For seven many years, Maker’s Mark has produced whisky in its iconic pink 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 because the 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 Might.
The construction continues to be the identical because the debut, two mash payments blended collectively, one made totally of malted wheat, the opposite 70% wheat and 30% malted barley to supply a closing composite of 27% wheat, 62% malted wheat and 11% malted barley. The 2025 launch used comfortable pink winter wheat, which supplies Maker’s Mark bourbon its creamy, rounded character. The 2026 launch retains the comfortable pink winter wheat within the recipe, however incorporates laborious pink and white laborious wheat varietals, providing additional depth and complexity.
On the nostril, the whisky is darkish and intense, suppose molasses, fig and spice, giving strategy to darkish chocolate. The palate is vibrant and sophisticated, zesty citrus, ripe pear and shortbread alongside black and pink berries and a contact of vanilla, with a end of wealthy sweetness and comfortable cinnamon.
Dr Blake Layfield, grasp distiller at Maker’s Mark, stated this: “The primary launch of Star Hill Farm Whisky was brilliant, 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 similar certification.
And when you 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 swimsuit.
What makes Star Hill Farm so attention-grabbing isn’t that it’s a wheat whisky, it’s that it’s a challenge structured to maintain altering. Completely different wheat varieties, completely 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 embody Harrods, Selfridges, Berry Bros & Rudd and Fortnum & Mason.
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