There are moments in the whiskey world that stop you in your tracks. Not because of flashy marketing or a celebrity co-sign, but because the liquid in the bottle actually means something. The Star Hill Farm Whisky from Maker's Mark is one of those moments — and now, with the 2026 release hitting shelves, the story is only getting better.
Here is what you need to know: Maker's Mark, one of the most recognized bourbon brands on the planet, has done something it has not done in over seven decades. It stepped outside its own playbook.
A 70-Year First
Maker's Mark built its entire reputation on consistency. Same recipe, same red wax, same wheated bourbon profile that drinkers have trusted for generations. So when the distillery announced in 2025 that it was releasing a non-bourbon whiskey for the first time in its 70-plus-year history, it turned heads across the industry.
That release was Star Hill Farm Whisky — a wheat whiskey, not a bourbon, built from a completely new mashbill that the brand had never used before. It was not a stunt. It was not a limited-edition cash grab. It was a genuine experiment rooted in the land itself, and the whiskey world took notice fast.
At the 2026 World Whiskies Awards — a competition that evaluated more than 9,000 entries from 52 whisky-producing regions around the globe, covering everything from Scotch to Japanese to Irish and American whiskey — the 2025 Star Hill Farm Whisky walked away with two of the biggest titles available. It was named both America's Best Wheat Whiskey and World's Best Wheat Whiskey. Every entry was blind-tasted by an international panel of industry experts. There was no brand loyalty in that room, just liquid in a glass. And Star Hill Farm won.
What Actually Goes Into the Bottle
To understand why this whiskey is generating so much attention, it helps to understand what wheat whiskey actually is — and what makes this one different.
Wheat whiskey, by definition, requires at least 51% wheat in the mashbill. It tends to get overlooked by American whiskey drinkers, often confused with wheated bourbons like Maker's Mark itself, which uses wheat as a secondary grain rather than the primary one. Star Hill Farm flips that entirely.
The 2025 release was built from two distinct mashbills. The first combined 70% soft red winter wheat with 30% malted barley. The second was composed entirely of malted soft red winter wheat. Critically, neither mashbill contained corn — a deliberate choice that separates this from most other American wheat whiskeys on the market. Both were aged seven to eight years in new charred American oak, then blended and bottled at cask strength: 57.35% ABV, or just under 115 proof.
The wheat itself comes from the distillery's own farm — the same wheat used in Maker's Mark bourbon. That detail matters more than it might seem at first glance.
The 2026 World Whiskies Awards judges described the flavor profile as having a "caramel apple and rose floral nose," with the palate delivering baking spice, black tea, charred oak smoke, leather, sorghum, and a light-bodied dry finish. For a whiskey bottled at cask strength, that kind of aromatic complexity is not an accident.
The Farm Behind the Name
Star Hill Farm is not a marketing invention. It is a real place — an 1,100-acre working farm that serves as home to the Maker's Mark distillery and the watershed that supplies its water. The whiskey's name is a direct acknowledgment of the land that makes all of it possible.
Rob Samuels, eighth-generation whisky maker and managing director of Maker's Mark, put it plainly: "My grandparents built Maker's Mark on the belief that when we invest in the land, it gives back in flavor. Star Hill Farm Whisky extends that vision by embracing ingredients sourced from regenerative agriculture. As a proud B Corp and Regenified-certified distillery, we're helping to define leadership in sustainability for the industry, while working to make Star Hill Farm the most endearing, culturally rich and environmentally responsible homeplace in the world."
Regenerative agriculture is a farming approach that goes beyond simply avoiding harm. It actively works to restore soil health, prevent erosion, and pull carbon out of the atmosphere. Maker's Mark holds both B Corp certification and Regenified certification, two of the more credible sustainability credentials a company in this space can carry.
The argument being made here — and one that is increasingly backed by evidence in both farming and food production circles — is that healthier soil grows better crops, and better crops produce better-tasting spirits. The World Whiskies Awards results suggest there is something to that argument.
The 2026 Release: More Complex, Same Mission
Because Star Hill Farm Whisky is designed as an annual release with a changing mashbill each year, no two editions will ever be identical. The 2025 bottling is done. It will not be made again. What is on shelves now is the 2026 release, and it raises the bar in meaningful ways.
Dr. Blake Layfield, master distiller at Maker's Mark, described the shift clearly: "The first release of Star Hill Farm Whisky was bright, approachable and straightforward; this year we've dialed up the complexity. The 2026 release is a balanced blend of seven and eight-year whiskies bottled at cask strength, evolving from first sip to finish. It opens with aromas of molasses, fig and delicate baking spices, followed by notes of zesty citrus, ripe pear and buttery shortbread, and lingers with a soft cinnamon finish."
Where the 2025 release used two mashbills, the 2026 edition pushes further. The grain composition for this year is built from two mashbills once again — one of 100% malted wheat, and another of 70% wheat and 30% malted barley — but the final blend breaks down to 27% wheat, 62% malted wheat, and 11% malted barley. The result, according to the distillery, is a darker and more layered aromatic profile, with a rounder structure and amplified fruit character compared to last year.
The 2026 bottling comes in at 58.2% ABV — 116.4 proof — and carries a suggested retail price of $100, the same as the 2025 release.
Why This Matters Beyond the Awards
It would be easy to look at the World Whiskies Awards win and think of it as the whole story. It is not. The award is the punctuation, not the story itself.
What Maker's Mark is doing with Star Hill Farm is building a framework that the American whiskey industry has not really seen before. Rather than chasing trends or producing limited editions designed purely for resale and speculation, this is a distillery tying its experimental releases directly to agricultural cycles, sustainability practices, and the natural variation that comes from farming real land in real weather conditions year after year.
Each vintage will reflect the harvest. Each harvest will reflect the health of the soil. The whiskey in the bottle becomes a kind of annual record — not just of the distilling process, but of the land and the season that produced it. That is a different way of thinking about American whiskey, and it is one that serious drinkers are going to find increasingly compelling.
The Collectibility Question
With the 2025 Star Hill Farm Whisky now carrying the title of World's Best Wheat Whiskey, a bottle that was already a one-time release has become significantly more interesting from a collector's standpoint. The distillery did not disclose how many bottles were produced, but the combination of limited availability and a top-tier international award is a straightforward recipe for scarcity.
The 2026 release faces a different kind of pressure. It is following up a world-beating whiskey with something more ambitious — more grain variation, more complexity, a bolder proof point. Whether it matches or exceeds its predecessor at next year's awards remains to be seen. But at $100 for a cask-strength, award-winning wheat whiskey from one of the most storied distilleries in American history, the entry point is difficult to argue with.
The Bottom Line
Maker's Mark spent 70 years perfecting one thing. Star Hill Farm Whisky is what happens when that level of discipline and craft gets pointed in a new direction — one rooted in land, farming, and the kind of patience that serious whiskey has always required.
The 2025 release proved the concept could produce world-class results. The 2026 release is available now, bottled at cask strength, priced at $100, and built on the same foundation of regenerative agriculture and meticulous grain selection that made the first one worth paying attention to.
For anyone who takes American whiskey seriously, this is a release that deserves a spot on the shelf — and on the radar for years to come.
