Wheated bourbon has, in recent years, been growing in both confidence and popularity. Despite the style having been around since the mid-1800s, when William Larue Weller reportedly became the first distiller to replace rye with wheat in the mash bill, modern collectible bottles and affordable wheaters have given the category an edge.
To qualify as a wheated bourbon, the mash bill must contain at least 51% corn, as standard, but the rye in the mash bill is in part or entirely replaced by wheat. Essentially, wheat is the flavoring grain. This lends itself to a softer, sweeter bourbon.
To understand how the category has grown in perception and popularity, today we are taking a look at the 7 best wheated bourbons in the world according to recent whiskey competitions. Many are allocated, but some are surprisingly affordable.
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1. Old Fitzgerald VVS 2024 Bottled-in-Bond 25th Anniversary Edition
Award: World’s Best Bourbon, World Whiskies Awards USA 2025
The Old Fitzgerald brand dates back to the 1800s and spent part of the 20th century as Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle’s wheated brand at Stitzel-Weller. Heaven Hill bought the brand in 1999 and now releases the bourbon as a Bottled-in-Bond series in decanter bottles, each one carrying its own age and season.
This particular decanter, the VVS (Very Very Special) 25th Anniversary Edition, was bottled to mark 25 years of Heaven Hill ownership. The whiskey inside was distilled in September 1999 at the company’s Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, matured for 13 years in charred oak, and bottled in February 2024 at 100 proof. The mash bill is 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley.
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READ THE STORYExpect cinnamon toast, nutmeg, allspice, sweet oak, honey, vanilla, baking spices, and pepper.
It also took Whiskey of the Year and Best Bourbon at the inaugural Whiskey Wash Awards. Bottles are currently listed at around $1,999.99.
2. William Larue Weller 2025
Award: 1st Place, Best Bourbon Whiskey – Wheated, International Whisky Competition 2026
William Larue Weller is credited with being the first to put wheat into a bourbon mash bill, and his namesake bourbon continues this tradition. It is made at Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky, and released each fall as one of the six whiskeys in the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.
The 2025 release was distilled in December 2010, January 2011, and January 2013, making it 12 years and seven months old at bottling. It went into the barrel at 114 proof and came out uncut and unfiltered at 129 proof.
Expect vanilla, maple, leather, tobacco, oak, and ripe fruit.
Suggested retail is around $150, but the Antique Collection is heavily allocated, and this one currently sells for closer to $1,800, so finding it at anything like RRP takes luck.
3. Maker’s Mark 46
Award: Best Kentucky Finished Bourbon and World’s Best Finished Bourbon, World Whiskies Awards America 2026 | Double Gold, 99 points, San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2026
Maker’s Mark traces back to the 1950s, when Bill Samuels Sr. bought the Loretto distillery and, with Margie Samuels, settled on soft red winter wheat in place of rye. The house style has been wheated ever since, and the original bourbon arrived in 1958.
The 46 came along in 2010 as the first major new expression in the range since then. Once a barrel of standard Maker’s Mark has fully matured, ten seared French oak staves are inserted into it and the barrel goes back into a limestone cellar for further aging. The number in the name comes from the stave profile the distillery settled on.
The mash bill is 70% corn, 16% soft red winter wheat, and 14% malted barley, bottled at 94 proof.
The soft and silky bourbon has notes of French oak, caramel, baking spice, vanilla, and a velvety finish.
At around $38 and permanently in the range, this is the one bottle here you can pick up without hunting. A 99-point score in blind judging at that price is amazingly low. Pick up a bottle. You can’t really go wrong.
4. Green River Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon
Award: Best Wheated Bourbon and Best Overall Bourbon, New York World Spirits Competition 2025
Green River has been making whiskey in Owensboro since 1885, and is registered as DSP-KY-10, the tenth-oldest licensed distillery in Kentucky. It sat dormant for decades before returning to shelves in 2022, and now sits under the Lofted Spirits umbrella alongside Bardstown Bourbon Company.
The mash bill is 70% corn, 21% wheat, and 9% malted barley, aged in new charred oak and bottled at 90 proof from a blend of four to six-year-old barrels. No finishing casks, no age statement games.
On tasting, there is peppery spice up front, then honeyed grains, oats, and creamy butterscotch, with soft honey and warm barrel notes on the finish.
The competition is run by The Tasting Alliance and judged blind. Green River beat a field that included Blanton’s Gold Edition and W.L. Weller Full Proof, at a suggested retail price of just $34.99.
5. Augusta Distillery Wheated Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Award: Platinum medal, Best Bourbon and Best Single Barrel Bourbon, LA Spirits Awards 2026
Augusta is the youngest name here. The distillery was founded in 2018 in a restored 1883 building in Augusta, Kentucky, on the banks of the Ohio River, under Master Distiller Alex Castle, who came by way of Wild Turkey and Old Dominick.
Its first release, Buckner’s 13, was named World’s Best Bourbon at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2023, and on-site distilling only began in 2024 on two 35-foot Vendome column stills.
The Wheated Single Barrel launched in early 2026 alongside a Small Batch bourbon. It is cask strength, unfiltered, and aged for an average of seven years. Augusta has not published the mash bill, though it has been reported as 70% corn, 21% wheat, and 9% malted barley.
The bourbon has notes of honeyed grain, baked bread, orchard fruit, toasted oak, baking spice, caramel, and vanilla.
Being a single barrel release, bottles vary from cask to cask. It costs $89.99 direct from the distillery.
6. Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Specialty Barrel Series Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon
Award: Best of Class, SIP Awards 2026 | Double Gold, Bartender Spirits Awards 2026
Grain to Glass is Heaven Hill’s transparency project, and the labels carry detail most producers keep to themselves, including the corn varietal, the barrel entry proof, the rickhouse, and the warehouse floors the barrels sat on. The corn here is Beck’s 6225, grown by Peterson Farms in Nelson County, Kentucky, and the whiskey is distilled at Bernheim in Louisville.
This bottle is part of the Specialty Barrel Series, which launched in November 2025 alongside a bourbon and a rye. The difference from the standard Grain to Glass line is the wood. All three spent a full seven years in Chinquapin oak, a separate species of American white oak, with the barrels chosen in partnership with Independent Stave Company.
The mash bill is 52% corn, 35% wheat, and 13% malted barley, bottled at 105 proof, with an MSRP of $129.99.
The tasting notes include maple, oak, gentle spice, caramel, and pecans.
At 35% wheat, this is the highest proportion on the list by some distance.
7. Redwood Empire Screaming Titan Wheated Bourbon
Award: Platinum Medal, LA Spirits Awards 2025
The last bottle on the list is not from Kentucky at all. Redwood Empire distills in Sonoma County, California, and names its whiskeys after individual redwood trees. Screaming Titan is a multi-stemmed coastal redwood in the Grove of Titans, standing over 323 feet, named by forestry professor Stephen C. Sillett after naturalist Michael W. Taylor, who screamed when he first came across the grove in the late 1990s. The distillery plants a tree for every bottle sold.
This is Redwood Empire’s first wheated bourbon, released in batch-numbered runs as part of the Small Lot Series. This batch consisted of 198 barrels. The mash bill is 61% corn, 30% wheat, 5% rye, and 4% malted barley, aged a minimum of five years and bottled at 96 proof with no secondary finishing.
Expect nectarine, sweet tea, apple blossom, honeycomb, flaky pastry, and peaches and cream.
Around $79.99.
Wheated Bourbon Has Earned Its Place
There are 7 different bottles here, and no single version of what a wheated bourbon is. The wheat proportion runs from 16% at Maker’s Mark to 35% in the Heaven Hill Specialty Barrel release. Prices run from around $35 to secondary listings near $2,000.
The competitions were judged blind, which is worth remembering when a $34.99 bottle from Owensboro and a $1,800 Antique Collection release both end up at the top of their categories.
So, which wheaters have earned a spot on your shelf, award or not? Let us know in the comments.
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