Review #210: Larceny Barrel Proof Batch Y525

MASH BILL: 68% corn, 20% wheat, 12% malted barley 

AGE: NAS (blend of 6-8 year barrels)

PROOF: 125.8 

COST: $100 for 750mL bottle ($40 for You Do Bourbon Experience and $60 for the bottle)

A few buddies and I went to Louisville on Labor Day weekend this year. We planned on spending one of the days in Bardstown and I convinced them all to do the You Do Bourbon Experience at Heaven Hill while we were there (it didn’t take much convincing 😉). Our tasting included barrel proof expressions of Larceny wheated bourbon, Bernheim wheat whiskey, Elijah Craig rye bourbon, annnddd Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye Whiskey! This was shortly before they launched the barrel proof rye whiskey in national markets so it was still a distillery exclusive and you could ONLY get it through the You Do Bourbon Experience. The ECBP Rye was really tasty! So much so that the other three I was with all chose to bottle it for their selection. I, however, was simply smitten by this particular batch of Larceny. When a wheated bourbon really hits it’s hard to beat for me. Now that I have a chance to dive into it a bit more, let’s review this bad boy and see if it’s what I remembered!

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Honeyed auburn color (1.6), extremely viscous! It just wants to cling to the glass and not ever run back down it seems.

NOSE: Sweet but is supported by a nice spice. Graham crackers dusted with cinnamon sugar, toasted almonds drizzled with caramel, and caramelized brown sugar are persistent. A compote of cherries, strawberries, brown sugar, anise, and allspice lingers in the background. A warming bouquet of baking spices with a touch of earthiness: cinnamon, allspice, clove, and nutmeg. There’s a bright orange citrus weaving in and out and a peppery wood note lingers in the background as well.

PALATE: A medium to heavy mouthfeel, yet thinner than it appeared. This has a lovely sweetness on the palate that’s a cross between candy and homemade fruit and nut pastries. Flaky cherry turnover sprinkled with kernels of candied pecans and cherry Twizzlers lead off. Brown butter and heavily toasted vanilla Brule settle in while cinnamon powder peppers the palate. A few seconds in and toasted nuts, wet tobacco, and peppery oak provide some earthier tones. The sweeter notes on the front end of the sip fade away almost entirely before going into the finish.

FINISH: Long finish with notes of vanilla cream, heavily charred oak and brown sugar. A few seconds after the swallow cinnamon comes roaring back with some heat. As the vanilla fades it’s replaced by maduro tobacco. Orange zest throughout the finish is more noticeable than it was on the palate.

RATING: 7.9/10

OVERALL: There’s practically no proof heat to this whatsoever even though it’s over 125 proof. It’s sweet but has a whole lot more barrel character and earthy notes than I’m used to from Larceny, and that really balances out the sweetness – almost to a fault. While I do love my robust sweet notes, this is balanced and those earthier notes stymie me from getting my sweet tooth fix. When I was at the distillery, I remember this being a lot more dominated by red fruit notes than it is now that I’m at home and dissecting it. Regardless, this is still a great whiskey and a little unique for the Larceny profile I believe.

Behind The Bottle

As I mentioned, I picked this bottle up at the distillery after the You Do Bourbon Experience. One of the neat things about this tour/experience is you get to fill your own bottle of one of the expressions you got to try, and that includes putting the labels on the bottle. For Larceny, this includes putting the double-sided back label on (where the side that touches the glass has a bunch of keys on it with one bold key that you can see through the keyhole on the front label). I opted to put a little smiley face inside the bow of the key and then on the sides of the key blade I wrote “Bourbon Trail 2025”. You can kinda see the smiley face if you zoom in or look closely to the photo. If you do the You Do Bourbon Experience, keep this in mind as a fun little thing you can do to personalize your bottle even more than just your name and date on the front label (you can only do this with the Larceny bottle since the front label of the Larceny bottle is see through).

When I was filling the bottle, it got a little overfilled. Like, the whiskey was almost touching the bottom of the stopper… I knew this could be a disaster later but figured I would just set the bottle upright in my truck and secure the top with a bungee cord around the bottom of the bottle or something. Great thinking! Too bad I had already forgotten about it by the time we got to the truck. Almost 40 minutes later as we’re closing in on the last mile or so to the Maker’s Mark campus, we start smelling booze in the truck… The guys in the back seat looked in the bags and found this particular bottle blew the top off. Damnit! Luckily, it was only about 2oz that leaked out and was contained in the bag. We considered just tossing the bag and the leaked whiskey for all of 0.4 seconds but neglecting the whiskey like that would basically be alcohol abuse! So, instead, we poured the bag out into a Glencairn and we shared the 2oz pour amongst the four of us in the Maker’s Mark parking lot. Memories were made. Lessons (maybe) were learned.

1 | Disgusting | see my 1/10 ratings

2 | Poor | see my 2/10 ratings

3 | Bad | see my 3/10 ratings

4 | Sub-par | see my 4/10 ratings

5 | Good | see my 5/10 ratings

6 | Very Good | see my 6/10 ratings

7 | Great | see my 7/10 ratings

8 | Excellent | see my 8/10 ratings

9 | Incredible | see my 9/10 ratings

10 | Perfect | see my 10/10 ratings