Producers of dark, wood-aged spirits often contend that flavour is to be found, chiefly, in the barrelhouse and distillery. But at Star Hill Farm, the country homestead of Maker’s Mark, any vision of high-quality whisky begins life amid nature.
Established by Margie and Bill Samuels Sr in 1953, the original Maker’s Mark distillery now encompasses an 1,100-acre estate dappled with a rich ecosystem of lakes, pastures, forestry and grain fields – every bit of which contributes to flavour.
It’s a ‘single source’ operation, meaning that 86 percent of everything you’ll eat and drink down here is produced locally. Award-winning bourbon is definitely one of those things, yet it’s very much just the lid of the proverbial barrel when it comes to the world of Star Hill Farm.
Even if you’re not making the pilgrimage to Kentucky exclusively to sip bourbon, Maker’s Mark’s homebase boasts a ton of experiences that do justice to its breathtaking bluegrass setting.
Having gotten the chance to cover a lot of ground here over the course of a full day, we thought we’d give B.H. readers the lowdown on all of Star Hill Farm’s best bits – many of which are outside the mould of your run-of-the-mill distillery tour.
RELATED: How To Make The Perfect Old Fashioned
Welcome to ‘Campus’
Before diving deep into the ‘what’ and ‘where’ of Star Hill Farm, we should probably explain what B.H. was doing in Marion County – a.k.a. heartland of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail – in the first place.
Along with about 20 other invitees, we were on the ground to personally discover what goes into every bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon. Crucially, we also got to sample the eponymous ‘Star Hill Farm’ wheat whisky ahead of its launch in Australia this July: an all-new brand from Maker’s Mark, in the works since 2016.
Within the limits of the ‘campus’ (as company personnel call it) you’ll stumble upon honeybee apiaries, gardens growing cocktail garnishes and pastures tended by lamb and wagyu cattle – much of which ends up on the plate at Provisions, Star Hill Farm’s signature restaurant.
The ‘Homeplace’ – a much more inviting name for the visitors’ centre – again threads this theme of local, quintessentially American craft. Guests who opt to start their tour here will do so amid a jewelbox of handmade brassworks and Chihuly stained glass; and if you’re partial to housecats, you’ll probably clock Whisky Jean – the distillery’s adorable mascot.
For whisky fanatics, the part of the campus where you’ll be spending a lot of time (tied for equal first place with the stillhouse) is the gift shop. Here, visitors can nab a number of distillery exclusives, including the elusive ‘Private Selection’ bourbons, or hand-dip a bottle to take home – in the brand’s distinctive red wax sealant.
Regardless of how you choose to tackle your time on-campus, it’s pivotal to avoid a tickbox attitude. Give yourself the space to wander aimlessly, and enjoy what local Kentuckians frequently single out as the county’s most beautiful distillery. Seeing the way the production buildings nestle amid Star Hill Farm’s natural vistas, it’s easy to get their enthusiasm.
More Than Anything, A Story Of Flavour
A highlight – possibly the highlight – of any day out at Star Hill Farm is the guided tasting. As it so happens, we were lucky to have Dr. Blake Layfield on-hand for ours.
The Master Distiller offered a lengthy introduction to the Star Hill Farm bottling (which we’ll unpack in a dedicated story later this year). The other two expressions we got to tango with were Maker’s Mark 46 and Maker’s Mark ‘Classic’: the perfect encapsulation of everything special about the brand’s approach.
Described by Layfield as a “halo” product, the ‘Classic’ Kentucky Straight Bourbon was born – innocently enough – out of Bill Samuels Sr’s desire for a “whisky he [himself] would enjoy drinking”. (Brief aside: Maker’s Mark famously drops the ‘e’ from ‘whiskey’ in all of its branding, as a nod to the Samuels clan’s Scots-Irish heritage.)
Right out the gate, Bill Sr embraced a bourbon recipe that benched the traditional distiller’s grain of rye, in favour of red winter wheat. Today, the signature Maker’s Mark recipe – technically called a ‘mashbill’ – still contains 16 percent of the stuff – a proportion that, as Layfield explains, adds creaminess and mouthfeel to the finished product.
This mashbill (also containing 70 percent corn and 14 percent malted barley) is fermented with a proprietary strain of 60-year-old yeast: adding flavours of cherry and lemon pith to the raw ‘white dog’ spirit.
These maturation and finishing phases exhibit what Layfield describes as the brand’s “perfectly unreasonable” standards of excellence. After distillery workers lay Maker’s Mark Classic down for barrel-ageing (in storage facilities known as ‘rickhouses’), they willingly make life difficult for themselves – by opting to rotate every single barrel by hand.
This ensures that, as it ages, each batch of bourbon is exposed to the optimum range of temperatures and oak surface area– yielding a balanced flavour profile and superior barrel-to-barrel consistency.
This intensity of labour reoccurs in the packaging. Enthusiasts know that the hand-dipped wax topper is an innovation by Samuels Sr’s wife Margie – much like the ‘torn edge’ labels that adorn each bottle of Maker’s Mark sent out into the world.
Wild as it sounds, these are all cut on three manually operated printing presses – in use (we kid you not) since 1935.
According to Layfield, Maker’s Mark 46 is made with the “exact same distillation parameters” as its predecessor. Meaning an identical mashbill, double-distilling and an ‘aged to taste’ approach that allows for some barrels to be matured for six years, others for seven. “More than anything, ours is a story about flavour” says Layfield.
What then is the ‘46’ difference? In a phrase: stave finishing. Leaning on a technique more commonly seen in the fine wine world, Bill Samuels Jr – Chairman Emeritus of Maker’s Mark – experimented by adding staves of new French oak to mature, cask strength bourbon.
The payoff is an intensely layered interpretation of the classic Maker’s Mark mashbill: one that affirms the brand’s commitment to its halo product, while leaving the door open for meaningful innovation.
“Nature Distilled”
Besides a quick tangent on the tasting room and distillery, we’ve mainly talked about the pristine natural setting of Star Hill Farm. The surrounding environment presents an opportunity for beautiful photography and outdoor exploration – but its true purpose is much more than mere decoration.
While traversing a handful of the campus’s more remote areas on foot, Amanda Humphrey – Star Hill Farm’s eloquent Experience Manager – explained how these individual biomes each play a critical role in the development of product and strategic initiatives at Maker’s Mark.
There are some fairly obvious examples of the connection between land and liquid. Early on in our tour, Humphrey points to the 10-acre spring-fed lake at the campus’s rear. The source of all water used in production at Maker’s Mark, its impressive purity is the result of an ingrained limestone shelf – a natural filter which removes iron, while adding desirable minerals like calcium and magnesium to the campus’s water supply.
Other areas, like a vast ‘research forest’ of American white oaks (planted in cooperation with the University of Kentucky) reveal the brand’s commitment to social and environmental sustainability: causes that Maker’s Mark was formally recognised for, when it obtained B-Corp Certification in 2022.
Fittingly, Humphrey chooses to end our tour on a patch of emerald-green wheat fields. The source of the annual Star Hill Farm release in years to come, it’s also a symbol of the regenerative farming practices that have seen Maker’s Mark become the world’s first ‘Regenified’ whisky distillery – among the first companies of its scale and size to do so.
For dram lovers of a certain age (including yours truly) conceiving of whisky as a pure agricultural product, rather than something made industrially, takes some getting used to. But if there’s one place in Kentucky – hell, the whole of North America – where you’ll get to have this epiphany, while experiencing the very best of southern hospitality, we guarantee you it’s on this patch of bluegrass heaven.
Star Hill Farm is open daily from 9.30am-5pm. It is located approximately 1 hour’s drive from Louisville and Lexington. To organise a distillery tour, or one of the campus’s seasonal/thematic experiences, visit Maker’s Mark below.
This article is presented in partnership with Maker’s Mark. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Boss Hunting.
