Taste Test: This Indiana Craft Distillery’s New Bourbon Shows How Good Hoosier Whiskey Can Be

Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

Anytime you see a bottle that says “distilled in Indiana” on the label, it means one thing: The liquid inside comes from MGP, the biggest distillery in the state. Many brands source their whiskey from there, and for good reason—it’s fantastic. But there are a few craft operations giving MGP (now known as Ross & Squibb for its in-house labels) a run for its money in terms of quality, if not quantity. One of them is Starlight Distillery, which just released its first 10-year-old bourbon.

Ten-year-old whiskey is a real milestone for a craft distillery, considering many don’t last that long or continue to put out very young whiskey due to time and budget constraints. Starlight was founded by the Huber family, who started making brandy in 2000 and released their first bottles four years later. In 2013, they finally got a permit to allow them to distill grains and expanded their operation to make bourbon, rye, and single malt. The flagship expression is called Carl T. Bourbon, a blend of three and four-grain mashbills aged for four years that is named after a Huber family relative. But the new 10 Year Reserve Bourbon is a big step up in terms of age and flavor compared to its younger sibling.

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The whiskey is made from the same two mashbills as Carl T., which are made from corn grown in Indiana: 60 percent corn, 20 percent rye, 20 percent malted barley; and 51 percent corn, 20 percent rye, 20 percent malted barley, and 9 percent wheat. But the 10 Year is aged in different casks—Seguin Moreau Icône barrels from California’s Napa Valley that were stored in one of the warmest areas of the distillery’s rickhouses for the majority of their maturation. According to the cooperage, these American oak barrels are usually used to age red wine and are specially selected for the specific chemical components they impart into the whiskey to give it flavor. The result is fantastic, a rich and layered bourbon that has a surprisingly complex palate. There are notes of dark chocolate, roasted espresso, caramel, over-ripe plum, dusty oak, cherry, and raisin, with a balance of sweetness and spice on a lingering finish. It’s bottled at 120.3 proof, which brings some heat but does not overpower those flavors.

Starlight isn’t the only craft operation in the state—I’ve written here about my admiration for Hard Truth Distilling before. Taken together, these distilleries show how the Indiana craft whiskey movement has really taken off. Considered on its own, Starlight is just making some excellent small-batch whiskey—whether you’re talking craft, legacy distilling, the Hoosier State, or the entire country—that any bourbon fan should seek out.

Score: 94