Wheated Bourbon: What Wheat Does in Place of Rye

Cloves and pepper are not the obvious introduction to wheated bourbon. Yet both appear in Heaven Hill’s notes for an Old Fitzgerald release, alongside crème brûlée, old oak, butterscotch and sugar.[6] Producers present wheat as a way to shift bourbon’s balance towards sweetness and roundness, not to sweep spice from the glass.[1][2]

Wheated bourbon uses wheat instead of rye as its secondary grain. Producers associate that choice with less emphasis on rye spice, while their own tasting notes range from soft spice to baking spices and pepper.[1][2][4][5][6] The research cited here does not isolate wheat’s contribution to that balance.[9]

What “wheated bourbon” tells you

The key word is secondary. Wheat takes the grain role rye might otherwise occupy; it does not replace corn as bourbon’s main grain.

A mash bill is the grain recipe used to make a whiskey. Larceny puts its choice plainly: “we favor wheat over rye as the secondary grain in our mashbill”. Maker’s Mark likewise says it uses soft red winter wheat instead of the usual rye.[1][2]

Larceny’s published recipe makes the proportions clear: 68% corn, 20% wheat and 12% malted barley. Wheat has a substantial place, but this remains a recipe led by corn.[1]

That is what makes “wheated” more informative than simply spotting wheat in a description. The term identifies its job: taking the place of the rye the producer might otherwise use. For the wider explanation of grain recipes, see what a mash bill tells you.

Under the US federal standards, bourbon must be made from a mash containing at least 51% corn. Wheated bourbon is a producer description, not a separate legal type. It describes wheat taking the secondary grain role rather than rye.[1][3]

Wheat whiskey is a different US legal type, requiring a mash containing at least 51% wheat.[3] The separate guide to wheat whiskey explains that distinction.

What wheat brings to the flavour

Sweetness and roundness are the qualities producers most clearly associate with choosing wheat over rye. Larceny describes its approach as producing a “smoother and rounder taste profile compared to the spicy, robust notes of rye”.[1]

Maker’s Mark locates that sweetness more precisely. The distillery credits red winter wheat with the “front-of-palate sweetness” it considers characteristic of Maker’s Mark, and calls the result “a softer, sweeter style without the burn and bite”.[2][4] Both producers describe a change in emphasis: sweetness and a rounded impression come forward, while the sharper contrast they associate with rye becomes less central.

That is the character they seek from their recipes, rather than a rule independently demonstrated for every wheat and rye recipe.[1][2][4] “Sweeter” is a sensory description here, not a measurement of sugar in the finished whiskey. Softness, too, describes the intended drinking impression. Neither term assigns the whole result to wheat alone.

Nor does wheat necessarily mean a bread-like flavour. Heaven Hill’s notes for Old Fitzgerald 7 Year Old include “Fresh bread, brown sugar, and baking spices”. Maker’s Mark’s aroma notes take a different direction: “Sweet oak, vanilla, bright fruit and wheat”. The contrast is useful: these are descriptions of particular products, not a checklist for the category.[4][5]

Think of wheat as a clue to the balance a producer is pursuing: sweetness, texture and spice in a particular relationship. Then turn to the bottle’s own description. It gives a sharper picture than expecting every wheated bourbon to resemble every other one.

Wheated bourbon can still have spice

“Wheat means no spice” falls apart as soon as you read the producers’ notes. Maker’s Mark describes its finish as having “pleasant soft spice”, while Old Fitzgerald 7 Year Old includes “baking spices” in its taste notes.[4][5]

Heaven Hill’s spring 2026 Old Fitzgerald decanter release makes the point especially clearly. The producer lists “crème brûlée layered over old oak” on the nose, “butterscotch and sugar” on the palate, and “cloves and pepper” on the finish.[6]

Those last words belong to a wheated bourbon. A peppery finish and a wheat recipe can sit comfortably together, however neatly a shorthand comparison might assign sweetness to wheat and spice to rye.

The useful distinction is between less emphasis on a particular spicy character and the absence of spice. The first reflects Larceny’s explanation of its recipe choice. The second runs against the published descriptions from Maker’s Mark and Heaven Hill.[1][4][5][6]

Keep each description with its bottle. Old Fitzgerald’s notes describe Old Fitzgerald, not Larceny; Maker’s Mark’s account of red winter wheat describes its own approach, not every bourbon containing wheat. The category offers an opening expectation. The individual expression supplies the detail that makes it useful.

What the research reveals

Producer and age emerged more clearly than bourbon or rye category labels in the sensory research cited here. The finding is a useful counterweight to simple equations between grain and flavour.

A 2019 study by J. Lahne, H. Abdi, T. Collins and H. Heymann examined 24 American whiskeys: 15 bourbons and nine ryes. The work used descriptive analysis by 11 trained judges.[9]

According to the study’s abstract, the judges did not find differences in sensory character between bourbon and rye whiskeys as categories. Significant differences could instead be attributed to the producer and to age at bottling.[9]

That does not mean “grain does not matter”. It describes the category patterns found in that sample through that method. The study does not say that all the whiskeys tasted alike, nor that every possible comparison between two recipes would produce the same result.

For wheated bourbon, the crucial limitation is straightforward: the abstract does not separate wheated bourbons from bourbons using rye as the secondary grain. It therefore does not isolate what changes when wheat replaces rye while the other production choices remain the same.[9]

Read the evidence at those two levels. Producers give a reasonably consistent account of why they choose wheat and the style they intend. The cited research examines broader categories, not a controlled wheat-for-rye substitution.[1][2][9]

Together, those sources make a grain recipe useful without making it the whole story. The recipe tells you what went into the whiskey. The product description tells you how the producer presents its character. The study cautions against expecting a broad category name to predict the complete sensory experience.

How to read the producer’s information

Start with the grain statement, then look for percentages. Larceny supplies both, identifying wheat as the secondary grain and publishing the full proportions of corn, wheat and malted barley. You can see the actual formula rather than relying on a general description of the style.[1]

Next, distinguish ingredients from sensory claims. “Made with soft red winter wheat” tells you what Maker’s Mark says it uses. “Front-of-palate sweetness” tells you how it describes that choice’s contribution. The first answers a recipe question; the second describes the intended character. Both matter, but they are different kinds of information.[2]

Read the whole tasting note, not just its opening adjective. Maker’s Mark’s description moves from aroma through to finish; Old Fitzgerald’s notes also bring sweetness and spice together. Follow that progression rather than letting “wheated” become a single promise of sweetness.[4][5][6]

Then check which expression the description names. Heaven Hill’s notes for Old Fitzgerald 7 Year Old are not identical to its notes for the spring 2026 decanter edition. Read each account as a description of that release, rather than blending them into an imaginary tasting note for the entire brand.[5][6]

The same care helps with comparisons involving rye whiskey. When a producer compares wheat and rye as secondary grains in bourbon, it is not necessarily comparing its bourbon with a rye whiskey. One comparison concerns a recipe choice within bourbon; the other concerns whiskey categories. Keep those questions separate.

A useful reading order is simple: establish the recipe, identify the expression, then follow the producer’s description through to the finish. “Wheated” starts the enquiry; it need not supply every answer.

Common mistakes

Assuming wheat is the majority grain. “Wheated” draws attention to wheat’s role, not the largest ingredient. Larceny’s published recipe remains led by corn, with wheat second and malted barley completing the mash bill.[1] The wheat matters without dominating it.

Expecting every wheated bourbon to be free of spice. This turns a relative comparison into an absolute rule. The producers’ own spice notes belong alongside their descriptions of sweetness and roundness, not in a list of exceptions to the name.[4][5][6]

Treating producer descriptions as a controlled experiment. Accounts of sweetness and roundness explain the character producers seek. They do not separate wheat’s contribution from every other production choice, and the cited sensory study does not supply that wheat-against-rye comparison either.[1][2][9]

The most useful expectation is also the simplest: let the grain recipe frame the question, then let the individual bourbon’s description sharpen it. Wheat tells you something specific about the mash bill. It does not write the whole tasting note.

Where to go next

• Bourbon: The Complete Guide: place wheated recipes within the broader bourbon style.
• What Is a Mash Bill? How Grain Recipes Shape Whiskey: understand what grain percentages reveal.
• Wheat Whiskey Explained: distinguish wheat whiskey from bourbon made with wheat.

Sources

1. Larceny Bourbon. Our Process. Undated producer webpage, checked November 2026. https://larcenybourbon.com/our-process
2. Maker’s Mark. Our Story of Purpose and Craft. Undated producer webpage, checked November 2026. https://www.makersmark.com/en-us/story [3] National Archives and Records Administration. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 27 CFR 5.143, 2026. Official text requires verification.

[4] Maker’s Mark. Maker’s Mark. Undated product webpage, checked November 2026.

5. Heaven Hill Distillery. Old Fitzgerald 7 Year Old. Undated product webpage, checked November 2026. https://heavenhilldistillery.com/old-fitzgerald-7-year-old.php
6. Heaven Hill Brands. Heaven Hill Distillery Announces Spring 2026 Edition of the Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Decanter Series. 24 June 2026. https://heavenhill.com/news-and-notes/heaven-hill-distillery-announces-spring-2026-edition-of-the-old-fitzgerald-bottled-in-bond-decanter-series/

[9] Lahne, J., Abdi, H., Collins, T. and Heymann, H. Bourbon and Rye Whiskeys Are Legally Distinct but Are Not Discriminated by Sensory Descriptive Analysis. Journal of Food Science, volume 84, issue 3, pages 629 to 639, 2019. DOI: 10.1111/1750-3841.14468. Europe PMC abstract record. https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/search?query=EXT_ID:30730566%20AND%20SRC:MED&resultType=core&format=json

This desk-researched article uses the supplied verified fact sheet, distinguishing producers’ recipe and flavour descriptions from the findings and limits of the cited research abstract.

Last checked: November 2026