Maker’s Mark Star Hill Farm Is One of the Best Whiskeys of 2026

(Photo: Maker’s Mark)

The inaugural Star Hill Farm wheat whisky from Maker’s Mark was excellent. Its 2026 predecessor is better across the board — more complex, richer and showcasing one of the most remarkable mouthfeels I’ve come across all year.

The mouthfeel, combined with a flavor profile that swings beautifully from bright and confectionary to dark and brooding. Combined, and you have a bottle that cements Star Hill Farm as one of the most exciting annual releases in American whiskey.

About Star Hill Farm

Despite coming from a producer that’s always made bourbon, exclusively, Star Hill Farm is not a bourbon. It’s Maker’s Mark’s first new mashbill in over 70 years, an American wheat whiskey built around grain diversity despite being made exclusively of only wheat and barley. The 2026 release expands on the inaugural expression by adding hard red and hard white wheat varieties alongside the soft red winter wheat at the core of Maker’s flagship bourbon. The full 2026 mashbill is 62% malted wheat, 27% wheat, and 11% malted barley, using grains harvested in fall 2017 and fall 2018.

The final blend combines 7- and 8-year-old whiskeys from two mashbills: one built entirely from malted wheat, the other combining wheat and malted barley. It’s bottled at 56.2% ABV in a 700-milliliter format and carries the Estate Whiskey certification from the Estate Whiskey Alliance, a stamp reflecting its origin in locally grown, regeneratively farmed grain.

Here’s how Maker’s Mark Master Distiller Blake Layfield described the evolution from year 1: “The first release was bright and straightforward; this year we’ve dialed up the complexity.”

He’s absolutely right.

Our Star Hill Farm 2026 Tasting Notes and Review

The nose is beautiful and bright — cherries, caramel, fluffy French toast with a light dusting of cinnamon, maple, and marzipan. It’s an inviting opener that gives little indication of what the palate is about to deliver.

The first thing I noticed was the viscosity, which is dense, creamy and clinging in way you just don’t encounter very often. Fresh-baked rolls slathered in honey lead the palate, joined by cherries, gingerbread, butterscotch, oak, buttercream frosting, candied orange and a big almond butter note. The back palate darkens with leather and tannin. The finish runs long and keeps evolving: orange peel, maraschino cherry, butterscotch, coconut and milk chocolate give way to oak, leather, tannin and cinnamon.

For the complete tasting notes and to see what score we gave it, find our full review here.

Worth $100?

Without hesitation. Star Hill Farm is a limited annual release, and if you’re a big whiskey lover and find it at its suggested retail price of $100, you should grab it no questions asked. This is among the best whiskeys I’ve encountered in 2026

Star Hill Farm Whisky is available in limited quantities across the U.S., U.K., Australia, Japan and global travel retail, as well as at the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky.