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Maker's Mark vs New Riff Single Barrel
Maker's Mark and New Riff Single Barrel sit on opposite sides of a familiar divide: an old-guard, wheat-forward classic versus a new-wave, rye-forward craft style.
Key Specifications
| Feature | Maker's Mark | New Riff Single Barrel |
|---|---|---|
| Type / Style | Wheated Bourbon | High-Rye Bourbon |
| Mash Bill | 70% corn, 16% wheat, 14% malted barley | 65% corn, 30% rye, 5% malted barley |
| Age | No age statement | 5 years |
| Proof | 90 proof (45% ABV) | 105 proof (52.5% ABV) +15 proof |
| Approx. Price 1 | ~$25 – $32 ~$34 less | ~$55 – $70 |
- US shelf prices as of 2026-08; they vary widely by market.
AG’s Rating and AG’s Notes
Maker's Mark
Not rated yetNo notes yet.
New Riff Single Barrel
Not rated yetNo notes yet.
Flavor Profile
Maker's Mark New Riff Single Barrel
Axis by axis, biggest gap first
spice 2/9 spice: Maker's Mark 2 out of 10, New Riff Single Barrel 9 out of 10
sweetness 8/4 sweetness: Maker's Mark 8 out of 10, New Riff Single Barrel 4 out of 10
heat 3/7 heat: Maker's Mark 3 out of 10, New Riff Single Barrel 7 out of 10
oak 4/6 oak: Maker's Mark 4 out of 10, New Riff Single Barrel 6 out of 10
fruit 4/5 fruit: Maker's Mark 4 out of 10, New Riff Single Barrel 5 out of 10
nuttiness 3/3 nuttiness: Maker's Mark 3 out of 10, New Riff Single Barrel 3 out of 10
Flavor Profile Differences
The gap between these two is mostly about spice.
- Maker's Mark: The bottle that made wheated bourbon mainstream. Soft, sweet, and deliberately low on spice and oak, with baked bread and honey doing most of the work. Consistency is its real feature.
- New Riff Single Barrel: The single-barrel expression of New Riff's 30% rye mash, non-chill-filtered and at higher proof than the bonded version. As dry and peppery as bourbon gets before it stops being bourbon.
Which One Should You Choose?
- Go with Maker's Mark if you want a reliably sweet, low-spice wheater that is easy to find and easy to drink at a significantly lower price point.
- Go with New Riff Single Barrel if you want the most aggressively spice-driven bourbon in this list, with single-barrel variation on top with more proof behind it.
Best enjoyed neat, rocks, cocktails, highball (Maker's Mark); neat, old-fashioned (New Riff Single Barrel).