Although I call myself a realist, I am, at heart, a devout cynic. So when the call came in to travel down to the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky for a tour and tasting, I was (shall we say) skeptical.After all, for the most part, distilleries are pretty much all the same, right? And a "tasting?" Just so we're all on the same page here, Maker's Mark has one product. This should take about five minutes. A quick flight home, and I'm back in bed. And none the wiser. Funny how life surprises you…

From the moment Rob Samuels picked me up at the airport, I began to see that things are not always as they appear. Rob is the eighth generation of his family to be involved in the distilling business, and is also the man in charge of spreading the gospel overseas. In essence, his possition is to elevate Maker's Mark whisky to the iconic status it enjoys stateside. But what Rob shared with me had nothing to do with high-level marketing strategy; what he shared was family pride. He detoured briefly past older, now semi-silent distillery sites from days gone by, sharing stories of not just his family, but others in this tight knit "community". Rob outlined his passion for quality, integrity, and tradition, both in his company and its whisky. And then he gave me a prelude to the theme of Maker's Mark. He tried to explain why there is only one expression of Maker's Mark whisky, i.e. just one product. According to Rob, (and just about everyone else I met this trip), Bill Samuels, Sr. (Rob's grandfather) found THE taste that he wanted, and, essentially, why mess with success. As I clutched my rosary of cynicism, Rob patiently explained the story: His grandparents tried to remove the rye bitterness from their whisky, substituting it with soft red winter wheat, and voila! Well yes, I thought; that's all well and good, but this is America… If one expression is good, then five expressions are five times as good! I'm glad that Rob's too much of a gentleman to throw me out of a moving vehicle, instead he assured me that at the end of my stay with them, I would eventually see the light.

What's not open to dispute, however, is the sheer beauty of Maker's Mark Distillery. It is one of those rare distilleries that is a national treasure. Whether you are a whisky aficionado, or just a lover of the pastoral, it is easy to rediscover inner peace while wandering its perfectly manicured grounds and gazing around the accompa-nying rolling hills and fields. In between greeting whisky "pilgrims" and chatting with various workers on the grounds as we strolled, Rob and I spoke, again, mostly of the singular taste of his whisky, and the strive to maintain its consistency. This chat made for a nice segue to the person I was introduced to next, Kevin Smith, the Master Distiller. As opposed to some others in his position at other distilleries, where innovations are the keys to success, Kevin's approach is different. Over dinner, he confided that his main job is "not to screw things up". (Not to sound trite, but this is actually a lot harder than it sounds. It's very easy to mess-up a batch, and then give it a fancy name and a fancier price tag. It's much harder to pursue perfection every time.) This is also where I was introduced to David Pudlo, Maker's Mark's Bourbon Specialist, who, in addition to having an encyclopedia of whisky knowledge stored in his brain, is also responsible for helping train the distillery guides. [And, just as an aside; to illustrate my never-ending point that you should enjoy whisky however you like it best, I had my Maker's neat, Kevin threw a fistful of ice in his, and Dave meticulously counted out two cubes. You know, in case you were curious…]

The next morning, I met up with Kevin again for the "tasting". Wrapped in my prayer shawl of skepticism, I wondered how lonely that singular glass of bourbon would look, with no other glasses to keep it company. But again, I laid low (you'd think I'd learn my lesson). I was obviously not tasting Maker's Mark bourbon by itself, or against expressions that don't exist, but against both other bourbons, and against under and over-aged Maker's; again, all to see the flavor profile that the Samuels family strove to both create and maintain. And quite honestly, the differences were striking. I admit that there is always a bottle of Maker's in my house, and that it is one of my favorite bourbons. Tasting it just a little before its prime, as well as a little after, certainly cements the fact that not only is the recipe perfect, so is the execution. I felt like I knew the answer to my next question before I asked it, but I had to anyway. Why not experiment a little more? Maybe a single barrel? Kevin's answer was, of course, predictable, but also 100% true. Yes, Maker's Mark is a brand, but it's really about bottling a flavor. The same flavor, time after time. Maker's Mark is more about family and community than innovation. It represents a singular, dependable flavor that, really, can't be improved upon.

I took an extensive tour later with Dave. The details weren't boring, but my retelling of them would be. Suffice it to say that Maker's Mark has a commitment to quality that I have seen in precious few distilleries. From the high malt content of the mash bill (14%, the highest in the bourbon industry), to the only remaining roller mill in the US, to the beautiful Cypress fermenters, everything shows a meticulous commitment to excellence. And planning. Take the warehouses.Most distilleries will bottle a cross-section of barrels, so as not to have to move them around too much. At Maker's though, each barrel will spend a couple of years at the top of the warehouse, a couple in the middle, and the rest on the first floor. This process, although more time consuming, helps ensure that each barrel is the best that it can be, before being married to its fellow barrels, and bottled. And speaking of bottling, Dave put me on the line with the (mostly) women who hand dip each bottle of Maker's Mark into the ubiquitous red wax that forms Maker's famous bottle "decoration". Holy Crap, that's hard to do! If you're ever in a liquor store and see a couple of bottles of Maker's Mark bourbon whose red wax looks a little, how do you say, "challenged"; yeah, they're mine.

Of course, the real challenge is maintaining the singular quality, vision, and most importantly, FLAVOR, that is Maker's Mark bourbon. With Rob and Kevin at the helm, I have no doubts. After all, I'm no longer just a fan, I'm a believer.