelf (granted, we don’t know a bottle count yet).  Hopefully, both are not only great Bourbons, but great Bourbons that are readily available. Happy hunting!