11th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: Round 1: Buffalo Trace vs. Old Tub Bottled in Bond

Here we go! Let’s get down to the competitions.  I hope that you guys are as excited by this as I am. These were tasted in an order only known to my wife as another bit of obfuscation to hide what was being tasted. So Round 1 of the 2024 BourbonGuy.com Brackets starts with Division 2’s Number 4 seed Old Tub taking on Number 1 seed Buffalo Trace.

Buffalo Trace is the flagship product of Sazerac’s Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, KY. It can be hard to find in this area, and I’ve heard tell of it costing in the $50 or more range from commenters in other states. When I happened across it at the Burnsville, MN Total Wine, it cost $27.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $1.87 per pour.

Their opponent recently replaced Jim Beam Bonded in the Jim Beam brand line-up. Old Tub is a bottled-in-bond, unfiltered bourbon that is named after the brand the the Beam family made before they started producing Jim Beam branded products. It was distilled in Clermont, KY at Jim Beam’s distillery DSP-KY-230. This bottle was purchased at France44 in Minneapolis, MN. It cost $21.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $1.47 per pour.

All of the competitions this year were tasted blind and we knew the winner of the competition prior to any reveal. Notes, thoughts, and conclusions were all from before we knew what was what. Needless to say, some of my conclusions were surprising to me. Tasting notes may be a little unusual since they were being tasted at the same time and could have influenced the perceptions of one another.

Whiskey A (Buffalo Trace)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.87

Details: 45% ABV.

Nose: Vanilla sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, and oak.

Mouth: Nutmeg, mint, vanilla sugar, and a nice spicy tingle.

Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Nutmeg, cardamom, oak, and a slight mineral note.

Whiskey B (Old Tub Bottled-in-Bond)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.47

Details: 50% ABV.

Nose: Cinnamon, caramel, oak.

Mouth: Spicy cinnamon, caramel, cedar, and dried grain.

Finish: Warm and on the longer side of medium.

Thoughts:

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: “B” hits hard at the start, is spicy, and continues strong into the finish. “A” starts soft and sweet but then blossoms into a nice spice as it transitions into the finish. Ultimately this was really close, but I think I enjoyed the journey that “A” took me on a little more.

Post-Reveal Thoughts: Honestly not surprised by the results of this one. While I tend to think of Buffalo Trace as severely overhyped, it is a very good bourbon. And while I like Old Tub, it is marketed toward the lower end of the Premium Bourbon market. After going back and reading the notes, you can really tell that these had influenced each other. I don’t know that I’ve ever described Old Tub as “spicy” in the past. but that is why we put the disclaimer up there. When you move back and forth from glass to glass to see which you like better, you are doing a different thing than the typical sensory evaluation that full tasting notes would require. It’s a more roughshod and sloppy tasting experience. That said, it does it’s job in telling us which one we liked better. And as I would have expected going into the competition, Buffalo Trace, the most expensive entry in the competition, beat out Old Tub, the least expensive in the bunch.

Winner: Buffalo Trace is advancing to round 2.

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11th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: The “Not Quite Bottom-Shelf” Edition

Welcome back, my friends, to my favorite posts of the year. It’s bracket time!

Historically, this has been a series where we take a look at the cheapest of the cheapest bourbons, pit them against each other, and decide which you should pick up and which you should leave down on that bottom shelf. The 2022 edition broke me; I dumped out about 7 liters of bourbon, so last year, I tossed out all pricing requirements and did a series of Bonded Bourbons. This year, I’m reinstating the price requirements, but I’ve decided to keep them a bit “relaxed.” My goal was to find readily available bourbons all at about the same price point, in this case, the $20 to $30 price range.

Here is how we set everything up. And it is an oh-so-simple process. I seed the whiskey in the bracket, in this case, by price. Then, I pour 200 mL bottles of each contestant whiskey and label them with a nonsense name. Finally, I make a separate bracket with the nonsense names and give that and the 200 mL bottles to my wife. After that, she takes care of everything. She has no idea what is in each bottle due to the nonsense name. She pours and keeps track of the winners while we do our tastings. And all I need to do is taste and write. It’s a pretty slick system.

So, who are the participants, and how did they get chosen?

Well, every year, I try to put in limitations that will force me to choose a new set of participants. Well, mostly new, anyway. We still have four this year that were in previous editions. Because the “bottom-shelf” ones have gotten so much worse than they used to be due to inflation and strategic price increases, this year, I limited myself to only bourbons priced between $20 and $30 for a 750 mL bottle. This allowed me to get some names that are familiar to the general public but that might be overlooked due to the general public’s idea that “more expensive equals better whiskey.” A while back, I also asked what you guys wanted to see included as part of a giveaway. I included as many of those as I could. Some weren’t available in my market. Others were quite expensive. Some had just been in so many contests that I looked for fresh faces. But I included what I could.

The contestants were seeded by price. If there was more than one at the same price, the tie was broken by proof.

• Division 1, Seed 1: Old Forester 100: This was purchased at South Lyndale Liquors in Minneapolis, MN, for $27.99 or $0.037 per milliliter.

• Division 2, Seed 1: Buffalo Trace: This was purchased at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN, for $27.99 or $0.037 per milliliter.

• Division 1, Seed 2: Old Grand-Dad 114: A reader suggested Old Grand-Dad Bonded, but since I saw this fit the price constraints, I upgraded. This was purchased at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN, for $26.99 or $0.036 per milliliter.

• Division 2, Seed 2: Wheel Horse Bourbon: This was a reader suggestion. It was purchased at Top Ten Liquors in Chanhassan, MN, for $25.96 or $0.035 per milliliter.

• Division 1, Seed 3: Ezra Brooks 99: This was purchased at South Lyndale Liquors in Minneapolis, MN, for $24.99 or $0.033 per milliliter.

• Division 2, Seed 3: George Dickel Bourbon: This was purchased at France 44 in Minneapolis, MN, for $24.99 or $0.033 per milliliter.

• Division 1, Seed 4: Elijah Craig: This was purchased at Top Ten Liquors in Chanhassen, MN, for $24.96 or $0.033 per milliliter.

• Division 2, Seed 4: Old Tub: This was a reader suggestion. It was purchased at France 44 in Minneapolis, MN, for $21.99 or $0.029 per milliliter.

I’m going to tell you right now, that there were some real surprises here. I was honestly shocked at the winner. But that is for the future. In the mean time, who you got? Let us know down in the comments.

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If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

High West Cask Collection, South Lyndale Liquors Selection

Happy Friday! Yeah…about that. I had a tax appointment last night and completely forgot about writing anything. Sorry about that.

Next week, we start one of my favorite series of the year: The BoubonGuy.com Brackets. While I was out picking up all of the contestants from around the area, I also kept an eye out for other tasty treats that I could write about. This is how today’s bourbon ended up in my cart.

I was at South Lyndale Liquors in Minneapolis, picking up a couple of inexpensive items, and noticed this sitting on a barrel near the checkouts. Having noticed that I hadn’t covered anything from High West in a while—yes, I picked this up prior to the High West sample from the last post arriving on my doorstep—I picked it up. Especially since I tend to really like the store picks that South Lyndale gets. I don’t have much information about this one. All I really know is that this particular bottle of whiskey is a bourbon finished in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels.

But despite that, let’s take a look at it. I’ve seen barrel picks of High West Cask Collection, Cabernet Sauvignon Finish in a few of the local liquor stores, so it might be nice to see if it is worth picking up.

High West Cask Collection, South Lyndale Liquors Selection

Purchase Info: $64.99 for a 750 mL bottle at South Lyndale Liquors, Minneapolis, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.33

Details: Blend of Straight whiskeys finished in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. 50% ABV

Nose: Floral vanilla, brown sugar, red fruit, and oak.

Mouth: Cinnamon, nutmeg, sweet red fruit, vanilla, tobacco, and oak.

Finish: Spicy and medium length. Notes of red fruit, baking spice, and tobacco.

Thoughts: This is good? The wine cask accentuates the red fruit and tobacco notes. It has a bit of dryness to it, which is balanced by sweet, floral vanilla notes. All in all, I'm very happy with this purchase.

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Copper & Cask Singel Barrel Bourbon, Toasted Cask Finish: Top Ten Liquors Selection

It’s March again. And around here, March means brackets. Not those silly basketball or hockey ones, but Bourbon ones. Which means that last weekend, I needed to get my butt out of the house and go buy a whole mess of bourbon. Now, most of those have nothing to do with tonight.

I mean, I haven’t even started looking at the bracket bourbons yet. That will start this weekend.

But you don’t expect me to go on a cross-Metro shopping trip to four different liquor stores without picking up a few extra things, do you? Yeah, luckily, my wife didn’t either. Because I did find a few goodies that will pop up both before and after the upcoming Madness. The first of which is the bottle of Copper & Cask Toasted Barrel Finish shown above.

Copper & Cask is a Non-distiller producer (NDP) of sourced bourbon. I like two things about them. The first is that they are very transparent about the fact that they didn’t make what’s in the bottle. The second is that they actually tell you who did. As a big fan of transparency, I love that. Most of their whiskey is sold as single barrel store picks so unless you are buying a bunch, every time you see a bottle it will be different juice inside it. This is one of the reasons I bought a case of one that I particularly loved a couple of years ago.

As far as I can tell, only one store chain sells Copper & Cask in the Twin Cities, and that is Top Ten Liquors. That said, I haven’t been to every liquor store in the country, so you will need to do that legwork on your own. They do sell limited quantities on the Copper & Cask website from time to time, though.

The last time we looked at this, I was looking at both an MGP 95% rye whiskey and an MGP 21% rye bourbon. Tonight’s bourbon is the same 21% rye MGP mashbill, but this one has been finished in toasted barrels as well. Let’s see how it tastes.

Copper & Cask Singel Barrel Bourbon, Toasted Cask Finish: Top Ten Liquors Selection

Purchase Info: $59.96 for a 750 mL bottle at Top Ten Liquors, Chanhassen, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.00

Details: 59.5% ABV. Barreled: July 2016. Bottled: Sept 2023. 7 years old. Distilled in: Lawrenceburg, IN. Mashbill: 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley.

Nose: Cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel, and oak.

Mouth: Spicy cinnamon, caramel, almond, citrus zest, and tobacco.

Finish: Warm and long with notes of cinnamon, oak, citrus zest, and mint.

Thoughts: This is delicious, which I sort of expected. Seriously, I've never had a bad bottle from this brand. If the chain of stores that regularly carries it here in the Twin Cities had a store closer to me than 30 minutes away, I'd consistently have at least one bottle on hand. And this toasted barrel-finish version is no exception. It's deliciously spicy with strong cinnamon and nutmeg notes throughout. Big fan. Not so big that I’ll be buying a case for the whiskey closet, but still a big, big fan.

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If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, A124

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

You didn’t think I would leave you with just a promotional post for the rest of this week, did you? I wouldn’t do that…again…so soon after the last one.

No, you got a quick-to-write promo post because I got to leave the house yesterday and visit one of my favorite record stores while waiting for my wife’s two-hour hair appointment to finish. To say that I jumped on the opportunity to leave the house is an understatement. Dogsitting is a 24/7 business, and we are a one-car household. So the confluence of events leading to having no pups around and actually having our vehicle available while the stores are open is rare and looked forward to.

Today, we are looking at the latest Elijah Craig Barrel Proof release. You guys are passionate about these releases. I’ll tell you that. The last two posts garnered negative feedback, the earlier one yelling at me for not liking it enough, and I was accused of never even doing the tasting last time. I don’t do this for accolades (I just like telling stories), but honestly, some of ya’ll are getting silly. It’s just whiskey. Even delicious whiskey isn’t as important as the people you drink it with.

So, let’s dive into this before I piss off anyone else.

This is the first Elijah Craig Barrel Proof release of the year. At less than eleven years old, it is also the youngest they have put out since removing the 12-year age statement. The suggested retail price is $74.99.

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, A124

Purchase Info: This bottle was sent by Heaven Hill for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $74.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.00

Details: 59.5% ABV. 10 years, 9 months old

Nose: Very “stereotypical bourbon” on the nose: Oak, cinnamon, caramel, vanilla, and maple.

Mouth: Oak, maple, brown sugar, leather, caramel, red fruit, and baking spice.

Finish: Medium to long and warm. Spicy and sweet. Notes of tobacco, mint, and cinnamon.

Thoughts: Delicious as usual. Sweet and spicy with rich barrel notes. Nice heat, but not overly so. I am really enjoying this one.

Comparison to C923: C923 got a heart from me. I loved it so much. So take this with that in mind. C923 is much sweeter on the nose. A124 is not nearly as hot, but C923 is much sweeter. Both are delicious, but if forced to choose, I'd go with C923 just because it's a bit more vibrant in the mouth. I like A124 a lot but as I said, I loved C923.

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If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Old Forester 1924

Well, they did it. The sonnuva guns actually did it. Not a week after I mentioned in a comment on an older Old Forester post that Old Forester only has one mash bill, they went ahead and released a whiskey with a different mash bill. This is what I get for acting all high and mighty and like I know something: I get new 10-year-old bourbon…

Wait.

Ok, so that’s a good thing…I might need to act like I know everything more often.

Funny story about this one. I saw this sitting on the shelf when I was wandering through Total Wine, looking for a non-alcoholic beverage I could enjoy during Dry January. (Yes, just because I wasn't drinking alcohol for the month doesn’t mean I wasn't buying it.) So I picked up a bottle and stuck it into the closet. Well, the next week, my wife went to a different Total Wine. There was a sign informing customers that they were out of an entire list of Buffalo Trace products (we are pretty heavily allocated here, even for the standard Buffalo Trace). At the bottom, there was a handwritten addition to the list: Old Forester 1924. Of course, the Minnesota Whiskey Snobs™ were out in full force.

Now, this might happen everywhere, but in my almost 20 years of living in Minnesota, I’ve found that there is a particular brand of uppity snob that lives in the Twin Cities Metro. They are usually well-off professionals, often lawyers or upper management at a small company. I’ve had one or two of them for bosses over the years. They are the kind of people that like to get people looking at them. They think it is because others are jealous, but in reality, most people are ashamed for them. They loudly proclaim in stores things like “Oh honey, look! They are out of (some expensive thing)! Good thing we have one at home. Ha Ha Ha!”

So my wife was in Total Wine when this exact thing happened in front of that sign. Only in this case, the lady kept looking at my wife like she thought she would get a reaction. Now, I’d have walked past and whispered, “It’s good, I have two.” It would have been a lie, but sometimes, that’s what it takes to shut people up. But my wife is classier than I am. She just ignored the lady and picked up a box of Maker’s Mark 101 proof, which is pretty close to my favorite bourbon at the moment.

So, what is this new release that was causing the signs and the snobs to come out? Well, it is the latest release in Old Forester’s Whiskey Row Series. In this case, it commemorates a year when Old Forester was putting out whiskey that wasn’t entirely their own distillate. See, during Prohibition, a lot of distilleries closed. The list of those that survived is remarkably similar to the list of distilleries that were still in business in 2008. Well, the folks that still had licenses to sell bourbon medicinally bought up all the stocks of those that couldn't. And since those stocks were all that there was for the foreseeable future, folks didn’t worry too much about maintaining a consistent flavor profile. They just wanted whiskey that they could bottle and sell.

Old Forester was one of those surviving distilleries. And they were buying all the whiskey they could. This meant their mash bill wasn’t what it would have been pre-Prohibition. To commemorate this occurrence 100 years later, they have released Old Forester 1924, a bourbon that once again has a different mash bill from the rest of the Old Forester products. In this case, the mash bill is 79% corn, 11% rye, and 10% malted barley rather than their traditional 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley.

Ok, now that I’ve given anecdotes and a brief rundown of the product, let’s get to the important part. How does it taste?

Old Forester 1924

Purchase Info: $119.99 for a 750 ml bottle at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $8.00

Details: 50% ABV. 10-years-old. 79% corn, 11% rye, and 10% malted barley

Nose: Nutmeg, allspice, caramel, vanilla, and oak.

Mouth: Oak, toasted nuts, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and caramel.

Finish: Long and warm. Notes of cinnamon, oak, vanilla, and spearmint.

Thoughts: Wow! This is delicious! Spicy on the tongue with a rich mouthfeel. I wouldn't have noticed the change in mashbill on this one if I hadn't read about it. This really isn't too surprising since by ten years in the barrel, you'll be getting a lot more barrel influence taking over. This gets a heart. I might just be in love.

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If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Never Say Die Small Batch Bourbon

I’d like to thank the producer for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Well, if this isn’t the perfect timing, I don't know what is. Yesterday, the Twin Cities received its first measurable snowfall for the 2023/2024 winter season. About four to five inches at my house. This is the first real snow we’ve had since Spring 2023. Now you might be asking yourself, why this is good timing? Well, I’m giving away a winter hat from the producer of tonight’s bourbon to one of my lucky readers.

Last week, I was actually in shorts. Outside, in February, in Minnesota. It was about 50 degrees or so. Today, I was bundled up and running the big snowblower at seven am. (I have multiple pieces of snow removal equipment, a small battery-powered one for normal use and a large gas-powered one that gets used two or three times a season when the snow gets too heavy for the smaller one.) It has been a weird winter. The photo above was taken this past weekend. If I did the same today, it would be much, much whiter.

Anyway, now that you know that there will be a giveaway at the end of this post, let’s get into the real reason we are all here: bourbon. In this case, English Bourbon? Now, you and I both know that England cannot produce a whiskey and call it bourbon any more than the US can make a whiskey and call it Scotch. So, what the heck is going on here?

Well, it’s kinda the same thing that happens to Scotch. This bourbon was produced in Kentucky, barreled, aged for a bit, shipped to England, and then aged further before bottling. It’s been for sale there for a few years, but they sent it to me because it has recently become available for sale in the US through Seelbach’s.

So, let’s dig in just a little bit further and give some details before discussing the tasting notes and the giveaway.

This bourbon, like many, is named after a racehorse. In this case, it is an American-born horse that ended up racing and winning a race in England as a three-year-old in 1954. The bourbon itself is a sweet mash bourbon with a mashbill of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. According to the press release, after being distilled “30 miles south of Lexington, KY” by a partner distillery using its own “proprietary mashbills and yeast strains,” it was aged for “around five years” in Kentucky before being shipped to White Peak Distillery in Derbyshire, England for a further year of aging.

I’m going out on a limb and saying this originated at Wilderness Trail Distillery, but that is entirely speculation based on the wording used in the press release. So, let’s see how this scion of both Kentucky and England tastes, shall we?

Never Say Die Small Batch Bourbon

Purchase Info: This was sent by the producer at no charge for review purposes. The retail price at Seelbach’s is $69.99 for a 700 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.00

Details: 47.5% ABV. Mashbill: 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley

Nose: Spearmint, bubblegum, citrus zest, and vanilla.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy with orange zest, cinnamon, vanilla, and mint.

Finish: Medium to long finish with notes of bubble gum, cinnamon, mint, and oak.

Thoughts: When a bourbon with a gimmick comes along, I usually find that it has the gimmick because it doesn't have anything else going for it. But not in this case. This is a solid bourbon. I like it. And if my suspicions about its lineage are correct, then that makes a lot of sense. That said, I’m not sure aging in England did much for this one. Still tasty, though.

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Giveaway

As it is halfway through February, it is getting to be the time for me to start planning for our yearly Bourbon Brackets. I’m thinking of going back to the Bottom-shelf theme this year, and as such, I want your help. Have you picked up an inexpensive (sub-$30), under-the-radar bourbon or rye brand that you loved? Nominate it for inclusion in the BourbonGuy.com 2024 Bottom-Shelf Brackets. In return, you’ll be entered into the giveaway for the branded hat sent to me as part of the Never Say Die Bourbon media kit.

You can enter the giveaway using the form below. One winner will be chosen at random. That winner will get the Never Say Die winter hat, along with a few bourbon-related items that I pull out of the prize box. Yes, I keep all the little things that PR folks send me just for occasions such as this.

Good Luck! You have until Thursday, February 22nd, 2024, to enter (you need to "log in" so I can receive your email address to notify you if you win; either login method gets me that. I never use your email address for anything but notification for the giveaway). Please feel free to leave a comment below if you want to nominate a sub $30 bourbon or rye but not be entered in the giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Larceny Barrel Proof, A124

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Welcome to 2024, folks. Sure, I know that we already have a month and a half under our belt, but as far as I’m concerned, the new year starts when Heaven Hill drops the first of their three-times yearly batches of Larceny Barrel Proof and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. I always look forward to these releases. And why might that be, you ask? Because they’re always delicious. And it is nice to look at things you know will be tasty. Since it is the first drop of the year, let’s review a little basic info about this.

Born as an offshoot of Heaven Hill’s Old Fitzgerald line of wheated bourbons, Larceny bourbon uses wheat instead of rye as the “flavoring” grain. In this case, Heaven Hill tells us that the recipe is 68% corn (remember to be bourbon, it needs over 51% corn in the mash bill), 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley. This release being barrel-proof means there is no water added to the batch. They dump, blend, and bottle at whatever strength it comes out of the barrel. Now, of course, that sometimes leads to a very hot product. The first batch of this was so hot that I was worried about what they were trying to accomplish. It has calmed itself a bit here and there in the intervening years, though, as we will soon see, they are sometimes very hot.

Speaking of different batches, if you run across this in the store, how do you know which batch you have? Heaven Hill has nicely given us the key to knowing what is in our hands as we hold that bottle of the precious liquid. The batch code is made up of three parts. The first part is a letter, A, B, or C. This corresponds to if it is the first, second, or third batch of the year. The second part is a number. To this point, it has always been 1, 5, or 9. This is the month of the year the release came out. The final part of the code is made up of the final two digits, which indicate the year. So, in this case, A124 means it is the first batch of the year, and it was released in January of 2024. Simple.

But unless this is your first time learning about Heaven Hill's barrel-proof releases (in which case: welcome! The bar is in the corner. Pour yourself something nice), you probably just want to know how this one tastes. So, let’s dig in.

Larceny Barrel Proof, A124

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by Heaven Hill for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $64.99

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.33

Details: 62.1% ABV. 6-8 years old, per the press release

Nose: Sweet almond, caramel, vanilla, mint, and oak.

Mouth: Cinnamon, almond, oak, mint.

Finish: Warm and long with cinnamon, mint, and oak notes.

Thoughts: This version is drier than recent versions, but it's still very good. It's as hot as, or hotter than, you'd expect 124° proof to be. Recommended if you like hot, dry bourbons. I like it, even if it is hotter and drier than I’d usually prefer. It does take a splash of water well.

Comparison to C923: C923 is much sweeter on the nose and mouth, showing much more caramel notes. Both are good, but I really like C923 a lot more. I have a bit of a sweet tooth, though. Your mileage may vary.

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If you want to support the work going on here at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com.