Bardstown Origin High Wheat: 39% Wheat And The Science Of Entry Proof

We’re back at Bardstown Bourbon Company with Jake Sulek in the Heritage Library to taste the Origin Series High Wheat, the newest addition to Bardstown’s flagship lineup.

This one pushes wheated bourbon into a big territory, with 39% wheat and only 53% corn in the mash bill. Jake walks us through what makes a bourbon “wheated”, why wheat tends to drink softer than rye, and the flavour lane he gets from this bottle: stone fruit, baked peaches, crème brûlée, lemon cake, and a mellow, easy-sipping finish.

Then we go deep on one of the most interesting parts of the conversation: barrel entry proof and why Bardstown fills this whiskey at 108 proof, far lower than the 120 proof used across the rest of the Origin series. The key idea is solubility: some oak compounds dissolve better in water and some dissolve better in alcohol, which means entry proof can influence whether you pull more wood sugars (caramel, butterscotch, toffee) versus more vanillin.

We also talk about Bardstown’s custom distilling program (300+ partners), and the very real experiment happening in their glass-fronted warehouse, where sunlight and heat exposure could be creating entirely new ageing outcomes over time.

Chapters

00:00 Back in the Heritage Library
00:25 Origin High Wheat overview
00:55 Wheated bourbon basics
01:40 What wheat contributes to flavour
02:40 Low barrel entry proof explained
03:20 Water vs alcohol extraction
03:50 Ageing water in a barrel?
04:40 Proof reveal and why it drinks easy
05:30 Rye vs wheated preferences
06:05 “Barrel-aged water” as a concept
06:35 Custom distilling program
07:10 The glass rickhouse wall
08:20 Why the experiment matters