14 DAY TRIAL // Reps at Maker's Mark are apologizing for the company's plans to water down their bourbon whiskey, setting to return to the recipe their loyal customers have long known and loved.
Chief Operating Officer Rob Samuels is responding to a flood of online comments on their decision by expressing the company's regret.
“We’re sincerely sorry we let you down,” he expresses, promising to keep to the current recipe.
Maker's Mark published a statement on their website on Saturday, February 16, titled “You spoke. We listened.”
“Your trust, loyalty and passion are what’s most important. We realize we can’t lose sight of that. Thanks for your honesty and for reminding us what makes Maker’s Mark, and its fans, so special.
“We’ll set about getting back to bottling the handcrafted bourbon that our father/grandfather, Bill Samuels, Sr. created. Same recipe. Same production process. Same product,” they reassure clients.
The company had announced that they would lower their liquor's alcohol concentration from 45 percent to 42 percent.
“So effective immediately, we are reversing our decision to lower the ABV of Maker’s Mark, and resuming production at 45% alcohol by volume (90 proof). Just like we’ve made it since the very beginning,” reads the statement signed by Samuels and Chairman Emeritus Bill Samuels, Sr.
According to Opposing Views, the company was short on supplies, and intended to try to keep the taste of the product while producing larger quantities of it.
“Our focus was on the supply problem. That led to us focusing on a solution," the company founder's son Bill Samuels explains.
Production is set to resume today at the Kentucky distillery. The Samuels’ are taking the clients' attachment to the liquor composition into consideration.
"They would rather put up with the occasional supply shortage than put up with any change in their hand-made bourbon," Rob Samuels explains.