Maker's Mark: the standard bottle is the value

Three Maker's Mark bottles are on offer, and all three sit above their flavour-crowd, the ten whiskies the model rates nearest each on taste. For a wheated bourbon this well known, a little premium over its taste-peers is exactly what you would expect, and none of these three is a bad buy. What the week shows clearly is where the premium is small and where it grows. The standard 700mL bottle sits barely over its crowd. The 46 and the one-litre bottle both sit a long way further over, and neither gives you back much for the extra.

The house style is the reason to read the three against each other. Maker's Mark comes out of Loretto, Kentucky, and it is the famous wheated bourbon: red winter wheat in the recipe where most bourbons use rye, which is what makes it so soft and approachable. The hand-dipped red wax is the shelf signature everyone knows. All three bottles share that gentle, wheated base, so the differences between them come down to finish and format rather than a change of character.