The Maker’s Mark Wood Finishing Series is back for 2025. This time, “The Keepers Release” pays tribute to the unsung heroes of every whiskey distillery: the warehouse team.

Maker’s Mark introduced its Wood Finishing Series in 2019 and generally releases one or two of the expressions per year. These one-of-a-kind bottlings aim to elevate the brand’s base bourbon through “an innovative wood stave-finishing technique” that seeks to “enhance distinctive characteristics already present” in the whisky. (For those keen-eyed readers, Maker’s Mark is one of the few American distilleries to spell “whisky” without the “e.”)

Until 2023, the Wood Finishing Series focused on various production aspects of Maker’s Mark bourbon, using acronymic codes like BEP (barrel entry proof) and FAE (fatty acid esters). In 2024, the lineup shifted to highlight specific teams across Maker’s Mark operations. The 2024 edition was titled The Heart Release, created to honor “distillery team members who put their hearts into crafting this fruit-forward expression.” Brand representatives referred to it as “a second chapter” for the series.