Maker’s Mark was the first bourbon I fell in love with, and Woodford Reserve may have been the second. Both remain favorites for an “every day” bottle, but I’ve long left them to explore the broader bourbon world.

My whiskey partner Tammy Tan also claims Maker’s Mark as her first bourbon love, so we—along with other members of the West Coast Whiskey Club—were excited to revisit these two beloved brands in some of their more distinctive forms.

• Woodford Reserve:
  • Distiller’s Select (90.4 proof)
  • 2024 Master’s Collection (118.4 proof)
  • 2020 Master’s Collection (123.6 proof)
• Maker’s Mark:
  • 2023 Cellar Aged (119.3 proof)
  • 2024 Heart Release (111.7 proof)
  • Private Selection from Escaya Wine and Spirits (113.4 proof)
  • Cask Strength (109.6 proof)

Both Maker’s Mark and Woodford Reserve have distinctive flavor personalities. Maker’s, being a wheated bourbon (replacing the usual rye in the mash bill), tends to have a sweeter profile, with strong notes of vanilla, buttercream, and ripe fruit coming through. Woodford often has a drier, somewhat spicier profile, with notes of stewed fruit and burnt caramel.

Those broad distinctions showed up in this tasting, resulting in a nearly clean split of the brands in our final ranking.

As before, we tasted blind and discussed the pours together, then ranked them individually. We compared our rankings, and debated adjustments.

With our sometimes similar palates, Tammy and I again aligned on our top picks:

1. Maker’s Mark 2023 Cellar Aged
2. Maker’s Mark Cask Strength
3. Maker’s Mark Private Selection

We weren’t surprised here: We both love Maker’s Mark in general. We found the Cellar Aged to be the most reminiscent of “classic” Maker’s Mark, but with way more depth and complexity. It was simply the most “interesting” yet “classic” bourbon in the collection.

I liked that it was sweet, smoky, and with a prominent but not overpowering alcohol nose. It was a bourbon I wanted to chew on while pondering a cigar.

The Cask Strength was a close second. Immediate baking spices on the nose, with lots of vanilla and fruit, and a bit of tar on the back. The alcoholic burn was more prominent than I’d like, and the finish a bit shorter that ideal, but that just made me want to go in for another sip. It turned out to be rather well balanced.

The Private Selection snuck up on us. On first taste, we found it had a limited nose and palate, and we were close to dismissing it. But after letting it sit for a while, it really opened up, and the vanilla, chewy caramel, and fruit (figs? dates?) really came out in a lovely way that rewarded our patience.

That left our final four:

Placing the Woodford Reserve Distiller’s Select in seventh place was an early, easy call. We both agreed it was a perfectly acceptable bourbon, but which didn’t have nearly enough distinguishing characteristics to make it stand out in this pack.

We struggled with the ordering for 4, 5, and 6. For a while, I had the Woodford Reserve 2020 Master’s Collection in fourth place (in part due to Tammy’s influence!), pushing the rest of my list down, but I kept coming back to the Maker’s Mark 2024 Heart Release because of its classic caramel and brown sugar goodness, plus a little bit of extra heat and woodiness I found interesting, and which Tammy found slightly off-putting. I had to move the Heart Release up.

Likewise, the Woodford Reserve 2024 Master’s Collection had a lovely nose once it opened up, and some soft caramel and perhaps peppermint on the palate, but it had a sharpness to it that I didn’t fully enjoy. I sense this would do well in a Mint Julep.

The Woodford Reserve 2020 Master’s Collection had me intensely debating its position. In the end, I found its heavy alcoholic burn hid too much of the nose and palate. Once that dissipated, I did enjoy its sugar cookie and cream wafer flavors, but I just couldn’t get past that burn, causing me to drop it a couple of positions.

The West Coast Whiskey Club collectively ranked things in a different order: They placed our favorite, the Maker’s Mark 2023 Cellar Aged, at the four spot, and the Maker’s Mark 2024 Heart Release at number one (with a small handful of members ranking it last or near last).

The Cellar Aged especially seemed quite polarizing: It garnered more 1s and 2s than the “winning” Heart Release, but also a lot more 6s and 7s. Sixteen of the 24 tasters gave the Cellar Aged a top-two or bottom-two rank, vs. just 12 for the Heart Release.

(The only more-polarizing entry was the Maker’s Mark Cask Strength, with 17 of 24 ranking it top-two or bottom-two. It ended up in fifth place in the WCWC rankings, and second for us.)

On the flip side, there was broad agreement on the placement of the Woodford Reserve Distiller’s Select; half the tasters rated in the bottom two spots, and it pulled seven last-place votes, more than double anything else. Only two people ranked it as their top two. It was clearly outshone in this competition.

These were all good bourbons, though. I expect most of them would be even more enjoyable outside of a taste test, whether on their own, or in a cocktail. The ranking is definitely not a reflection on their quality. It can be difficult to judge quality from a half-ounce pour, and more difficult still with five or six other whiskeys clamoring for the attention of our nose and taste buds. I’m sure if we did this tasting again tomorrow, we’d end up with a different ranking.

I know, for example, that despite landing in the seventh spot, that I would gladly partake of a Woodford Reserve Distillers Select most any day. I’ve done it many times before; it makes for a wonderful Manhattan, for example.

Taste, as always, is subjective. Personally, I think I’ll seek out a Cellar Aged for my collection.

Every month or so, a few friends and I gather for a whiskey tasting. For July, Tammy Tan (SpiceHound, Kitchen 519) and Anton Yulo (Meryenda) joined me in a West Coast Whiskey Club (WCWC) blind tasting of seven Russell’s Reserve whiskies. 

This represents most of their lineup, minus the Single Barrel Rye. Here’s what we poured:

• 10 year Bourbon (90 proof)
• K&L Exclusive Warehouse TY-K, Level 4 (110 proof)
• 13 year Bourbon (114.8 proof)
• 15 year Bourbon (117.2 proof)
• Single Rickhouse Bourbon Camp Nelson F (117.6 proof)
• WCWC Exclusive Camp Nelson E (110 proof)
• 6 year Rye (90 proof)

We tasted and discussed the pours together, then ranked them individually. While the three of us have similar, yet distinct preferences in our whiskies, throughout the tasting our preferences were clear and those differences didn’t really show up. Two bottles were early favorites, and another two were immediate dislikes. The battle, really, was for the middle of the pack.

As whiskey drinkers, we are trained that “older is better,” and our assumption was our two favorites were the 13- and 15-year bourbons, and our least favorites were the 6-year rye and 10-year bourbon.

We were half right.

We ended up ranking our top four whiskies in exactly the same order:

1. K&L Exclusive
2. WCWC Exclusive
3. Single Rickhouse
4. 13 year Bourbon

Our final three is where we diverged, slightly:

This differed from the overall WCWC rankings, which put the 13- and 15- year at the top, though we did align on the 10-year bourbon and 6-year rye being among our least favorites.

The 10-year is an approachable introduction for new bourbon drinkers; for cocktails which need the alcohol and flavor profile of bourbon, but won’t miss the nuance (say, a Kentucky Mule); or perhaps in baking.

The rye will appeal to those who enjoy its spicy profile (and, I think it would make for a killer Manhattan).

The 13- and 15-year, and Single Rickhouse bourbons are all limited releases, and retail for $150, $250, and $300, respectively—though you’d be hard pressed to find them for those prices; more likely double that. They would make great gifts for the bourbon lover who appreciates hard-to-get allocations.

The Exclusives, though, can be smoking good deals, usually $75–$100 a bottle. Most large retailers are likely to have one (e.g. BevMo, Total Wine), and smaller shops with a strong whiskey selection (like K&L) are likely to have their own picks, too.

If I were spending my own money, I’d grab a single barrel exclusive pick from Warehouse TY-K or TY-Q (e.g. this ParisTown from K&L). If I were spending someone else’s money, I might splurge on the Single Rickhouse—or maybe just explore a few exclusive bottles.