Strawberry | Honeyed apricot | Peach | Caramel | Marmalade | Sweet oak

Chocolate covered cherry | Vanilla | Honey | Ginger | Dough | Touch of lemon

Dark chocolate | Spicy cinnamon | Fig | Pecan | Nutmeg | Allspice

The release of 2025’s edition of Star Hill Farm Wheat Whisky marked the company’s first new mashbill and first wheat whiskey in 70 years. It included soft red winter wheat in its mashbill just like the company’s flagship brand does, but forgoes corn altogether and instead malted 27% of the wheat in its mashbill. The results were impressive.

The company doesn’t shy away from saying they are still exploring what it means to be a wheat whiskey and where they hope to take the Star Hill Farm brand. With so few companies exploring wheat whiskey, Maker’s Mark saw an opening in the market to dig in and plant their flag, which nicely corresponds with Maker’s Mark’s Bourbon’s wheat heritage.

For the 2026 edition, the team behind Star Hill Farms didn’t set out to create a carbon copy of the 2025 release. Bill Samuels and team sought to explore the effects of different types of wheat on the resulting flavor profile. Because of this, the 2026 edition’s mashbill is radically different from the previous edition.

The 2025 edition featured a mashbill of 51% soft red winter wheat, 27% malted soft red winter wheat, and 22% malted barley, whereas the 2026 edition has 62% malted wheat, 27% wheat, and 11% malted barley. The 2026 edition also includes undisclosed amounts of hard red wheat and hard white wheat in its mashbill and also includes limited amounts of undisclosed experimental barrels in its blend. Barrels were pulled from three warehouse floors that saw a 20-point swing in proof. Given that Mark’s Mark is known for rotating their barrels to create maximum consistency within their rickhouses, this variation helps create a wildly different end result than standard Maker’s Mark bourbon.

Tastewise, the two Star Hill Farm releases are vastly different. The 2025 edition features more heavy dark raspberry, barrel char, and blackberry notes. This also results in a more astringent, drier-tasting whiskey. The 2026 edition is more vibrant, varied, and expressive overall.

This vibrancy can be noticed right from the start. Its aroma is flushed with fresh strawberries, honeyed apricot, peach, caramel, marmalade, and sweet oak. It works exceptionally well. The palate dishes up chocolate-covered cherry, vanilla, honey, ginger, dough, and a touch of lemon, and is all-around light in body and also more limber. The finish quickly changes to dark chocolate and spicy cinnamon, with fig, pecan, nutmeg, and allspice rounding it out. Though the flavors sound heavy-handed, they somehow retain an expressive, vibrant quality.

The two releases of Star Hill Farms are a tale of two cities. The quality of the two releases is on par. The 2025 edition features more dark fruit and barrel influence resulting in a more immediate impact, while the 2026 edition is more varied in its flavor profile, with less oak influence. Personal preference will win this battle, but it is clear that the two releases are far more complementary than they were probably originally designed to be.

Wheat whiskey has always had its fans, but it takes a major player like Maker’s Mark for bourbon drinkers to truly take notice of this whiskey niche. Those tired of yet-another-bourbon release will find an intriguing new avenue to explore with Maker’s Mark Star Hill Farm releases.

‍The company told us the 2026 release saw a similar number of bottles released as last year’s release, but also expanded to Japan, the United Kingdom, and Australia, as well as Duty Free this year. The U.S. bottle size also decreased from 750mL to 700mL.