Table Of Contents

The Details

Rating 93
Style
American Whiskey
Whiskey
Produced In Kentucky
United States
ABV 59.3%
Availability Limited
Price $60.00 
Reviewed By
Reviewed 2025-04-29

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon Review

Greensboro’s Green River Distilling Co. has a history dating back to 1885, and today it’s the 10th oldest licensed distillery in Kentucky. But that history comes with its fair share of ups and downs, including a roughly 50 year stretch where the property sat unused. A rebuilt and recharged distillery opened on the site in 2016, and the company was acquired by Bardstown Bourbon Co. in 2022. (Both distilleries have since come under the ownership of Pritzker Private Capital.)

Over the past few years, Green River has somewhat quietly been expanding its reach nationwide with competitively priced and generally well-received releases; indeed, since the 2022 acquisition, distribution has grown from four to almost 45 states.

One of the brand’s newest offerings is a series of cask strength wheated bourbon single barrels, generally bottled between 110 and 130 proof. (This is in addition to its regular single barrel bourbon, which is made with rye as the flavoring grain.) The distillery plans to release about 100 single barrels of wheated whiskey in 2025, and one imagines that program will grow significantly over the coming years. Each barrel is distilled from a mash bill of 70 percent corn, 21 percent wheat, and 9 percent malted barley, and the whiskey is aged a minimum of 5 years.

Of course, as with any single barrel product, we should emphasize flavor can change significantly from one barrel to the next, even if most other variables are accounted for. The sample we reviewed clocked in at 59.3 percent ABV. Let’s see how this particular barrel tastes!

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon review.

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon: Stats and Availability

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon carries an MSRP of right around $60. Releases in 2025 top out at about 100 barrels, though we expect this number to increase in 2026 and beyond. Bottles are available to the public at the distillery’s Owensboro gift shop, as well as sister brand Bardstown Bourbon Co.’s retail shops in Bardstown and Louisville. Most importantly, these single barrels will be available to select retail outlets across much of the country, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see those individual stores charge a small premium for the selections (as is often the case.) However, most Green River products are generally findable for close to suggested retail.

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon Review

As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.

Nose

As a reference point, the sample we reviewed was bottled at 118.6 proof. The nose certainly behaves like it’s nearly 120 proof, but in all the right ways, especially at the start. Bold spiced fruit leads and never relents, with apricots, peaches, plums, and cherries all cooked into the same Dutch oven cobbler; the cherry stands out with more time in the glass.

A strapping portion of nutmeg is grated on top, along with lighter dustings of cinnamon and allspice. That spice bridges the fruit-forward scents with cream soda and ginger ale cake. Finally, bold oak folds in, punching well above the minimum five years these barrels are marketed at. Among cask strength wheated bourbons on the market today, I’d put this nose in the top quartile, with an impressive balance that maintains the vibrancy of fruit while embracing both decadent sweetness and robust barrel character.

Taste

The first sip almost explodes with citrus, a small (but not unwelcome) turn compared to the orchard fruit and berries on the nose. Early flavors are somewhere between Mandarin orange and kumquat, a bright and tart intersection that follows through all the way to the finish. Subsequent sips bring more citrus as additional flavors gradually build layers: orange cake, vanilla icing, cherry cough drops, candied ginger, and even a little strawberry rhubarb pie filling. One small critique is the somewhat fleeting nature of that cherry flavor, a beloved aspect of high-proof wheaters that we catch just a short glimpse of here.

On the midpalate, oak wields a deft touch, with just enough wood tannins to add depth and the trappings of age, all without any risk of drying things out. In that way, it’s like sipping a lemony sun tea with a near-perfect amount of sugar. Tiny pops of corn pudding and Hawaiian sweet rolls lend even more depth and structure toward the back-palate, most other notes enhanced by the flavors of bread, grain, and yeast.

Finish

Mandarin orange pushes right on through to the finish, which is also this whiskey’s most astringent phase. There’s enough residual sweetness to keep the finish from getting lip-puckeringly dry, and the lasting element of citrus helps it stand well apart from the majority of comparable bourbons being produced today.

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon Rating

93/100

Recap

If our review sample is indicative of this new line of single barrels — and I certainly hope it is — bourbon fans are in for a real treat. This is delicious, well-priced wheated bourbon with unique character. What we sampled wasn’t perfect, but so few single barrels are, and I was as enamoured by the flavor curveballs as the well-executed, classic notes. This is the kind of whiskey I can’t wait to revisit from a different cask — and in an ideal world, as part of a larger lineup of single barrel selections.

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93
POINTS
Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon
Greensboro’s Green River Distilling Co. has a history dating back to 1885, and today it’s the 10th oldest licensed distillery in Kentucky. But that history comes with its fair share of ups and downs, including a roughly 50 year stretch where the property sat unused. A rebuilt and recharged distillery opened on the site in 2016, and the company was acquired by Bardstown Bourbon Co. in 2022. (Both distilleries have since come under the ownership of Pritzker Private Capital.) Over the past few years, Green River has somewhat quietly been expanding its reach nationwide with competitively priced and generally well-received releases; indeed, since the 2022 acquisition, distribution has grown from four to almost 45 states. One of the brand’s newest offerings is a series of cask strength wheated bourbon single barrels, generally bottled between 110 and 130 proof. (This is in addition to its regular single barrel bourbon, which is made with rye as the flavoring grain.) The distillery plans to release about 100 single barrels of wheated whiskey in 2025, and one imagines that program will grow significantly over the coming years. Each barrel is distilled from a mash bill of 70 percent corn, 21 percent wheat, and 9 percent malted barley, and the whiskey is aged a minimum of 5 years. Of course, as with any single barrel product, we should emphasize flavor can change significantly from one barrel to the next, even if most other variables are accounted for. The sample we reviewed clocked in at 59.3 percent ABV. Let’s see how this particular barrel tastes! Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon review.

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon: Stats and Availability

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon carries an MSRP of right around $60. Releases in 2025 top out at about 100 barrels, though we expect this number to increase in 2026 and beyond. Bottles are available to the public at the distillery’s Owensboro gift shop, as well as sister brand Bardstown Bourbon Co.’s retail shops in Bardstown and Louisville. Most importantly, these single barrels will be available to select retail outlets across much of the country, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see those individual stores charge a small premium for the selections (as is often the case.) However, most Green River products are generally findable for close to suggested retail.

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon Review

As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.

Nose

As a reference point, the sample we reviewed was bottled at 118.6 proof. The nose certainly behaves like it’s nearly 120 proof, but in all the right ways, especially at the start. Bold spiced fruit leads and never relents, with apricots, peaches, plums, and cherries all cooked into the same Dutch oven cobbler; the cherry stands out with more time in the glass. A strapping portion of nutmeg is grated on top, along with lighter dustings of cinnamon and allspice. That spice bridges the fruit-forward scents with cream soda and ginger ale cake. Finally, bold oak folds in, punching well above the minimum five years these barrels are marketed at. Among cask strength wheated bourbons on the market today, I’d put this nose in the top quartile, with an impressive balance that maintains the vibrancy of fruit while embracing both decadent sweetness and robust barrel character.

Taste

The first sip almost explodes with citrus, a small (but not unwelcome) turn compared to the orchard fruit and berries on the nose. Early flavors are somewhere between Mandarin orange and kumquat, a bright and tart intersection that follows through all the way to the finish. Subsequent sips bring more citrus as additional flavors gradually build layers: orange cake, vanilla icing, cherry cough drops, candied ginger, and even a little strawberry rhubarb pie filling. One small critique is the somewhat fleeting nature of that cherry flavor, a beloved aspect of high-proof wheaters that we catch just a short glimpse of here. On the midpalate, oak wields a deft touch, with just enough wood tannins to add depth and the trappings of age, all without any risk of drying things out. In that way, it’s like sipping a lemony sun tea with a near-perfect amount of sugar. Tiny pops of corn pudding and Hawaiian sweet rolls lend even more depth and structure toward the back-palate, most other notes enhanced by the flavors of bread, grain, and yeast.

Finish

Mandarin orange pushes right on through to the finish, which is also this whiskey’s most astringent phase. There’s enough residual sweetness to keep the finish from getting lip-puckeringly dry, and the lasting element of citrus helps it stand well apart from the majority of comparable bourbons being produced today.

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon Rating

93/100

Recap

If our review sample is indicative of this new line of single barrels — and I certainly hope it is — bourbon fans are in for a real treat. This is delicious, well-priced wheated bourbon with unique character. What we sampled wasn’t perfect, but so few single barrels are, and I was as enamoured by the flavor curveballs as the well-executed, classic notes. This is the kind of whiskey I can’t wait to revisit from a different cask — and in an ideal world, as part of a larger lineup of single barrel selections.

Reviewed On: 04-29-2025
93
POINTS
Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon
Greensboro’s Green River Distilling Co. has a history dating back to 1885, and today it’s the 10th oldest licensed distillery in Kentucky. But that history comes with its fair share of ups and downs, including a roughly 50 year stretch where the property sat unused. A rebuilt and recharged distillery opened on the site in 2016, and the company was acquired by Bardstown Bourbon Co. in 2022. (Both distilleries have since come under the ownership of Pritzker Private Capital.) Over the past few years, Green River has somewhat quietly been expanding its reach nationwide with competitively priced and generally well-received releases; indeed, since the 2022 acquisition, distribution has grown from four to almost 45 states. One of the brand’s newest offerings is a series of cask strength wheated bourbon single barrels, generally bottled between 110 and 130 proof. (This is in addition to its regular single barrel bourbon, which is made with rye as the flavoring grain.) The distillery plans to release about 100 single barrels of wheated whiskey in 2025, and one imagines that program will grow significantly over the coming years. Each barrel is distilled from a mash bill of 70 percent corn, 21 percent wheat, and 9 percent malted barley, and the whiskey is aged a minimum of 5 years. Of course, as with any single barrel product, we should emphasize flavor can change significantly from one barrel to the next, even if most other variables are accounted for. The sample we reviewed clocked in at 59.3 percent ABV. Let’s see how this particular barrel tastes! Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon review.

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon: Stats and Availability

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon carries an MSRP of right around $60. Releases in 2025 top out at about 100 barrels, though we expect this number to increase in 2026 and beyond. Bottles are available to the public at the distillery’s Owensboro gift shop, as well as sister brand Bardstown Bourbon Co.’s retail shops in Bardstown and Louisville. Most importantly, these single barrels will be available to select retail outlets across much of the country, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see those individual stores charge a small premium for the selections (as is often the case.) However, most Green River products are generally findable for close to suggested retail.

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon Review

As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.

Nose

As a reference point, the sample we reviewed was bottled at 118.6 proof. The nose certainly behaves like it’s nearly 120 proof, but in all the right ways, especially at the start. Bold spiced fruit leads and never relents, with apricots, peaches, plums, and cherries all cooked into the same Dutch oven cobbler; the cherry stands out with more time in the glass. A strapping portion of nutmeg is grated on top, along with lighter dustings of cinnamon and allspice. That spice bridges the fruit-forward scents with cream soda and ginger ale cake. Finally, bold oak folds in, punching well above the minimum five years these barrels are marketed at. Among cask strength wheated bourbons on the market today, I’d put this nose in the top quartile, with an impressive balance that maintains the vibrancy of fruit while embracing both decadent sweetness and robust barrel character.

Taste

The first sip almost explodes with citrus, a small (but not unwelcome) turn compared to the orchard fruit and berries on the nose. Early flavors are somewhere between Mandarin orange and kumquat, a bright and tart intersection that follows through all the way to the finish. Subsequent sips bring more citrus as additional flavors gradually build layers: orange cake, vanilla icing, cherry cough drops, candied ginger, and even a little strawberry rhubarb pie filling. One small critique is the somewhat fleeting nature of that cherry flavor, a beloved aspect of high-proof wheaters that we catch just a short glimpse of here. On the midpalate, oak wields a deft touch, with just enough wood tannins to add depth and the trappings of age, all without any risk of drying things out. In that way, it’s like sipping a lemony sun tea with a near-perfect amount of sugar. Tiny pops of corn pudding and Hawaiian sweet rolls lend even more depth and structure toward the back-palate, most other notes enhanced by the flavors of bread, grain, and yeast.

Finish

Mandarin orange pushes right on through to the finish, which is also this whiskey’s most astringent phase. There’s enough residual sweetness to keep the finish from getting lip-puckeringly dry, and the lasting element of citrus helps it stand well apart from the majority of comparable bourbons being produced today.

Green River Wheated Single Barrel Bourbon Rating

93/100

Recap

If our review sample is indicative of this new line of single barrels — and I certainly hope it is — bourbon fans are in for a real treat. This is delicious, well-priced wheated bourbon with unique character. What we sampled wasn’t perfect, but so few single barrels are, and I was as enamoured by the flavor curveballs as the well-executed, classic notes. This is the kind of whiskey I can’t wait to revisit from a different cask — and in an ideal world, as part of a larger lineup of single barrel selections.

Reviewed On: 04-29-2025