Super excited to launch our latest version of Makers Private Select. We absolutely love being involved in the project with Makers Mark and make it a point to go out of our way to make each batch drastically different from the next to showcase the versatility of this program and how much of an impact these staves have on the flavor of the Bourbon.

For those unfamiliar with how this process works, we fly out to the distillery and lock ourselves in a room filled with Bourbon (tough job right?). We sample Makers mark at cask strength along 5 other versions of the same bourbon each individually finished with different type of oak stave. We then blend these bourbons together to come up with a recipe, do some quick match to see how many of each oak stave will result in this flavor. We literally drop these staves in a barrel, fill said barrel, stamp it with our name and roll it into a finishing warehouse for 9 weeks for it to transform into what we will be releasing this Sat Nov 9th at 1pm. (See video below)

This year we went super heavy on Mocha staves (8 roasted french mocha, 1 seared french cuvée and 1 toasted french spice) this year resulting in a bourbon that is a chocolate lovers dream. Liquid chocolate is what comes to mind with slight stone fruits and baking spices in the lingering finish. Taste delicious neat and bold enough to stand out in your favorite cocktail.

This will also be the third installment in our Infinity Redstone series dawning a green stone. (Collect all of the stones in the series for bonus tickets in our Annual whiskey draft raffle later this year.)

BONUS: In addition to the bonuses for having all of the stones for anyone who purchases a bottle during our Whiskey fest (Sat Nov 9th from 1-3) will get 4 tickets toward our whiskey draft and a glass wax dipped in front of them to enjoy this in when they get home.

BONUS BONUS: Our friends at cupcake city have made a custom cupcake made with this years private select that will be available at our Whiskey fest Sat Nov 9th. Maple Bacon Bourbon (so good) The first 85 people to sample this years Private select will get to enjoy this limited edition cupcake!

We are happy to announce the arrival of our 2nd Makers Private Select bespoke blend. After the success of last years blend we again flew out to Maker’s Mark Distillery in Kentucky and hand selected different oak staves that we then used to finish Maker’s Mark cask strength whiskey.

The result of this years batch is far different form last years to showcase the versatility of this process and how each stave drastically impacts the taste and flavor profile of this whiskey.  Out of 1001 unique combinations, each stave impacts the mouthfeel, finish as well as over all flavor components giving us a chance to really bring you something that is truly rare and unique.

This particular barrel we selected uses 4 Roasted French Mocha staves, 2 Seared French Cuvée staves and 4 baked American Pure 2 staves. The barreling proof is 109.8. The result boasts notes of vanilla, bing cherries, cocoa, a hint of coffee and mocha on the finish.

Note: The Seared French Cuvée stave is a funny stave in that it starts off a bit hot but after 5 min of airing by letting it sit in a glass, decanting or adding a few drops of water opens it up in to a completely different whiskey with a very dominating nose and syrupy mouthfeel of sweet vanilla (delicious) We used 2 of these staves into this years batch intermingled with the other staves it gives an almost cherry vanilla latte type character with a silky caramel like mouthfeel.

Bottles are now available at Redstone Barrel Society locations and retail for $69.99/750ml btl:

Redstone Liquors Stoneham

Redstone Liquors Andover

Framingham Liquors

Nobscot Wine and Spirits