Uncharted Wheated Bourbon Review: River Aged for Your Drinking Pleasure

BOTTLE DETAILS

• DISTILLER: Produced and bottled by The Ingram Distillery. Distilled at Green River Distilling
• MASH BILL: 70% Corn | 21% Wheat | 9% Malted Barley
• AGE: Blend of 4-, 5- and 6-year-old barrels
• YEAR: 2025
• PROOF: 92 (46% ABV)
• MSRP: $39.99
• BUY ONLINE: O.H. Ingram Bottle Locator

STEVE'S NOTES

SHARE WITH: Every bourbon fan and definitely every Scotch whisky fan who wants to try bourbon. This is a gateway bourbon for those who like peat-free Scotches.

WORTH THE PRICE: Without a doubt. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to find a comparable bargain-priced wheated bourbon that's this good.

BOTTLE, BAR OR BUST: Bottle. In fact, if you find the 1-liter version of this for the MSRP of $44.99, it's a serious bargain. Not only will you not want to pass on the bargain, but you'll also want to pour a lot of it for your friends.

OVERALL: From this bottle's news release:

Inside the original floating barrelhouses, The Ingram Distillery whiskey barrels spend their years exposed to the magic of the Mississippi River. The motion of the river, its high humidity, and natural daily heat cycling ensure that the whiskey never stops working. We call it Mellowed on the Mississippi. You can see full details about the unique aging process here.

Keep that story in mind as I go through my own experience with this bourbon. On the nose is caramel corn, freshly baked and buttered bread with a little honey and a sprinkle of baking spice. Stick with it, and you'll get both dried and toasted grain and dried lemon.

The palate is thoroughly honeyed, accented with warm dark cherries, ripe pineapple and a dab of lemon curd. Subsequent tastes turn up freshly fried donut, a little cinnamon and a little flat Sprite. This is so soft and viscous that it could almost pass for a bottled toddy. It's also so surprisingly pleasant at this proof that I wonder if higher proof iterations would be off-putting.

Since I had a bottle on hand of its distillery sibling, Green River Wheated Bourbon Whiskey, I tasted it for comparison. Voted the 2025 World's Best Bourbon at the New York Spirits Competition, I wanted a reference point for this review. The GRWB is a bit grainier and spicier than Uncharted, and it drinks a touch above its proof. Delicious all the same, of course, but the Uncharted bests it on texture, richness and fruit character.

How much of that difference could be credited to Ingram's one-of-a-kind river aging within a barge? What I know from my experience going inside the brand's first barge is that the micro-climatic differences from top to bottom are striking. There, when I visited a few years ago, were a handful of barrels aged strictly for experimental purposes. They were filled with MGP whiskies, and I, like many drinkers, was well acquainted with those mash bills. Yet they weren't like most MGP whiskies I'd tasted before, and I was convinced that the humidity and temperature variances inside that steel vessel were responsible for those obvious whiskies' uniqueness.

How much does the river motion effect noticeable change in whiskey? No one seems to know for sure. But I'll bet money that the gradual rocking of a water-borne vessel will do far more to agitate liquids and gases forming inside those barrels than any exposure to bass-heavy metal music will ever do. If you like a whiskey story, Ingram's has substance. Subwoofer influence on whiskey is pure fiction.

BRAND NOTES

• NOSE: Dried fruit, vanilla, toasted nuts, and coffee
• PALATE: Graham cracker, honey, light spice with touches of maple and oak
• FINISH: A long finish with caramel, cinnamon, apples and light notes of leather and cocoa

Disclaimer: Bourbon & Banter received a sample of this product from the brand for review. We appreciate their willingness to allow us to review their products with no strings attached. Thank you.