Category guide
Whisky categories
Peated records the most specific whisky style supported by the bottle's label or another reliable source. Country and region stay separate.
How Peated chooses a category
Local rules come first. When a country does not define a style, Peated uses the baselines below. A category stays blank until a label or another reliable source supports it. You can submit a correction when a category is missing or wrong.
Use the most specific category. Bourbon is not corn whisky. Rye, corn whisky, and wheat whisky are more specific than blended whisky or single grain. Blended malt and blended grain are more specific than blended whisky.
Category definitions
| Category | Peated baseline |
|---|---|
| Blended whisky | Whisky sold as blended whisky. It usually combines malt whisky and grain whisky. Use a more specific category when the label gives one. |
| Blended grain | A blend of grain whiskies from more than one distillery. |
| Blended malt | A blend of single malt whiskies from more than one distillery. It does not contain grain whisky. |
| Bourbon | American whiskey made from a recipe with at least 51% corn and aged in new charred oak. Other US bourbon rules also apply. |
| Corn whisky | Whisky sold as corn whisky under local rules. If no local rule exists, corn must make up at least 51% of the recipe. American corn whiskey requires at least 80% corn. Peated records bourbon as bourbon, not corn whisky. |
| Rye whisky | Whisky sold as rye whisky under local rules. If no local rule exists, rye must make up at least 51% of the recipe. |
| Single grain | Grain whisky made at one distillery. Despite the name, it can use more than one grain. |
| Single malt | Whisky made from only malted barley at one distillery. Other local rules also apply. |
| Single pot still | Whisky made in pot stills at one distillery from malted and unmalted barley. Local rules set the proportions and any other permitted grains. |
| Wheat whisky | Whisky sold as wheat whisky under local rules. If no local rule exists, wheat must make up at least 51% of the recipe. |
References
These baselines use the World Whiskies Awards definitions, the United States whisky standards, and the Scotch Whisky technical file. Local rules can be stricter than these baselines.