By Richard Thomas
Rating: B
Every cask strength batch is a limited edition release in its own right, and always has been. The batching may be the same, drawing on similarly aged and warehoused stock every time, but the very word “cask strength” points right to the fact that each batch will always be a little different. It’s the sum of its uncut, unfiltered parts, and the variable of alcohol strength really does play out on the palate. You can see this for yourself just by adding an imprecise amount of water to your cask strength whiskies each time you have a pour.
This has always been the case, but it is only with the Bourbon Boom—and late in the Boom at that—whereupon making each batch a distinguished creation in and unto itself became a thing. Different distilleries have their own twist. Jim Beam went for the storytelling approach, making every batch of Booker’s about some facet of Booker Noe’s life (one wonders when they will run out of stories to tell, even with that Noe’s larger than life personality serving as source material). Over at Heaven Hill, they have taken the logistics approach.
So, here we are with Larceny Barrel Proof A122. A1 meaning first batch of the year, concocted in January, and 22 for 2022. As of this year, we are concluding our experiment with consolidating all the batch reviews for the year onto the same article, to see if that is a more effective way of presentation; if we review Batch B and C, it will be on separate articles.
Larceny Barrel Proof comes from the same stock as Larceny, the Heaven Hill wheated mash of 68% Corn, 20% Wheat, and 12% Malted Barley. Larceny generally is aged for 6 to 8 years, and this batch is 124.4 proof.
The Bourbon
As is my custom with any whiskey over 60% ABV, I took a test sniff, just to be sure it needs watering, and then put in a splash of water. That done, I found the scent smacked of a platter of brown sugar in a tobacco barn, one with a blackberry bramble full of fruit growing next to it.
The flavor, however, departs from that wheater bourbon profile, and is akin to setting that platter of brown sugar down on the barn floor: earthy, leathery and oaky. It tastes much more wizened than expected. The finish runs a sweet, fading to oak and leather down the stretch.
The Price
The official price on a bottle of Larceny Barrel Proof is $50. Although this item isn’t reliably on store shelves, it also isn’t one of the expressions that is hunted to death, so you may very well be able pay that or pretty near it.