Star Hill Farm 2025 American Wheat Whisky

VITALS:
- $100

- 114.7 Proof

- 8 years

- Kentucky

Maker's Mark has always been somewhat limited in its offerings. After all, it just makes a wheated bourbon, and everything else they offer is some sort of play on that, whether that be their Maker's 46 with the stave finishes, the Cask Strength, their Private Selection program, or, more recently their limited releases. They all at least start with the standard wheated bourbon mashbill.

So, when they decided to release something a little different, I was pretty excited to get my hands on a bottle. This Star Hill Farm bottling is not a wheated bourbon, but rather a wheat whisky. So, while the focus is still on the wheat, it's not a bourbon. Quite frankly, other than Heaven Hill's Bernheim Wheat, there's not much out there on the market like this.  Plus, the bottle is pretty sweet -- it's substantial in weight and the cork is like it's made from a chunk of quartz countertop.

As to the whisky itself, the nose is very fragrant. I got notes of cherry and cinnamon, as well as a decent amount of oak. The cherry note, however, came across as that artificial cherry--not quite like cough syrup, but fairly close. And the cinnamon was more of a dry, unsweetened cinnamon note, kind of like smelling a cinnamon stick.

The flavor was interesting, because at first I wasn't a big fan. Right away I got that cherry note along with a healthy dose of oak. However, unlike on the nose, the cherry note was more medicinal in nature. And, to add to that, the oak note really didn't offer much other than a significant amount of bitterness.  Pair all that with the high proof, and this was not an easy sipper.

But, having then let the bottle sit for a couple weeks before going back to it, I found that I actually really enjoyed it. The cherry note seemed to transform form the artificial to the natural. It took on more of a black cherry note, not like candy but more like fresh black cherry off the tree.  The oak note didn't come across nearly as bitter. In fact, the whisky as a whole sweetened up, with notes of brown sugar and even a slight hint of maple syrup, to not only counter-balance the oak note, but to even complement it.

While the heat remained, it certainly was much more enjoyable, and the high proof helped provide a long and oily finish that was dark cherry, brown sugar and cinnamon. The oak seemed to fade a bit, leaving a rich, sweet and dark finish to linger at the back of my throat.

I was really quite floored at how disappointed I was with this whisky at first, and how much I enjoyed it at the end. It makes it a bit tough to grade, but I'll just say that in the end, I wasn't disappointed in the slightest with my purchase.

Grade: B+