Heaven Hill Distillery is making a bold statement with its 2026 Grain to Glass lineup. After two years of exploring different grain combinations, the Kentucky distillery has decided to dedicate this entire year's release to one thing: wheat. Every bottle in the 2026 collection is a wheated bourbon, and the distillery is calling it the "Year of Wheat."
This is the third time Heaven Hill has put out its annual Grain to Glass series, which it first launched back in 2024. That debut included bourbon, wheated bourbon, and rye whiskey, each built around a specific locally grown corn variety — Beck's 6158. The series came back in 2025 with a similar three-bottle approach using Beck's 62bo25, and later that same year the distillery dropped Specialty Barrel versions of those same whiskeys, this time aged in chinquapin oak instead of the more familiar American white oak.
For 2026, the whole formula shifts. There are no traditional rye bourbons, no rye whiskeys. Just three wheated Kentucky straight bourbon whiskeys, each telling a different part of the same story.
Why Wheat, and Why Now
Wheat has always had a quiet but important role in American whiskey. In a bourbon, the secondary grain — the one that fills out the mash bill alongside corn — makes a real difference in how the finished spirit feels in the glass. Rye tends to bring spice and a certain sharpness. Wheat does the opposite. It softens things out, rounds off the edges, and lets the sweeter qualities of the corn and the barrel come through more clearly.
Heaven Hill has been working with wheat for decades. This isn't a new experiment for them. The distillery is behind Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey, a product that helped define what American wheat whiskey even looks like as a category. That long track record means the distillery understands how wheat behaves — not just in the mashbill, but through fermentation, distillation, and years of aging.
Molly Vincent, Heaven Hill's Associate Director of Luxury Whiskey, put it plainly when she described what this year's focus is really about. "We've worked with wheat for a long time across our whiskeys, but this allows us to explore it more intentionally — how it softens, how it builds complexity over time, and how it ultimately shapes the character in the glass," she said. "The 'Year of Wheat' is about bringing that deeper understanding forward."
That kind of institutional knowledge is what separates a themed release from a genuine exploration. Heaven Hill isn't chasing a trend here. They're doubling down on something they already know.
The Three Bottles, Broken Down
Image credit: Heaven Hill Distillery
Each of the three 2026 Grain to Glass releases approaches wheat differently. Same core mashbill, but different ages, different barrels, different warehouse positions — and as any serious bourbon drinker knows, those details matter more than most labels let on.
Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon — 3rd Edition
This one is the anchor of the lineup. It carries the same wheated mashbill the series has used before: 52% corn, 35% wheat, and 13% malted barley. What's new for 2026 is the corn variety. This year's release is built around Beck's 6269, a different hybrid than what's been used in past editions.
The whiskey was distilled in 2019 and spent six years aging in number-three char barrels. The batch pulls from 170 barrels sourced from the third, fourth, and fifth floors of Warehouses W5 and W6. Warehouse position matters in Kentucky — upper floors run hotter and push the spirit harder into the wood, while lower floors offer more moderate conditions. Pulling from multiple floors means the final blend carries some of that variation.
It's bottled at cask strength, coming in at 107.8 proof — 53.9% ABV. Bottles are expected to start arriving in June with a suggested retail price of $99.99 for 700 milliliters.
Grain to Glass Specialty Barrel Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon — Aged in French Oak
This is the one that turns some heads. French oak is well-known in the wine world, especially in Burgundy and Bordeaux production, but it's far less common in American whiskey. French oak has tighter grain than American white oak, which means it interacts with the spirit differently — it tends to bring in more tannins and different flavor compounds, adding layers that you just don't get from a standard American barrel.
The key distinction here is that this whiskey wasn't finished in French oak. It was matured entirely in French oak barrels from the start. That's a meaningfully different choice. A secondary finish adds a layer on top of something already formed. Full maturation in French oak means the wood has shaped every part of what's in the bottle.
The mashbill is the same — 52% corn (Beck's 6269), 35% wheat, 13% malted barley — and the spirit was also distilled in 2019. The 170-barrel batch came exclusively from the fourth floor of Warehouse W9. It's bottled at 109.2 proof, or 54.6% ABV.
This one won't be on shelves until October 2026, with a suggested retail price of $129.99.
Grain to Glass Extra Aged 9-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon
The headline bottle of the 2026 collection is this nine-year-old, which Heaven Hill describes as the oldest whiskey ever released in the Grain to Glass line. While the other two releases in this year's collection were distilled in 2019, this one goes back to 2017 — and it uses the original Beck's 6158 corn variety rather than the newer 6269 hybrid.
Nine years in the barrel is meaningful for wheated bourbon. The softer, more approachable nature of wheat as a secondary grain can sometimes make younger wheated bourbons feel relatively gentle or even simple. But given enough time, those same qualities evolve. The subtlety deepens. The interaction with the wood builds layers that take years to develop properly.
The 150-barrel batch aged on the third, fourth, and fifth floors of Warehouse W3 — again pulling from different levels to capture a range of maturation conditions. It comes in at 62.5% ABV, which is a substantial cask strength for a wheated bourbon. That kind of proof on a nine-year wheated bourbon suggests the upper floors did serious work on these barrels.
The Extra Aged expression is expected to hit shelves in December 2026, with a suggested retail price of $149.99.
The Sourcing Story Behind the Grain
One of the things that separates the Grain to Glass series from most limited-edition releases is that the sourcing trail is actually traceable. The corn used in each release is hand-selected by Heaven Hill's Master Distiller, Conor O'Driscoll, working directly with Beck's Hybrids, a seed producer. From there, the corn is grown locally in Nelson County, Kentucky — just miles from where Heaven Hill first opened its doors back in 1935.
That geography matters to the distillery. Nelson County is the heart of bourbon country, and farming the grain that close to the distillery keeps the supply chain tight and the story clean. When the label says "grain to glass," it's not just branding.
The selection of a specific corn variety for each release reflects O'Driscoll's hands-on involvement at the very beginning of the production process, long before fermentation even starts. Each hybrid brings slightly different starch levels, hull characteristics, and fermentation behavior. Over time, those small differences in raw material show up in the finished whiskey.
For 2026, two of the three releases use Beck's 6269, while the Extra Aged expression sticks with the original Beck's 6158. Whether that corn variety difference translates into something noticeable in the glass — especially after nine years of oak influence — is one of the more interesting questions this lineup raises.
What This Means for the Bourbon World
The 2026 Grain to Glass series arrives at a moment when the American whiskey market is maturing in more ways than one. Consumers who spent the past decade hunting allocated bottles have, by and large, grown more knowledgeable. They're asking harder questions about what's actually in the bottle, where the grain came from, and why certain production decisions were made. Heaven Hill's Grain to Glass approach speaks directly to that kind of curiosity.
The decision to go all-in on wheated bourbon for an entire year also reflects something real about where consumer interest has shifted. Wheated bourbons — led for years by Pappy Van Winkle and W.L. Weller — have seen enormous demand growth. Heaven Hill, with its long history of wheat production and its existing portfolio including Bernheim and the Larceny line, is one of the few distilleries positioned to make a serious, credible statement on the subject rather than just capitalizing on a trend.
At scale, Heaven Hill maintains over two million barrels aging across more than 70 warehouses spread through Nelson and Jefferson Counties. That kind of inventory means the distillery can make patient, long-term decisions about what to release and when — which is exactly what a nine-year wheated bourbon requires.
Availability and Pricing
All three 2026 Grain to Glass releases will be available in limited quantities through select specialist retailers in the United States. The rollout is staggered across the second half of the year:
The 3rd Edition Wheated Bourbon is expected to arrive in June at $99.99. The French Oak Specialty Barrel release follows in October at $129.99. The Extra Aged 9-Year-Old closes out the year with a December release at $149.99.
None of these are going to be easy to find. Grain to Glass releases have always been limited runs, and this year's extra-aged expression in particular — with its nine-year age statement and cask strength proof — is the kind of bottle that will move quickly at specialty retailers once word gets out. Anyone who has followed the series since 2024 knows these don't sit on shelves.
For collectors and serious bourbon drinkers, the 2026 lineup offers something uncommon: a coherent, well-documented story about a single grain, told across three different expressions with meaningfully different ages, oak types, and production details. That's harder to pull off than it looks, and Heaven Hill has been building toward this kind of focused release for years.
