I like the whiskeys being distilled at the Starlight Distillery in Indiana. Ted Huber is an excellent distiller and has a heritage of distilling. The family has owned the farm since the 1800s and they were distilling brandy there from the beginning and Ted has rebuilt the distillery, not only as a brandy distillery, but also as a whiskey distillery. Ted loves to experiment with new products and even old products that are making a comeback. Wheat whiskey is one such product. I visited the farm to get strawberries a month ago and I picked up this latest whiskey. Matt and I sat down to taste it the other day and here are our tasting notes.

Starlight Single Barrel Wheat Whiskey

Proof: 119.4

Age: Six Years, Six Months

Nose:

  • Mike: Vanilla, apples, cinnamon and sweet oak wood.
  • Matt: Rich caramel, peanuts, cinnamon, and oak wood.

Taste:

  • Mike: Vanilla, green apple, cinnamon and sweet oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and the cinnamon is enhanced. Tasted with a pecan and the vanilla becomes a rich caramel apple.
  • Matt: Chocolate and caramel, cherries, peanut butter and oak wood. The dried cranberry added cinnamon and honey. The pecan enhanced the chocolate.

Finish:

  • Mike: Medium long with oak and cinnamon. The dried cranberry made the finish longer with lots of cinnamon. The pecan made the finish long and dry with oak and spice.
  • Matt: Medium long with oak and peanut butter. The dried cranberry added cinnamon spice to the finish. The pecan made the finish very long with rich oak wood, tobacco and cinnamon spice.

I would pair this fine whiskey with a Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial cigar. I think the vanilla, cedar spice and rich tobacco in the smoke would pair well with the vanilla and spice in the whiskey.

Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller