For seven many years, Maker’s Mark has produced whisky in its iconic purple wax bottle, a recipe Margie and Invoice Samuels Sr, settled on in 1953 after famously burning the household’s 170-year-old whiskey ledger. The Loretto, Kentucky, distillery had by no means strayed from it till final 12 months. Star Hill Farm Whisky, named after the land the distillery sits on, arrived in 2025 as Maker’s Mark’s first new mash invoice for the reason that Eisenhower administration and its first wheat whisky. Now it’s again for a second annual launch, which arrives within the UK on the 18th of Could.
The construction continues to be the identical because the debut, two mash payments blended collectively, one made fully of malted wheat, the opposite 70% wheat and 30% malted barley to supply a ultimate composite of 27% wheat, 62% malted wheat and 11% malted barley. The 2025 launch used gentle purple winter wheat, which provides Maker’s Mark bourbon its creamy, rounded character. The 2026 launch retains the gentle purple winter wheat within the recipe, however incorporates onerous purple and white onerous wheat varietals, providing additional depth and complexity.
On the nostril, the whisky is darkish and intense, suppose molasses, fig and spice, giving method to darkish chocolate. The palate is vibrant and sophisticated, zesty citrus, ripe pear and shortbread alongside black and purple berries and a contact of vanilla, with a end of wealthy sweetness and gentle cinnamon.
Dr Blake Layfield, grasp distiller at Maker’s Mark, stated this: “The primary launch of Star Hill Farm Whisky was shiny, approachable and easy; this 12 months we’ve dialled up the complexity,” stated Dr Blake Layfield, grasp distiller at Maker’s Mark. “The 2026 launch is a balanced mix of seven and eight-year whiskies bottled at cask power, evolving from first sip to complete“.
The 2025 launch was the primary whiskey ever to earn Property Whiskey certification from the Property Whiskey Alliance. The qualifying threshold, for this dictates that each step of manufacturing occurs on the property and that at the least two-thirds of the grain needs to be grown on estate-owned or estate-controlled land. The 2026 launch carries this identical certification.
And if you happen to questioned why Maker’s Mark dropped the “e” in whisky, it’s a nod to the Samuel’s household’s Scot-Irish heritage, and Star Hill Farm follows go well with.
What makes Star Hill Farm so attention-grabbing isn’t that it’s a wheat whisky, it’s that it’s a venture structured to maintain altering. Totally different wheat varieties, totally different cooperage experiments, constructed on the premise that the recipe ought to by no means be the identical twice.
Priced at £100 a bottle and bottled at 58.2% ABV, the 2026 launch gained’t keep on the cabinets for lengthy. UK stockists embrace Harrods, Selfridges, Berry Bros & Rudd and Fortnum & Mason.
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