Coffee cake | Papaya | Fruit cake | Oak | Cinamon stick | Vanilla frosting | Brown sugar | Light crème brûlée | Incredibly inviting

Vanilla drizzled cinnamon cake | Brown butter | Canned fruit salad | White peppercorn | Cinnamon spice | Oak

Fruit salad | Cinnamon spice | Oak | Leather | Lingering vanilla | Lasting gentle heat

Heaven Hill Executive Chairman Max Shapira created the idea of Heaven Hill’s Grain to Glass series in the mid-2010s. The concept revolves around the company working with Beck’s Hybrids in Indiana to “hand select a unique corn seed varietal that has specific attributes desirable for Heaven Hill Grain to Glass, one of which is choosing seed which is best suited for growth in Central Kentucky.” From there, Heaven Hill works with Peterson Farms to grow the corn on one of two sites in Nelson County, Kentucky. Of note, both Beck’s Hybrids and Peterson Farms are also family-owned and lead companies, much like Heaven Hill itself.

The first edition of the Heaven Hill Grain to Glass series is composed of three whiskeys. This includes the straight wheated bourbon in review, along with a bourbon and a rye expression. For the wheated bourbon, the company states the whiskey was distilled in 2017, aged for just over 6 years, and released in 2024. Heaven Hill emphasizes transparency for this release, providing a wealth of specific data for each whiskey. The corn seed varietal used for this edition was Beck’s 6158, which is prominently displayed on the front of the bottle. Additionally, the whiskey was aged at Cox’s Creek in rickhouse W3, floors 3, 4, and 5.

Wheated bourbons tend to err on the side of sweet versus overly spicy, and that is certainly the case for the first edition of Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Wheated Bourbon. Immediately upon lifting up the glass and inhaling, you’re greeted with an incredibly inviting aroma that balances its flavors nicely. Coffee cake dances with papaya and fruit cake, while oak and cinnamon stick provide a touch of grounding and jell incredibly well with the sweeter scents that appear. The midpoint pulls in more sweet notes with a delicious vanilla drizzled cinnamon cake leading the way, followed by light spice and a canned fruit salad note, which also kicks off the finish. As the upfront sweetness fades, cinnamon spice, oak, and leather appear at the endpoint, only to be replaced once again with a slight lingering vanilla and gentle heat note.

Compared to the 2024 Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon, its wheated counterpart delivers an incredibly pleasing sip. The bourbon works every bit of its proof to extrapolate flavor notes that play well off each other, yet never comes across as hot. It’s a fantastic wheated bourbon that sets the bar high for future releases in this series.