Larceny Barrel Proof Bourbon Review (A123/2023)

By Richard Thomas

Rating:

Something I’ve touched on before is what I think of as a Bourbon 201 lesson: all cask strength whiskeys offer a similar degree of variation as a single barrel release. While a single barrel release might come from a prized “butter barrel,” for the most part they sit within a range of variation from what might expect from a brand drawn and blended from the same stock.

I like to think the exact same thing is true of cask strength whiskeys, and for two reasons. First is that proof alters flavor. The people who make these things know that, and so once the proof becomes a variable question decided by nature and the quirks of what gets dumped into the batch, less attention is paid to producing a consistent product. That is something I’ve heard again and again from the people who make these things. Not no attention, but less. Cask strength whiskeys might lack the romance of single barrels, but they sit on a spectrum too; just go look at our many write-ups of Booker’s as a case in point.

Keeping all that in mind, I think it’s useful to come back to expressions like Larceny Barrel Proof from time to time. Made from the Heaven Hill wheated mash of 68% Corn, 20% Wheat, and 12% Malted Barley. Larceny generally is aged for 6 to 8 years. A123, the first batch of the year, is 125.8 proof (62.9% ABV).

The Bourbon
The whiskey is actually lighter than you would expect, with the bright, shining look of polished copper. That was before I added water, as I always do before even taking a whiff of anything above 120 proof. In this case, I found a good splash was necessary to dial things down to suit my tastes.

The nose rang of strawberry tea and sugar cookies: it was a touch tannic, with that brushing of red fruit flavor in the way of strawberry black tea, and accented with nutmeg and cinnamon. It was mainly the nose that called on me to splash it with water. Once I had upped the ante from mere drops, I was able to pull all that out. The flavor followed in much the same vein, but with a hefty caramel current. The finish was here today and gone tomorrow, but was rich with caramel and oak while it lasted.

The Price
The price on Larceny has gone up in the last year, to $60. You can usually find it priced at that mark, but beware. My review of online retailers shows some asking double this rate.