It's a good question, but much (in a lot of cases maybe most?) of the flavor of a whiskey comes from the cask, not the mash bill, and guaiacol is a component of the wood flavor as well.
Woodford Reserve does a rye thing where they sell a pair of identical mash bill bottles, aged for the same amount of time, one in new oak and one in "used" (ex-rye). The difference is huge; they're not remotely the same whiskeys.
Meanwhile, Four Roses Single Barrel does annual releases with different "recipes", varying in mash bill and yeast strain. If you actually go to Four Roses, you can buy a bottle of every recipe. My brother did that and we did a tasting, and it is very hard to tell them apart.
I can't give you a scientific cite, but from experience: cask is a huge flavor influence. Chuck Cowdery suggests it's why indie distillers have such a hard time turning out good product (they use smaller casks, which age whiskey poorly).
Note though that expecting exactly this kind of response, I said "in a lot of cases". And, of course, I'm not saying you couldn't immediately tell the difference between a non-peated bourbon-aged barley Scotch and a corn whiskey, or the difference between a wheated bourbon and a high-rye bourbon!
My only point is: wood flavors are important to non-peated whiskey. :)
