Tastes

This review is a testimony to the deceitfulness of memory. I remember not particularly liking Larceny, but wanted to try it again to see if my palate had changed any. Well, when I looked at my review of this bourbon just over a year ago, on June 21, 2022, I found that I gave it the same number of stars, and liked it about as much as I did tonight. If my memory had served me better, I'd've bought my second bottle long ago, instead of waiting a year. The price at Kelly Liquors hasn't gone up so much as a penny in the intervening year - it still costs $28.99 for a fifth. It's 92 proof whisky, with no age statement. Heaven Hill hasn't released the mash bill, but a couple of online sources give it as 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% barley. NOSE: Honey with cinnamon, something nutty that might be almonds, meringue, musty corn, something floral, puffed wheat, creamed corn, ambrosia - specifically the marshmallow component, and pancakes. MOUTHFEEL: Buttery TASTE: Honey with oak, peaches and bananas together, black pepper, and butter. FINISH: Medium, with a very emphatic oak note and some black pepper. SUMMARY: This bourbon isn't as great as the hype I've encountered makes it out to be, but it's nowhere near as undistinguished as my memory told me it was. It's actually a good bourbon, though not the best. I was getting notes tonight on both the nose and the palate that surprised me - some I don't often get, and others I've never gotten before. What I got tonight was very different from what I got a year ago, and while some of that is surely a more educated palate, some of it is...well, it beats the living daylights out of me. But I do have one really good thing to say - though the finish isn't spectacular, it leads into a very long and enjoyable Kentucky hug. RATING: Good 3.125 stars 62.5/100 6.25/10

SOMEHOW, THE REVIEW THAT I WROTE HERE BACK ON THE 11TH DISAPPEARED - OR THE TEXT DID, ANYWAY. NOW THAT I'VE REALIZED THAT I'M COPYING AND PASTING THE TEXT OF THE REVIEW I DID IN THE BOURBON AFICIONADOS GROUP ON MEWE, WHICH ISN'T TOO DIFFERENT FROM WHAT I WROTE HERE ORIGINALLY. This is a store pick from the Kelly Liquors store in the Mountain Run Shopping Center here in Albuquerque. It's 120 proof (the manager told me that they tempered it down from 124 proof), just slightly over 9 years old (going by the dates on the strip at the bottom of the bottle), and cost me $56.99. In the glass the color is a deep copper. The mash bill is, of course, the standard Knob Creek - 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% sprouted barley. NOSE: Honey - this is the first thing you notice, even in a plastic sample cup. Next comes oak, which I don't believe I've ever gotten on the nose before, and which I really enjoy there, I find. There are also notes of butter, caramel, a faint note of barrel char, autumn leaves, something earthy, sweet corn, a little cinnamon, and pecan pie. MOUTHFEEL: Viscous, oily, buttery. TASTE: Honey again, butter, cinnamon, black pepper, sweet corn, and brown sugar. FINISH: A very definite note of oak, the strongest I've ever encountered, and right at the edge, perhaps, of being too much. Then come black pepper, butter, and barrel char. It's a long finish, which thoroughly coats the mouth. SUMMARY: Though this whisky isn't as complex as I'd expected it to be, it's fantastic stuff. The aromas and flavors are deep, dark, and intense, and the proof sustains them wonderfully well. This just may be my favorite whisky of all time, which is saying something, since its competition for the spot is Balcones Texas Pot Still Bourbon - another deep, dark, and intense whisky. Since this is a store pick it'll eventually run out, and it's beyond what I can usually afford, but if it were a regular shelf whisky within my range, I absolutely would buy it over and over and over again. RATING: Mighty fine = 5 stars = 100/100 = 10/10

Since this is a single malt, the mash bill is 100% sprouted barley. It's an 86 proof whisky, it's 10 years old, and a fifth cost me $39.99 at the Uptown location of Total Wine. NOSE: Immediately there's a strong dose of citrus, which sorts itself out into orange marmalade, navel orange peel, lemons, and kumquats. Then there's a sour note, which surprises me by being, if not pleasant, at least not disgusting (I hate sour whisky). After this comes a faint apple note, a slight saltiness, and a hint of smoke (no doubt from the used bourbon barrels this whisky ages in). MOUTHFEEL: Silky. TASTE: Orange slices (the candy, not the actual fruit), sweet tea, lemonade, table salt, table sugar, and oak. FINISH: Medium, with notes of orange slices and oak. SUMMARY: This is good stuff. I expect barley whisky to be fruity, but the definite citrus notes in this juice are a surprise. This is worthy every penny I paid, and perhaps more. RATING: 7 (of 8) mighty fine 4.375 stars 87.5/100 8.75/10

I reviewed this once before, on April 7 of last year, but I have more experience now than I did then, and I'm better qualified to evaluate the stuff. One thing is the same - I liked it then, and I like it now. For reasons that I can't understand, Buffalo Trace doesn't release their mash bills, so all I know is that this stuff comes from Mash Bill #1, which apparently has 10% rye or less in it. This certainly isn't a spicy whisky, so that makes sense. It's 90 proof, and has no age statement. I came away from Kelly Liquors without a receipt, so I can't be sure how much I paid, but MSRP is $25, and that sounds about right. NOSE: The first note was a combination - it was like smelling butter mixed with honey and cinnamon (when I was young, we used to put honey butter on toast, and it wouldn't be hard to mix the spice in with that). Then came brown sugar, vanilla, caramel, creamed corn, buttered toast, and some sort of stone fruit - either peaches, apricots, or nectarines, but I couldn't figure it out. MOUTHFEEL: Silky, if a bit thin. TASTE: Honey, peaches, cinnamon, bananas, and a tinge of oak. FINISH: Short, with the two notes of honey and cinnamon. SUMMARY: This is apparently a junior version of Eagle Rare (or the Eagle is a senior version of this), but this Buffalo Trace bourbon is the more flavorful of the two. Especially considering that Eagle Rare costs a bit more, I definitely prefer this juice. Buffalo Trace is a sweet, pleasant bourbon, and I'll buy it whenever I get a chance - which, in Albuquerque, won't be often. I'll more often buy Bluff Springs, which is a good alternative to this one. RATING: I use an eight level rating scale which comes from my Texas hick English. I've recently revamped it, assigning numbers, stars, and X/Y ratings to the core, which is in words. This bourbon is: 7 right fine 4.375 stars 87.5/100 8.75/10

Because I'm now posting my reviews in three places always, and sometimes in four, I'm omitting, now, to check the color. It's a small thing, but it saves me a little time and energy. I was unable to find anything about the mash bill, except that it's Buffalo Trace's Mash Bill #1, which is low rye - and I'd already figured it was a low rye mash bill from the lack of spice. I got this bottle at Kelly Liquors in the Mountain Run Shopping Center, and came away without a receipt, so I can't tell you exactly what I paid. But MSRP is $30, and while I think I paid a bit more, it wasn't much more. NOSE: Caramel apples, some kind of smoke - hickory?, a musty or earthy note of roasting ears, fried creamed corn, freshly sawed wood, butterscotch, fresh shucked corn, cinnamon butter, and vanilla. MOUTHFEEL: Velvety but thin. TASTE: Vanilla bean? (it's some sort of vanilla, but not one I'm familiar with), butter, and honey - just the three notes. FINISH: Medium-long, beginning with honey that fades, and then oak coming in late. SUMMARY: This is good bourbon, and the price is fair, but it absolutely isn't worth the hype. This is not a superior bourbon, just a good one. The nose is very complex, but the taste is disappointingly simple, with just three notes. It does taste good, but not as good as the nose led me to expect. It's a unicorn here in Albuquerque, but if I get a chance to buy it again, I will. RATING: I use a scale based on my hick language, which has eight levels. This whisky comes in at 6, which is fine, equivalent to 3.75 stars, or 75/100 or 7.5/10 as you prefer.

In searching for the mash bill on this whisky, I found two. The most common was 78% corn, 12% rye, and 10% barley; the other was 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% barley. I presume the one that came up most often is the correct one - but it may be that at some point Heaven Hill changed the mash bill a bit, though none of the differences are major. A fifth cost me $19.99 at Kelly Liquors here in Albuquerque - the Mountain Run store, specifically. There's no age statement, though since it's a bonded whisky it's at least four years old; the bonded status also means it's 100 proof. The color in the glass is copper gold. NOSE: The first note I got was just something metallic. Then it smelled hot, which I don't believe the nose has ever given me - of course when I stick my nose in too far and sniff too vigorously I get a scorch, but even gently nosing it this whisky smelled hot. Then I got some sort of sour grain, a musty note, corn pops, vanilla, acetone (an odor I like), and malted milk. MOUTHFEEL: Smooth and viscous. TASTE: It was indeed hot, hotter than I've come to expect from a 100 proof whisky. But there were also notes of caramel, malted milk, clover honey, strawberries, and milk chocolate. FINISH: Oak, honey, and red pepper, with a medium length. SUMMARY: I'm glad I've adopted the practice of not reviewing a whisky till the second glass at least, because my first glass of this was a bit disappointing. But on this second glass, it was considerably better than I expected. It's not a terribly complex whisky, but it's not bad at all, especially when you consider it's a $20 bottle. RATING: Good, which equates to 3.125 stars, or 62.5/100, or 6.25/10.

I previously reviewed this back on February 7 of 2022, but I was still fairly new to whisky then, and I now have 15 months more experience and figured it would be good to review it again. Though this is, as Scottish law defines the term, a "single malt" (it has a mash bill of 100% "malted" barley, and is the product of a single distillery), I prefer to call it "barley whisky." There is no legal definition of "single malt" in the United States, and anyway we speak American English, not Scottish English. Why not just call it barley whisky, and say that a barley whisky must have a mash bill of 51% barley, so that American distillers don't have to either conform to foreign regulations, or ignore those regulations? And "sprouted" is, in the States, a far better word than "malted," which conveys no meaning to most people. But that's just my gripe - the whisky is far above all that. It's 94 proof, has a mash bill of 100% sprouted barley (some from Texas and some from Scotland), and is old gold in the glass. A fifth cost me $41.99 at Kelly Liquors in the Mountain Run Shopping Center here in Albuquerque - and as you'll see below, I consider it worth every penny. NOSE: The nose is very dense, and at first all I got was an impression of dark mixed fruit. As I continued to nose the whisky, I began sorting things out, and the individual notes were lighter and sunnier. I found pears, mangos, plums, applesauce, an almost peaty smokiness (though this isn't a peated whisky), pecan praline ice cream, crisp juicy apples, caramel candy, vanilla extract, butter and citrus honey, and something warm and savory that I couldn't further identify. The nose on this stuff is so delicious that I have to remind myself to begin sipping. MOUTHFEEL: Smooth. TASTE: I never can find as much in the taste as I do on the nose. This is surely a defect in my palate. What I got here was golden honey, peaches, a tiny bit of oak, baked apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon. FINISH: This is a long finish, beginning with oak and apples, moving into cinnamon oak, and fading into brown sugar. SUMMARY: This is a luxurious and fruity whisky. If you're used to bourbon or rye, this will be something very different. It is similar, naturally, to Scottish "single malt" whisky, which is fruity, but with the higher proof than Scotch or Irish whisky of a similar price, and the effect of aging in the more extreme Texas climate, it's not as light as whisky from Scotland or Ireland. At three years old this is a young whisky - considerably younger than "single malt" from Scotland - but aging in Texas has made it robust and wonderful. This is one of the best whiskies I've ever had. RATING: On my hick scale, I put it at Mighty Fine, which is equal to five stars, or 100/100 or 10/10.

I've reviewed this whisky once before, on April 8 of last year. A year later my notes are different, partly due, I'm sure, to the training of my palate over time, but also I'm sure partly due to the subjective nature of tasting whisky. I thought more highly of it then than I do now, but I had less experience then, and its fall in my estimation isn't due to the quality of the whisky, but rather to my having since discovered even better juice. The mash bill is 84% corn, 8% rye, and 8% barley. A fifth cost me $27.99 at Kelly Liquors (just a couple of dollars more than I got a fifth for at Total Wine a year ago, which is amazing considering that Total Wine is always cheaper, and prices have been going sky high since January of 2021). It's 90 proof whisky, there's no age statement (and the label doesn't call it straight whisky, so that aid to guessing the age is absent), and in the glass the color is dark gold. NOSE: Vanilla, pecans, honey, some kind of grain note that I can't be specific about, cinnamon, sweet corn, something earthy, peanuts, and puffed wheat. MOUTHFEEL: Silky TASTE: Honey, oak, cinnamon, charred wood (I expect from the Lincoln County process), black pepper, and pecans. FINISH: Medium in length, with only pecans and a little oak. SUMMARY: The taste is nowhere near as complex as the nose, but it is good. I especially enjoy the nuttiness of this whisky. This is the first whisky where I detected a nutty note (pecans in the finish), and although I've since detected nuts in other whiskies, this is still the nuttiest I've ever had. RATING: Good, which translates to 3.125 stars, or 6.25 out of 10/62.5 out of 100.

I didn't realize it until I got the bottle home, but I wound up with a Total Wine store pick. They done good! This bottle comes from barrel #21757. It's 109.6 proof, and while the label doesn't have an age statement the Total Wine sticker says 42 months, which is 3.5 years. The mash bill is 100% roasted Texas blue corn. It's dark copper in the glass. NOSE: This is the most complex nose I've ever encountered since I began drinking whisky in September of 2021. I got brown sugar, cinnamon, coffee cake, roasted sweet corn, mesquite smoke, very ripe peaches, plums, kiwis?, pomegranates?, some kind of citrusy juice, pineapple juice, creamed corn, a hickory fire, and fresh baked cornbread. I kept going back to the nose over and over, and for 15 or 20 minutes I kept getting new notes. MOUTHFEEL: Usually a single word suffices, and when one doesn't, two do the trick. But this mouthfeel is silky, creamy, buttery, and smooth. TASTE: Brown sugar, cinnamon, black pepper, butter, honey, red chile, spiced honey, and oak. FINISH: Long, beginning with oak, then going into mesquite smoke, and finally trailing slowly away with red pepper. SUMMARY: This is a glorious whisky, and is a great example of the Balcones touch. It's worth every penny I paid, and more. This juice drinks like a highly complex and perfectly aged bourbon. RATING: Mighty fine!, the highest rating on my hick scale.

I had been thinking that each group of single barrel bottles could have a different mash bill (one barrel from one, one barrel from another), but it turns out that all Four Roses Single Barrel is the OBSV mash bill, which gives 60% corn, 35% rye, and 5% barley - a high rye mash bill. I'll leave for those who are interested in such things enough to do the digging, to see what that means about the yeast strain and whatnot. For what it's worth, this bottle is from warehouse MW, barrel 60-2E. A fifth cost me $41.99 at the Uptown store of Total Wine here in Albuquerque. There's no age statement, though the Four Roses Web site indicates that single barrel bottles are all 7-9 years old. In the glass this whisky is dark amber. NOSE: This is highly complex. I get a floral note, and honey, and had to work to get more - it's indeed complex, but I also find it an elusive nose. Finally I was able to start untangling it, and got honey butter, cool spring water, baked apples, waffles, apples and pears, caramel, wild strawberries, and fresh baked bread. MOUTHFEEL: Smooth and creamy. TASTE: With that nose I expected the whisky to be equally complex on my tongue, but it's nowhere close. I got spiced honey, cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper, a thin bitter chocolate note, and brown sugar. FINISH: The finish is long, beginning with alcohol, then giving a little bit of chocolate, and finally a little bit of black pepper. SUMMARY: The nose on this whisky is extraordinary. I don't know when I've gotten anything so complex from a bottle. But after the promise of the nose, the taste is disappointing. It's not that it tastes bad - on the contrary, this is good tasting bourbon. It's just that the taste doesn't measure up to the complexity of the nose. And because it's a high rye mash bill, it's spicier than I really prefer. At the price, I won't buy another bottle, but if it were five or 10 dollars cheaper, I would. RATING: Fine, which is only two steps below the highest level of my hick system, but still not at all what I expected and hoped for.