Review #904 - Maker's Mark Cellar Aged (2025)
Maker's Mark Cellar Aged wheated bourbon is an annual limited release from the Loretto, Kentucky-based distillery; here we have the 2025 edition, which carries an 11 year age statement. The brand's website actually gives us a little bit more of a breakdown: this batch is composed of not just 11 year bourbon, but also some 13 year and 14 year stock as well.
These barrels begin their aging process in the traditional manner in rickhouses at the Maker's Mark campus, but to ensure that the bourbon doesn't get over-oaked, Maker's moves selected barrels to their cooler limestone cellar for extended aging. This 2025 release was bottled at a strength of 56.45% ABV (112.9 proof).
Maker's Mark Cellar Aged (2025)
USA - Bourbon
MSRP: USD 175 (2025)
Available Price: USD 170 (2026, based on recent auction results)
Age Statement: 11 Years
Strength: 56.45% ABV
Details: Bottled 2025
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 2 times over 2 months from a sample. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: A decent amount of toasted oak, along with sweet scents of butterscotch, caramel, toasted marshmallows, and banana bread. Strawberry and cherry add more fruit, along with Orange Creamsicle, and then we find cotton candy, hints of rum and molasses, and brown sugar. With time, leathery oak builds, and we get clove and honey.
Palate: The mouthfeel has a medium thickness; lots of oak and dark Luxardo cherry dominate, along with vanilla, brown sugar, and cinnamon. That cherry almost takes on a medicinal side, and we get some tannins and leather, along with a bit of black pepper spice.
Finish: Cherry and brown sugar bring lingering sweetness, but we also get some old drying oak and a bit of peppery spice again. It grows more subtle; cardamom, red licorice candy, and syrupy notes linger in the aftertaste. It's a medium-long finish.
Final Note: We enjoyed this Cellar Aged release from Maker's Mark - we would give it a slight edge over the 2023 version that we reviewed last year. This has a nice balance of sweet bright fruit and leathery oak; while it does taste older than other Maker's bourbons, in our experience, it didn't quite show the same maturity that some 11 to 14 year old bourbons from other brands do. Still, very good bourbon, and one of the better wheaters that we've tried recently.
One symptom of the slowdown in the whisky market is that limited bottles such as this Maker's Mark Cellar Aged sometimes don't have a ridiculous secondary price associated with them. We've actually seen auction results for this edition of Cellar Aged hovering right around MSRP, even a few dollars lower at times; because of that, value is actually okay here.
Our Rating: 7.8 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating (MSRP): 5.54
Value Rating (Available Price): 5.60
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
Check out our other Maker’s Mark reviews:
Review #881 - Maker's Mark 46 Cask Strength
Review #812 - Maker's Mark The Stewards Release (2026)
Review #751 - Maker's Mark Cellar Aged (2023)
Review #710 - Maker's Mark The Heart Release 2024
Review #691 - Star Hill Farm American Wheat Whisky (2025)
Review #677 - Maker's Mark Lost Recipe Edition 02 (2025)
Review #593 - Maker's Mark Limited Edition (Gold Wax, Early 1990s)
