Maker’s Mark had a busy 2023, releasing its first age-stated bourbon and celebrating 70 years of operation. As well as, the Beam Suntory-owned distillery additionally introduced their transfer towards regenerative agriculture, turning into the primary whiskey producer to be third-party licensed by Regenified.
The Tier 2 certification — there are 5 doable ranges, and types have three years to realize the following designation up — signifies that at the least 20 to 40% of their grain comes from land with licensed sustainable farming practices. And Maker’s has made it clear they’ve their sights set on attending to 100%.
The announcement virtually instantly had some followers questioning whether or not the shift might affect taste after the six to eight yr growing older course of (not least amongst them whiskey writers). Will grain grown underneath completely different circumstances have any impression on Maker’s Mark bourbon? Whereas it’s not possible to foretell precisely how the distillate will age, one of many model’s in-house researchers has some educated guesses.
Drinkhacker was on web site for the certification announcement and celebration as a visitor of the model. After, we sat down with Blake Layfield, Ph.D — Maker’s Mark’s Head of Innovation, Mixing, and High quality — to debate how the transfer will impression shoppers and finally what’s going to be in these iconic wax-topped bottles.
Notice: This interview has been edited for readability.
Drinkhacker: Are you able to give me a little bit background on the impetus or motive behind the transfer to the regenerative agriculture?
Blake Layfield: At Maker’s Mark, we view bourbon as nature distilled. And David, I do know you could have been to Loretto and also you most likely questioned the primary time you have been there, why would you ever construct a distillery in the midst of nowhere? Our founders bought the positioning as a consequence of its proximity to nature, respective of the wheat and corn farms and the water sources that exist there. And my function at Maker’s Mark is to guard and to reinforce our current portfolio whereas additionally creating our future via innovation, renovation, client experiences, and analysis at Star Hill Farms.
So if you concentrate on innovation, it’s not nearly new merchandise, new bottles. It may be enhancing your current components or processes. And in our case, we’re doing that to persistently pursue that founder’s imaginative and prescient of creating one thing that’s actually on the peak of its taste. And we’ve been studying and we’ve been rising to know extra in regards to the relationship between grain selection, terroir, and regenerative agricultural practices, what they may imply for taste. We’re simply getting began on that journey.
Drinkhacker: What’s completely different about grain grown underneath regenerative practices that might impression taste of distillate and finally the aged bourbon that hits shoppers?
Blake Layfield: Regenerative agriculture is absolutely wanting on the renewal of the meals and farming techniques. And it focuses on the entire chain, from the soil to plant well being to finally to animal and human well being. So regeneratively farmed meals, we imagine, have a better nutrient density than meals which are produced from soils that could be much less wholesome. Nutrient density is what’s going to be consumed throughout the fermentation course of, and that’s the place we imagine that’s going to provide you depth of taste and complexity of taste, and that’s going to incrementally drive high quality in our new make spirit. So once I take into consideration bourbon high quality as a complete, you’ll be able to roughly break it into two items. New make spirit high quality and maturation high quality.
And our mash invoice is 70% corn, 16% smooth crimson winter wheat, and 14% malted barley. The mash invoice is vital, however so is the standard of these incoming grains. Once more, what’s the varietal of that grain, the terroir and the circumstances by which you deal with that terroir? So our corn and wheat provide have each been licensed as Regenified Tier 2, and this leverages that lever of the way you deal with the terroir. So we imagine that is going to yield a extra nutrient dense ingredient, and that’s going to gas taste growth by way of taste and complexity.
Drinkhacker: What are some particular vitamins or chemical compounds that you just imagine the licensed agriculture truly carries into the mash?
Blake Layfield: We’re nonetheless studying on that facet, however we do have some crucial high quality parameters that we take a look at round starch content material, round moisture content material, round these hint minerals. And the hint minerals are actually the place we’re going to see a few of these larger will increase.
Drinkhacker: With the transfer to regenerative farming, there’s social impression, there’s environmental impression. However with out realizing precisely how the whiskey will style years down the street, is it truthful to say there’s a leap of religion on the subject of the impression this can have on taste?
Blake Layfield: I feel that’s very reasonable to say. We’re on that studying journey and proper now what Tier 2 means is that 20 to 40% of the land is licensed as Regenified. So in case you’ve obtained 100 acres, solely 20% of these could be licensed, however we’re nonetheless capable of take all of that in as a part of our provide chain practices. Now from Tier 2, our provide chain has three years to be able to progress to Tier 3, which is 40 to 60% of the land. Tier 4 is 60 to 80%, and Tier 5, which is the ultimate, is 80 to 100%. So we expect that taste goes to slowly, slowly change. We don’t view this as a dash. We view this as a marathon to persistently pursue our taste imaginative and prescient and likewise make our bourbon a little bit bit extra sustainably.
Remember the fact that after we take into consideration bourbon high quality, new make spirit, I consider it as round 50% of your taste profile, however the different 50% is maturation. So what we’re doing proper now could be we’re creating the brand new make spirit. How that matures out is what we’ll be understanding and higher exploring over the following six to eight years. You’ve gotta have nice new make spirit and actually good maturation processes to have a extremely good high quality bourbon. And so we expect we’re pursuing actually top quality new spirit and maintaining our identical ideas of maturation — of six to eight years barrel rotation — to actually present a top quality product.
Drinkhacker: Is there any noticeable distinction that you may measure in chemical evaluation earlier than and after the Regenified certification?
Blake Layfield: We take a look at new make spirit high quality in a pair alternative ways. We take a look at it from an analytical perspective, and we take a look at fatty acid esters and risky congeners. We take a look at our sugars and our acid profiles, that are fairly recognized analytical indicators of taste. However finally the human nostril is our most delicate software for assessing high quality, as it will probably detect flavors which are far under the restrict of detection by fashionable analytical methods. So at this second, we’re nonetheless gathering that information. We wish to undergo a number of seasons with our Regenified agriculture, a number of batches. We simply began in November 2023 with this, however proper now it’s wanting promising for us.
I can say the findings to date are trending in a superb course. We have to see the way it’s going to mature out.
Drinkhacker: Right here’s the massive query: Is that this going to vary the flavour of Maker’s Mark?
Blake Layfield: I don’t assume you could have something to be anxious about as a client. For us, we’re not altering our grain varietal, we’re not altering our mashbill, we’re not altering our fermentation practices, circumstances, distillation parameters, our maturation. We’re merely taking a look at rising soil well being. Our farmer and our provide chain base can be not altering. These are nonetheless the very same farmers we have been already utilizing. They’re simply taking some extra sustainable practices inside their farming methods. So for us, we don’t count on to see actually any change in our profile. What you would possibly get is just a bit bit extra of the flavors that you just already like.
