No style of whiskey has been more associated with the 21st century’s bourbon boom than wheated bourbon. The signature style of Pappy Van Winkle — the poster child of runaway bourbon hype — “wheaters” are renowned for their creamy mouthfeel and dessert-like tasting notes.
Your typical wheated bourbon has a mashbill featuring at least 51 percent corn (a requirement in order to be classified as a bourbon), with the rest of the recipe filled out by some combination of wheat, barley and/or rye. Buffalo Trace’s famed wheated mashbill — found in brands like Pappy and Weller — is kept under lock and key, though it’s believed wheat replaces rye entirely and accounts for around 15 percent of the mash. But what if a whiskey were made with 100 percent wheat?
Frey RanchFrey Ranch 100% Wheat Whiskey Single Barrel
A Decade of Farm-to-Glass Whiskey
Single-grain whiskeys made from 100-percent wheat — which are called, you guessed it, wheat whiskeys — are not unheard of. But they are fairly rare, paling in popularity to multigrain whiskeys like bourbon and rye as well as single-grain whiskeys made from malted barley like scotch.
An intriguing new wheat whiskey has just hit the market courtesy of Nevada-based Frey Ranch Distillery. The award-winning distillery, which last year took home VinePair’s Next Wave Spirits Brand of the Year award, is known for its “farm to glass” mantra, as it grows all of the grains used to distill its whiskeys on the distillery grounds. The whiskeys are also distilled, aged and bottled on-site, making the craft distillery’s whiskey-making process completely vertically integrated.
Our slow-grown grains are at the core of who we are as an American whiskey brand.
Frey Ranch co-founder Colby Frey
Clearly, the brand’s approach is working, as Frey Ranch is celebrating a decade in business this year. To mark the milestone, the brand has opted to do something special for its fans by creating what just might be the ultimate wheat whiskey.
