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Wheated Bourbon
Wheated bourbon swaps wheat in for rye as the grain that does the flavouring. It is softer, rounder and easier to drink neat. It is also not a legal category, so nobody has to tell you how much wheat is in the bottle. We print the mashbill wherever the distiller publishes one.
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What wheated bourbon actually means
All bourbon is at least 51% corn, aged in new charred oak. The rest of the mashbill is the distiller's choice, and almost always that choice is rye, wheat or both, plus a little malted barley to help fermentation along.
When wheat is the bigger of the two, the trade calls it wheated. That is the whole of it. There is no legal minimum, no label rule and no obligation to use the word, which is why you cannot shop for wheated bourbon by reading labels.
How much wheat is in a wheated bourbon
In the bottles on this page the wheat share runs from 15% to 45%. That is a threefold spread inside one word.
At the top of the range wheat is doing nearly as much work as the corn. At the bottom it is a seasoning, and the bottle tastes like a bourbon with its edges filed off rather than a different thing. Both are honestly wheated. Neither one tells you what the other is.
Wheated does not mean no rye
Four of the published mashbills here carry rye as well. They are wheated because wheat outweighs rye, not because rye is absent, and a four-grain mashbill of corn, wheat, rye and malted barley can sit on this page without any contradiction. One goes the other way and runs corn and wheat only, with no barley at all.
Why it tastes the way it does
Wheat has no spice to give. Where rye contributes pepper, dill and a green herbal edge, wheat contributes body and a soft bread-and-honey sweetness and then gets out of the way. That leaves more room for whatever the barrel put in: vanilla, caramel, toasted oak.
The practical consequence is that wheated bourbon carries proof well. A wheated bourbon at 120 often drinks easier than a high-rye at 100, because there is no spice stacking on top of the heat. The bottles here run from 80 proof to 128.
Shopping this page
Half the bottles on this page do not use the word wheated anywhere on the label. We found them by reading mashbills, which is the only way they can be found.
Every product page shows the full grain breakdown, so you can see whether you are buying 45% wheat or 15% before you commit. If you want the spice back, the [high rye bourbons](/collections/high-rye-bourbon) are the other half of the same question, and the [full bourbon shelf](/collections/bourbon) holds everything.
What is wheated bourbon?
Bourbon where wheat rather than rye is the main grain alongside the corn. All bourbon is at least 51% corn; the distiller chooses what fills the rest. When wheat outweighs rye, the trade calls the result wheated. It is a description, not a legal category.
How much wheat does a bourbon need before it counts as wheated?
There is no official number, because there is no official category. We list a bourbon here when wheat is both the larger of the two flavouring grains and at least 10% of the mashbill. Above that line the figure varies enormously from one bottle to the next, which is why we publish the mashbill rather than trust the label.
Does wheated bourbon contain no rye at all?
Usually it contains some. A mashbill carrying rye at around 7% alongside wheat at 15% is wheated by proportion rather than by exclusion, and a four-grain mashbill of corn, wheat, rye and malted barley can still be a wheated bourbon.
Is wheated bourbon sweeter?
Softer rather than sweeter. Wheat adds body and a bread-and-honey quality and contributes no spice, so the barrel character comes through more clearly. Without rye pepper on top, the same proof reads as gentler than it would in a high-rye bourbon.
Is wheated bourbon a good place to start?
It is the usual recommendation, and for good reason: there is less to get past on the first sip. It also means a barrel-proof wheated bourbon at 120 or more is approachable in a way the number does not suggest, which is worth knowing before you dismiss one.
Why do some wheated bourbons not say wheated on the label?
Because nothing requires them to. Plenty of wheated bourbons never use the word anywhere on the bottle. They are here because we read the mashbill, which is also why the grain breakdown is published on each product page rather than left for you to guess at.