WHAT

Straight Bourbon Whiskey

WHERE

Starlight, Indiana, USA

The Huber family has been farming in Starlight, Indiana since 1843 — seven generations on the same land, 20 miles north of Louisville on a limestone bluff 900 feet above the Ohio River Valley. They started as fruit farmers, added a winery, and eventually opened Starlight Distillery in 2012. Everything is estate-grown: non-GMO corn, rye, and wheat, all farmed on the property. The Carl T. is named after the fourth-generation patriarch, a bourbon man, and it's the distillery's flagship.

Two mash bills blended together: a three-grain (corn, rye, malted barley) and a four-grain (corn, rye, malted barley, wheat). Sweet mash fermentation, twice distilled in Vendome copper pot stills, aged a minimum of 4 years in the on-site rickhouses. The limestone elevation and Ohio River proximity create rapid temperature swings that accelerate maturation — similar conditions to Kentucky, with a distinctly Indiana result. Caramel corn, vanilla, toffee, dried red fruit, ginger, and a long warm finish.