Maker’s Mark Announces Fourth Edition of Its Coveted Cellar Aged Series, With One of the Distillery’s Most Mature Blends to Date

On Tuesday, Maker’s Mark announced the 2026 release of its Cellar Aged series. The fourth edition of this coveted, age-stated collection, Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged 2026 is a combination of 11-, 12-, and 14-year-old bourbons, each bottled at cask-strength and blended to 112.1 proof.

Maker’s Mark first debuted the Cellar Aged series in 2023 with a blend of 11- and 12-year-old bourbons, the brand’s then-oldest release to date. Last year’s release hiked up the age even further to include a 14-year-old bourbon that accounted for 16 percent of the final product. The 2026 release blends 49 percent 11-year-old, 33 percent 12-year-old, and 18 percent 14-year-old bourbons — one of the distillery’s most mature blends to date.

“What excites me isn’t really the numbers — it’s what those different ages contribute to the blend,” Maker’s Mark master distiller Blake Layfield says. “We believe that age is a number, but maturity is a quality. We’re not necessarily chasing the oldest bourbon that we can make. We’re chasing the best flavor that we can create.”

Brand tasting notes highlight dark fruit, clove, and orchard fruit on the nose. The palate opens with a sweetness of honey, brown sugar, and plum flavors, leading into a lingering finish rich in almond, baking spice, and green apple.

Maker’s Mark’s Cellar Aged expressions are aged in a warehouse before finishing maturation in a limestone cavern at the Loretto, Ky., distillery. The site’s traditional warehouses can teeter between -10 degrees Fahrenheit and 120 degrees F, but the cavern maintains a 50 degree F setting, Layfield says. The cellar’s controlled temperature helps Layfield better monitor the whiskeys’ flavor development.

“The lower temperature slows the influence of the wood while allowing the whiskey to continue to evolve,” he says. “That’s how we get that depth and that complexity, while keeping the fruit and oak in balance.”

The newest Cellar Aged release comes as many whiskey brands worldwide are leaning into age-stated expressions. Rather than going full-force into high-age whiskeys, Layfield says, the Cellar Aged blends offer him some elbowroom to experiment with how maturity and youth can interact.

“The 14-year brings extraordinary maturity and depth, but the younger bourbons bring in some of that vibrancy, fruit, and balance,” he says. “Blending is about finding the point where those things start to amplify each other.”

The whiskey will be available at select retailers nationwide starting Sept. 1 for a suggested retail price of $175, with international rollouts to begin later this year and in early 2027.

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