Maker’s Mark Steward’s Release Review + Huge Nintendo Switch 2 News

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Today on the Bourbon Bites Podcast, we're breaking down heavy-hitting drops from Old
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Forester and Barrelcraft Spirits, massive Nintendo Direct reveals for Switch 2, and
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a bite-sized review of the new Maker's Mark Steward's release. hello everyone and welcome to the bourbon bites podcast i'm your host clifton and this is the week
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of thursday june 11th 2026 thank you all so much for tuning into today's episode there's been a lot
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of new whiskey news over the past few weeks. I feel like every time I sit down to record one of these episodes, I have to pick and
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choose which stories to feature because there are so many of them
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But today I selected some of my highlights for the week. If there's anything else you ever want me to cover, feel free to leave it on our discord server
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I have a whiskey news channel there where you can post up all the latest whiskey news. I'll be happy to talk about it
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But today we are distilling it down to a few of the top news stories this week
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of course, a very special review of the new Makers Mark Stewards release for 2026
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But before we get to that, we got lots of announcements, the first of which comes to
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us from Old Forrester. They just announced their 2026 President's Choice releases. And like last
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year, they're going to do two. They're going to do a bourbon and a rye. These are going to be
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available starting on June 13th. So this weekend ahead of National Bourbon Day. They say that these
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are inspired by private single barrels offered in 1964 by former Old Forrester president George
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Garvin Brown II. This time each barrel is aged between 7 to 9 years old and bottled at proof
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points ranging from 110 to 125 and they're going to be available for a retail price of $225. Now
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if you're lucky enough to be in person at the distillery they are dropping these 10 a.m. this
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Saturday. They're also going to be available at their online store at shop.oldforester.com
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for shipping to states where it's legal. Now, I've personally not had a chance to try any of
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these President's Choice bottles, but I've heard they are the cream of the crop when it comes to
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brown form and distillate. So if you are lucky enough to get them, let me know how they are and
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how do they compare to last year's release. Like I said, last year they introduced the rye to the
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lineup, so it's good to see them continue that tradition. I think Old Forster rye is one of my
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favorite ryes that have hit the market recently and getting some very old barrels of it sounds
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incredible. Speaking of barrel, Barrel Craft Spirits just announced their limited edition
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toasted seagrass bottle. Yes, you heard that right. The seagrass whiskey that is the crazy
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American and Canadian rye whiskey finished in Martinique rum, Madeira and apricot brandy casks
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They are doing an additional 36 month toast on it in Grand Cru toasted American oak. And they
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say this expands the flavor spectrum in an entirely new direction. They say it brings greater depth
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and integrates its layers of complexity. Y'all know I love barrel seagrass. Funny enough, I actually
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mentioned seagrass during my live stream last week. I had a few bottles of Stellum Black Bourbon
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and Rye that I got at a crazy good discount price of 75% off. I reviewed them based on their retail
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price and the discount price. If you missed that live stream, check it out, youtube.com slash
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bourbon bites but one of the ryes reminded me very very much of barrel seagrass and what I loved
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about it so getting a chance to try that at 75% off retail was incredible but this one is going
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to be a premium version of seagrass and by premium I mean this is ultra limited they're only making
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350 bottles of it and it going to go for as someone who a fan of regular barrel seagrass that actually sounds like not that bad of a price I mean yeah it more but with it being so limited of a production that pretty crazy
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All right, last bit of whiskey news actually comes to us from Penelope Bourbon
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They're launching what they call the Classic Series, which is a straight bourbon and a straight rye whiskey
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So what's interesting is Penelope's always been known for their experimenting and blending and, you know, these high-end whiskeys
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They didn't start like everyone else and just released like a baseline product and then experiment
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They started straight with the experimentation. So they're kind of flipping the playbook around
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And after all these years, releasing a classic affordable lineup of bourbon and rye whiskey
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The bourbon is made up of a mash bill of 78% corn, 10% rye and 12% malted barley
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While the rye is made up of a mash bill of 93% rye and 7% malted barley
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Both of these are bottled at 92 proof and available, like I said, at a really good entry
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level price point. The bourbons going for $45 and the rise going for $35
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Now unfortunately, one thing I don't see on this press release is an age statement for
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either bottle. I assume with them being straight bourbons and rise, they're going to be at least three
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or four years old, but it would be nice to know that up front
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Now good news is they actually had samples of these available and they're on the way
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to me now. So stay tuned later this month for a live stream on YouTube
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I'll be trying these two new classic releases as well as their new BlackBerry Old Fashioned
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So really excited for another Penelope stream. It's been a minute since I featured their whiskey on the podcast
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So make sure to subscribe and hit that bell button to be notified when that live stream comes out
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All right. Well, speaking of classics, we got to talk about the latest video game news
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There is a Nintendo Direct this week and people are flipping out for two reasons
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ones, one of which is the new trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 that reveals some of the
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gameplay and the fact that this game is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and S and Nintendo
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Switch 2. Now, we don't have a release date, but it's always good to see an update from the Kingdom
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Hearts realm. And based on this teaser trailer, it looks fantastic. It's really been probably a decade since I've played Kingdom Hearts
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I think the last time I played was Kingdom Hearts 2 actually as a kid, but I would love to replay 1 through 3
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know they've kind of had a few remakes of those come out. I want to get myself familiar with the
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story before this new one comes out. They haven't announced a release date, but it is on the horizon
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But I think the biggest thing that I am most excited about from this Nintendo Direct is the
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announcement of the all-new Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time remake coming to Nintendo Switch 2 this
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year. So there are rumors circulating about this for a while, but at the very end of the Nintendo
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Direct. They had a little bit of a teaser trailer where some of the familiar music was played
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and then you see this really detailed model of Link. He's asleep in bed, and you see the glowing
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Triforce on his hand. It's definitely a teaser trailer, but boy am I excited. Now, they can
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either really do an amazing job with this or completely screw it up. I'm hopeful. I think
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they know that Ocarina of Time is one of the most beloved Legend of Zelda games. I'm hopeful that
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they're going to continue to make really good remakes. So that's probably the highlight of
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Nintendo, at least for me this year so far. I cannot wait for that new remake. Now there were
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a few other big gaming events earlier this week as well. There was an Xbox announcements that
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announced the new Xbox 25th anniversary edition of the console. We finally got some updates about
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the Halo campaign evolved since it's going to be arriving on July 28th. And PlayStation had their
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state of play event where the new God of War game was announced. Now I've never really played God of
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War. Again, I know there are huge, huge fan bases out there, but don't judge me. I'm a more fan of
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the classics I love the Legend of Zelda and Kingdom Hearts updates Those get me going Well speaking of getting going let go ahead and get into this week Bite Review
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Alright, well, as I mentioned at the top of this podcast, this is the new Maker's Mark Wood Finishing Series release
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This one is called The Stewards Release. This is part of their five-year journey for the wood finishing series
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It started back in 2024 with the Heart release, the Keeper's release was last year, and this year is the Steward's release
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They say that this series explores the people behind the proof. This particular expression is inspired by the distillery's operations teams
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who guide the bourbon's journey from first fermentation to final bottling. Now, as with the other recent releases in the wood finishing series
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they're not as transparent about what's actually going on here with the staves. In the past
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they would tell you what kind of special staves or special grooves in the staves were influencing
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these releases, but this time they keep it pretty vague. They do say it's a one-of-a-kind expression
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crafted using an innovative wood stave finishing technique that amplifies the distinctive
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characteristics of the brand's signature bourbon. So that's all we really know about it. Now, it
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sounds like there are two different batches of this that were put out. One was coming out at 59.4
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ABV or 109.6 proof and the other is at 56.65% ABV or 113.3 proof. So I happen to have the higher
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proof one, the 113.3 proof release. They both came out in March of this year and the suggested
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retail price of them is $74.99. So pretty on par with the other Maker's Mark wood finishing
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releases. I still have yet to try these side by side to really see how different they are
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I just tend to see them as really good expressions of kind of like the Maker's Mark private selects that we see. You know, they don't tell you necessarily what the saves are, but
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they're really good just overall additions to the lineup. And for $75, it's a bit steep compared to
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some other Maker's Mark, but it's slowly creeping up across the board. So I think that's a decent
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price for a one-off release every year. But let's go ahead and give it a bite-sized review
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starting with the nose. Ooh, nice. Very sweet and deserty. Almost like a maple syrup kind of thing
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going on. It's like vanilla and maple, almost like a topping on like a cake or something. It's
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definitely dessert forward and sweet. By the way, the bottle has notes listed on it itself. It says
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the notes are vibrant, raw honey, and stone fruit. So I'll look for those for sure. They give you more
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detailed notes on the side and things like that but I'm going to give you my first impressions of
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this release and by first impressions I mean last few impressions because I've been enjoying this
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bottle quite a while I keep coming back to it to kind of see what it brings me and I figured it's
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finally time to give it a review now that I've kind of gathered my thoughts over the past couple
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of months but nose is delicious it's I mean it's a dessert lover's bourbon I hope that it will
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follow through on the palate let's go ahead and give it a try cheers Hmm. Interesting. Okay. So let me say this. It's not nearly as sweet on the palate as it was on the
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nose, but it's still in the realm of like a dessert shop. Like I'm getting a little bit of a very
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toasted pie crust or even a little bit of like a waffle cone. There's something like a nice toasty
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baked good note there. But surprisingly, a lot of that vanilla and maple that I was getting on the
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nose is a little bit more in the background here on the palate. They say raw honey and I'm not
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getting like a honey sweetness but I do get a little bit of that earthiness like a honeycomb which I think can also be interpreted kind of like a waffle cone because I think it has that kind of toasty element to it as well but nowhere nearly as sweet as as honey would be and you know
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the more and more I go back to the palette what's really shining here is the finish I think the
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palette's a little like a little flat but the finish is really nice it kind of goes a little
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bit savory almost like a salty kind of well I don't want a savory is probably an extreme reach
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of it but it's a little bit more of like a salted caramel how about that kind of like middle ground
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Not very sweet caramel, but like a salty, really rich, dark caramel molasses thing
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Not confectionery sugar, not, you know, bright sweetness, but definitely darker, a little bit salty caramel
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And they say stone fruit. I mean, I kind of get a little bit of, honestly, weirdly enough, it's peach, but it's like peach cobbler, like cooked down peaches
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But again, it's not sweet. It's like you're getting that fruitiness from it, but not the sweetness
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You're just getting like a hint of fruitiness with that salty kind of caramel thing
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You know, thinking back on all my notes, like what I say on the on the nose, I was like maple and vanilla on the palate
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I was like waffle cone. And then on the finish, I'm like salted caramel
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So it's like a this sounds like something in my order from Salt and Straw. It's like a salted caramel ice cream cone, but not overly sweet
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I mean, I dig it. It's an interesting flavor profile. It definitely doesn't taste like other makers I've had before
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I'm pretty sure if you blinded me with this, I don't know if I would say it's a Maker's Mark, just because it just has such a unique flavor profile that I've not really seen on other
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releases from this wood finishing line. Overall, this is a solid addition to the Maker's Mark
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wood finishing series. Is it my favorite? Probably not. You know, I think these have kind of been
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pretty average since I did things like the RC6 or the SE4 PR5 that came out a few years ago
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I think those were way more interesting releases, but I do love a good tribute bottle. I love a fair
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price and relatively good availability. I found this at my local Total Wine, so not hard to find
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at all. But in terms of score, I like to just give one score across the board for my bite-sized
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review out of 10, and I think this one gets a 7 out of 10 for me. It's a good bourbon. I've been
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enjoying the heck out of it, but is it the most complex, interesting bourbon I've ever had from
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Maker's Mark? No, not at all. But $75, you know, it's not that bad. I mean, would I rather have a
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Maker's 46 cast rent that a little bit cheaper? Probably, personally. Also, some of the private
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selects have just been exceptional at a very similar price point as this. So I'm glad I picked
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it up. I think it's worth trying. I think it's in line with the other releases from 2024 and 2025
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It just doesn't excite me as much as this line used to do, but that's okay. So if you had a chance
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to try this, let me know what you think. And if you've had a chance to try it compared to the
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heart release or the keepers release, let me know for sure what you think, because I've already
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finished those bottles. I don't have a way to try it against those. But if it's something that you
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want me to try, I can start seeking out some samples. I think that might be a fun flight to
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do on a live stream. As always, I'd love to hear you guys' suggestions. You can reach me
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contact at bourbonbites.com, join our Discord server, post a message there, or just Instagram
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me at bourbonbites. I'm pretty active. But that does it for this week's episode. Thank you all
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so much for listening. This has been an absolute pleasure. I love talking a little bit about video
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games and also all this amazing bourbon news. Make sure to follow me wherever you get your
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podcasts. I do new episodes every Thursday morning. And until next time, this has been
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the Bourbon Bites podcast, a whiskey podcast with the gaming twist. Cheers, and I'll talk to you
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next episode. Thank you

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