Light fruit | Apricot | Peach | Rye spice

Orange zest | Concord grapes | Raspberry | Rye spice | Highly drinkable

Surge of rye spice | Tapers to fruit and caramel | Medium length

Starlight Distillery is located on the grounds of the Huber estate. Housing Huber’s Orchard & Winery, the family began farming back in 1843 when their ancestors settled in Starlight, Indiana from Baden-Baden, Germany. Now in its 8th generation with operations handled by Ted Huber and his sons Christian and Blake, Huber estate produces a variety of crops that are grown alongside the onsite distillery that produces an assortment of brandies and whiskeys. They began distilling whiskey in 2013, and all of their products are distilled onsite.

This single barrel finished whiskey starts as Starlight’s Old Rickhouse Straight Rye, which is a small batch blend of rye barrels aged at least 4 years. Once blended, the whiskey is transferred into Spanish Oloroso Sherry barrels for an undisclosed amount of time. These individual barrels are aged until they’re deemed ready and then bottled as single barrels at barrel proof. From my experience, because Starlight begins with a base blend, this creates more consistency among the resulting finished barrels.

This is a highly drinkable finished rye from Starlight Distillery. It delivers a spicy tone with the underlying rye base, which is complemented nicely by its sherry barrel finishing. Scents of light fruit, apricot, peach, and rye spice on the nose are followed by orange zest, concord grapes, raspberry, and rye spice on the palate. Rye spice surges initially in the finish, which tapers to fruit and caramel. While it is highly drinkable, it lacks a certain amount of depth that would ultimately take it to greater heights. Whether that could be achieved by more initial aging time as a straight rye, more time finishing in the sherry barrels, or a combination of both is yet to be seen. But until that time, this is a sherry finished rye that’s hard to dislike.

The bottle in review is from barrel 21-2281-1.