Any true bourbon fan knows it takes years to age a good barrel of Kentucky’s favorite whiskey.
I felt the six years and nine months that went into a recent batch of Maker’s Mark more intensely, though.
One of the barrels in that batch quite literally had my name on it, and I’ve been waiting for it since October 2018.
The Loretto-based bourbon company has a cult-like following, and it rewards that loyalty through its Ambassador Program. All you have to do to join this elite group is give the company your contact information. Over the years, the company has sent me small Christmas gifts and looped me into new bourbon releases and private events. One time, I opened my mailbox to find a of deck playing cards. Another time I received a plastic Christmas ornament that looked like one of the stained glass windows in the Maker’s production facility.
To top it all off, Maker’s Mark has every ambassador’s name engraved on a gold plate that’s attached to an aging barrel of bourbon. You’re able to track your barrel’s progress through an online portal. Once it ages, you get a “Golden Ticket” to the home of Maker’s Mark, Star Hill Farm, and the distillery hosts you for a complimentary tour and tasting.
When I signed up for this in 2018, I remember thinking “Will I even still be in Kentucky when my barrel is done?” So much life can happen in the six to eight years years it takes for these barrels to age.
As part of the Maker’s Mark ambassador program, the distillery engraves the names of its ambassadors on a gold plate. That plate is then places on a barrel. Ambassadors receive their Golden Ticket once the barrel ages 6-8 years.
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My barrel predates the COVID-19 pandemic. In the time since Maker’s Mark filled Barrel No. 817048, President Donald Trump lost the White House in 2020 and then was re-elected for his second term in 2025. In early 2018, there were about 70 licensed distilleries in Kentucky. Now there are 100 or so.
When the distillery put my name on that barrel, my husband and I hadn’t started dating yet, and now, in August 2025, he got to be my plus-one for my Golden Ticket tour. Candidly, he was also a bit jealous, because his barrel was even older than mine. Maker’s Mark ages to taste, and after seven years, his barrel still hasn’t fully matured.
Even so, on a Saturday in mid-August we had lovely morning at Maker’s Mark, 3350 Burks Spring Road, in Loretto.
Now that my barrel has aged, and I’ve added a few bottles from that batch to my bourbon collection, it’s my privilege to share with you how my Golden Ticket experience went.
Let me be frank. This doesn’t mean this is how your experience will go. Our wonderful tour guide, Chris, told me, the distillery doesn’t script their tours and over the years, they’ve tweak the experience. What we experienced on Aug. 9 was likely very different than the ambassador experience in 2018 when my barrel was born.
But if you’re like my husband, and just mere months away from your own Golden Ticket, here’s what could be in store for you.
Plus, if you haven’t put your name on a Maker’s Mark barrel yet, here are a few reasons why you might want to consider it.
1. You are definitely a VIP
Courier Journal features columnist Maggie Menderski holds her Maker’s Mark Golden Ticket, which is part of the distillery’s ambassador program. The Golden Ticket is for an exclusive, complimentary tour.
When I checked us in for our 12:15 p.m. tour, the clerk gave me a badge with my name on it, a snazzy 2025 Ambassador pin and a large golden ticket that felt very “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
The clerk explained that while we were touring the campus, the gift shop would preprint custom labels with my name and ambassador number on them. That label distinguishes the ambassador batch versus what you might buy in the gift shop or a liquor store. This way, my bottles would be ready to dip and seal in Maker’s Mark signature red wax when I got there.
“How many would you like?” the clerk asked.
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One of the perks of the Maker’s Mark ambassador program is custom designed labels with your name and ambassador number on it.
I paused. I hadn’t considered how many bottles I’d want. Maker’s Mark is known in the bourbon world for its consistency. So much so, it rotates its barrels in its rickhouses to create that uniformity. I’d later learn there are dozens of barrels that made up my batch. Sure, I’d waited almost seven years for this moment, but I wondered whether it would really be any different than what I’d buy on the shelf at Kroger or Total Wine & More in Louisville? I settled on four at $39.95 each.
As I watched the other ambassadors trickle in, I wondered, if low-balled myself. One couple requested nine bottles and another asked for more than a dozen. The staff assured me, though, if I changed my mind along the tour, the gift shop could print more labels. It would just take a little longer once we got there.
2. You’re surrounded by bourbon lovers
Workers dip bottles in Maker’s Mark signature red wax at the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky. September 6, 2024
One important thing to know about the Ambassador Golden Ticket tour is that it’s more intimate than a traditional experience. Maker’s Mark caps this tour at a dozen people and because each ambassador is only given one extra ticket, it elevates the experience. No one under 21 years old is eligible to take it.
We weren’t going to have to share the tour with a whole bachelor party or a group of bourbon novices. At least half of the people on our tour cared enough about bourbon to sign up to be an ambassador, meaning we spent less time talking about how to make bourbon. Most of the people on the tour knew as much or more about bourbon than I did, and so our group could really talk about the nuances of the Kentucky bourbon industry.
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3. The bourbon flows throughout the whole experience
Courier Journal features columnist Maggie Menderski dipped this bottle of Maker’s Mark in the distillery’s signature red wax.
Chris kicked-off our tour by giving each ambassador and their guest a small pour of traditional Maker’s Mark bourbon. We were invited to drink it as we walked out to the grounds, and I was thrilled. Many distilleries wait until the end to offer a single sip of their product, and that can make a 45-minute tour feel very long.
But once headed out to the grounds to learn about the Samuels family and the distillery’s origin story, I noticed that we were the only group on the grounds with bourbon in hand.
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Sipping along the way is an ambassador perk, Chris told us. As the tour rolled on, we got to sample a few spirits that aren’t offered, and in one case, not even mentioned on the traditional tour.
4. We tried the white dog, and it’s actually OK
One of the perks of the Golden Ticket tour is that guests are invited to sample Maker’s Mark spirits along the way. This is a sample of Maker’s Mark white dog, which is how bourbon is before it ages in a barrel.
From the grounds, we headed into a production room and the equipment was quiet, because production was on pause for summer maintenance.
Then Chris took our group past a roped off part of the room and offered us each a sample of Maker’s Mark’s in its rawest form. White dog is the term for the unaged whiskey before it goes into a barrel. The clear white liquid certainly looked like vodka or gin, but it smelled almost like a velvety and sweet. I expected it to burn as it hit my tongue, and while it certainly had a sharpness to it — it wasn’t as overpowering as I expected.
It also isn’t something that’s offered for sampling on the normal tour.
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5. We sampled Maker’s Mark straight from the barrel
Inside the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky. September 6, 2024
Our next stop was one of the rickhouses where bourbon barrels are aged. Chris ushered us down the rows of barrels, and I kept looking for barrels that had ambassador names on them. I wanted to know what my barrel looked like.
Those would come later, he told us. In the meantime, though, he led us to a barrel that could have been part of our ambassador batch. The barrel was less than seven years old and roughly the same age as mine.
“One thing we heard from a lot of ambassadors was that they wanted to taste from their batch straight from the barrel at barrel proof,” Chris told us.
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So they added a barrel tasting to the ambassador tour. He used a whiskey thief to draw bourbon out straight from the barrel. It still had Maker’s Mark’s signature caramel and vanilla notes, but it was certainly more fierce on the palate. The bourbon was about 110 proof, Chris told us, almost like Maker’s Mark Cask Strength.
6. Maker’s Mark has a special ‘Ambassador Release’
The Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky. September 6, 2024
From there, Chris took us to the print shop, the Maker’s Mark library and the distillery’s limestone cellar, where he offered us a sample of Maker’s 46. We stopped in the room where employees hand dip every Maker’s Mark bottle that ends up in circulation.
The tour ended in another rickhouse with a much more exclusive pour. As we walked in, Chris gestured to a few barrels near the entry way, marked with gold plates with a couple dozen ambassador names on them.
I’d given Maker’s Mark the benefit of the doubt that they’d actually put my name on a barrel, but it was comforting to see it in practice. Our gold plates no longer existed, though. Chris said the plates are melted down and reused for incoming ambassadors.
“Where’s my barrel now?” one guest asked.
“Maybe Scotland?” Chris told him.
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Since bourbon barrels can only be used once for bourbon, many former Maker’s Mark barrels are sent overseas and used to aged other spirits.
Our final pour of the tour was Maker’s Mark Ambassador Release #1, which is 112.4 proof. In 2023, the company sent out an email to some of the ambassadors and asked what they liked most about the bourbon. The distillery used that information to create three different bourbons that were aged a second time using different staves. Essentially, this created a super bourbon that echoed everything the ambassadors loved about Maker’s Mark.
Then the distillery invited ambassadors to Star Hill Farm for a holiday event, and they were asked to vote on their favorite of the three. “Ambassador Release #1″ became the winner.
Bourbon ages in barrels in the limestone cellar at the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky. September 6, 2024
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It is available in the gift shop, Chris explained, but at least when we were there, it wasn’t readily advertised as an option to buy. They keep it behind the counter, and the ambassadors have to ask for it to get it.
I took a sip and it had a heavy note of caramel but also a sweet and creamy taste to it.
“For this tour, we like people to have something unique,” he said.
And it was unique and very good.
So much so, I was glad I’d only asked for the four custom printed bottles that were waiting for us when we got to the gift shop. I hadn’t expected to walk out with anything else but traditional Maker’s Mark, but we left with two bottles of Ambassador Release #1 at $79.99, too.
Before we left, I dipped my four bottles, and the worker at the wax station stamped them with a special wax seal.
I smiled. Even the signature wax dipping was different.
The distillery had elevated the ambassador experience all the way down to the last red wax drop.
Reach Courier Journal features columnist Maggie Menderski at mmenderski@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Inside Maker’s Mark’s exclusive Golden Ticket ambassador tour