Bourbon and Rye Day Friday: Larceny Very Special Small Batch Bourbon

Heaven Hill's bargain Old Fitzgerald BIB wheated bourbon has been getting phased out for some time. It appears to be getting replaced by John F. Fitzgerald Larceny Very Special Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Or, Larceny, for short. Like Old Fitz BIB, Larceny is distilled by Heaven Hill, using a mashbill with wheat (rather than rye) as the secondary grain. But Larceny is NOT bottled in bond. It swings at 46%abv and has no age statement. And it's 50-100% more expensive than Old Fitz BIB.

NAS?

The official website has this weird quote: "Larceny was hand selected by the Master Distillers to have a taste profile of a six-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey."

So it's....not(?)....technically six years old? And what exactly does a "six-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey" taste like? There have been a lot of "six-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskeys" throughout time, and they all have had their own taste profiles. And why six years old? And how old is this stuff really?

SMALL BATCH?

The original Larceny marketing brochure mentions 75 or fewer barrels per batch, while some reviews reference 100 or fewer barrels. For major bourbon producers this probably does qualify as a small batch. Plus it's nice that there's some sort of number attached to the batch size, even if it's 15,000-20,000 bottles wide.

BIAS?

I'm not the biggest fan of contemporary wheated bourbons. (Note my lament over my last bottle of Maker's.) I didn't mind Heaven Hill's Old Fitz BIB when it was around. Dusty wheaters are different story. I adore Stitzel-Weller's Old Fitzes. In any case, I'm approaching this tasting with an open mind. I'd like to like a current wheated bourbon.

Distiller: Heaven Hill
Brand: John F. Fitzgerald Larceny Very Special Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Type: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Region: Louisville, Kentucky
Maturation: New American oak
Age: ???
Mashbill: I've seen 68 corn / 20 wheat / 12 malted barley; and 75 corn / 20 wheat / 5 malted barley
Bottle Code: A0756

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
(Sample from my father-in-law's bottle)

NEAT
The nose leads with caramel, char and bargain maraschino cherries (Red 40 standing by). There's also plenty of corn and stewed fruits. With time, a dandelion note moves to the fore. The palate is pretty easy, no burn and no complexity. It's sweet, like icing and the aforementioned cherries. A little floral note. Some halvah, corn, wood and black pepper. A little more heat in the finish. Mild char and wood spice. It gets VERY sweet with time.

WITH WATER (~40%abv)
The nose gets very grassy, and picks up a slight barbecue note. Still full of corn and char. The palate gets grainier and the oak dissipates. There's a good sweetness to it and some tart citrus. It finishes leaner and more peppery. A little acidic and bitter.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
It's a very easy drink that improves with a little water. Not terrible on the rocks. Would probably serve decently in cocktails. Can't say I'd buy a bottle of it, but I wouldn't turn away a free pour. It's something you can drink and forget, thus it's an improvement over all of my Maker's experiences. I don't recommend it sipped in a Glencairn glass. Pour it in a tumbler, give it a splash of water and don't expect much.

Availability - Everywhere
Pricing - $20-$35
Rating - 78 (with water)

Awesome Whisky Event Alert: Blind Lady Tavern, April 11th!

UPDATE! This event has now sold out. No more tickets will be sold. Thank you!

After hosting whisky shindigs throughout Southern California for a few years, I'm back and ready to start up the whisky events again, this time in lovely downtown Columbus, Ohio. My co-host, Matt E., and I have put together an evening quite unlike other the other whisky events in town.

Join us at Blind Lady Tavern on Tuesday, April 11th, for whisky and dinner. Tear into some hush puppies and short rib. Oh yes, and dark chocolate brownies from MY OVEN. ALL CAPS.

And there will be whisky. Full one-ounce pours of four very different single malts. Three different types of casks. Everything at full strength. And maybe a surprise pour to celebrate selling this event out.

As you know, I am not a rep. I'm not here to sell whisky. I do these events to make sure you have a unique whisky experience, get some fun learnin' in and enjoy an awesome night.

There's very limited seating at this event, and we have just a few tickets left. If you're in the Columbus area and are feeling hungry and thirsty, take a look at the flyer below. If you have any questions, please email the address above OR drop me a line at this blog's email address, and we'll get back to you ASAP.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Bowmore 14 year old 1996 AD Rattray cask 2873, BevMo exclusive

Believe it or not, here's my second consecutive review of a whisky I actually owned. Yay!

Once upon a time, the big BevMo retail chain sold AD Rattray bottlings that were exclusive to their stores. And then suddenly...they stopped. Amongst those BevMo selected ADR single casks were at least two Bowmores. As I mentioned in Monday's post, I've found AD Rattray's Bowmores to be consistently great. So I was willing to drive 45 minutes towards the Inland Empire to buy the final bottle of this particular whisky. It had been sitting on the shelf for more than three years waiting for me.

Curiously, this whisky was distilled on the same exact day as Monday's Bowmore. And I didn't realize that until just now. Let's see how it compares...

Distillery: Bowmore

Independent Bottler: A.D. Rattray
Region: Islay, Scotland

Age: 14 years (March 27, 1996 - August 4, 2010)

Maturation: ex-bourbon cask
Cask number: 2873
Bottle count: 239
Exclusive to: BevMo

Alcohol by Volume: 54.8%
Chillfiltered? No
Colored? No
Sample from my bottle, somewhere around the bottom third

NEAT
I can immediately tell by the nose, this is a different creature. It's beachy: seashells, seaweed and sand. It's a little grassy with a soft but bright peat note. Rubber tires, anise and wet sheep. The palate is hardcore. Super nude. Dingy, dirty, ashy and brimming with herbal bitterness. A soft fruity sweetness lingers in the background, until some citrus leaps forward in latter sips. Some smaller notes of basil leaves and anise. Its simple finish is salty and sooty. Plenty of heat. Sweet fruit in the back. Gets bitterer with time.

WITH WATER (~46%abv)
The nose has moved from the beach to the horse stall: hay, manure and apples. Soft smoke. Anise and chlorine. The palate is super bitter. But good super bitter. By that I mean rooty and herbal. A bitter liqueur minus the liqueur. Lots of peat and salt. Its shorter finish is sooty and bitter, until a nice sweetness rolls in to balance things out.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
If you've had a bunch of indie Bowmores, you've likely come across some that feel as phenolic as the Kildalton distilleries' products, despite Bowmore's technically lower peat levels. This one comes across Ardbeggian at times (as in the unadorned versions of the Ten), or similar to the better versions of Kilchoman. While this cask lacks the balance and beauty of cask 960034, it gets serious points for framing well the Bowmore spirit without making it feel too raw or underaged. This was probably from a third-fill cask or a well-abused second-fill. If you have this bottle sitting in your whisky hoard—and why is this gathering dust after 6 years?—and you're a peathead, you'll dig this. If you enjoy a minimum of oak in your malt, this is your jam. If you're looking for grace, go to church.

Availability - Happy Hunting?
Pricing - I think I paid all of $60 for this. Oh, the days...
Rating - 88

Bowmore 18 year old 1996 AD Rattray cask 960034

While there probably is no perfectly safe bet in whisky, the casks that the Morrison family (of AD Rattray) have selected from Bowmore (a distillery they'd once owned) are very reliable. I have such confidence in Rattray's Bowmores that I bought this particular 375mL bottle blindly at a price I'm embarrassed to share. But because I am who I am, I immediately regretted spending stupid money on an unknown thing. Having long since opened and emptied this small bottle, I no longer regret my decision.

Distillery: Bowmore

Independent Bottler: A.D. Rattray
Region: Islay, Scotland

Age: 18 years (March 27, 1996 - April 9, 2014)

Maturation: hogshead
Cask number: 960034
Bottle count: 464

Alcohol by Volume: 59.1%
Chillfiltered? No
Colored? No
Sample from my bottle at the halfway point

NEAT
The nose starts off all beach scents and tropical fruit. Oranges, pineapples, honeydew, seaweed and whiff of band-aids. There's also this note of Mr. Sketch's blueberry scented marker that takes me on a sense memory trip back to the early '80s. The palate leads with melon rind, mint leaves and green tea. A moderate peat note dissolves into soil and grass. There are fresh peaches and an orange-y honey. Molasses chews. And a hint of tar. The finish has a great combo of lightly bitter melon rind and bitter lemon soda. Roasted peat and barley. Lots of lemon and lime juice in the aftertaste.

This is perfectly consumable at its high ABV, so I'm not going to add much water.

WITH WATER (~50%abv)
The nose is more focused on white fruits now, though there's still a papaya nectar thing going on. Wet grass and barbecue sauce. More of Mr. Sketch's blueberry marker. Hints of vanilla bean and lemon pastry. The palate is sweeter, with brown sugar and clementines. A touch of bitterness balances out those sweets. Gets a little more leafy, heightening the green tea note. Mmmmango. It finishes with peat, pears and honey.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Awesome stuff. Its quality and style are the exact opposite of the officially bottled Bowmore fluids. It's rich and complex. The big fruit notes on the nose are dynamite. The earth, fruit, honey and herbal palate characteristics sing in unison. It works with or without water. I highly recommended this whisky, if it's in your price range.

Availability - Happy Hunting!
Pricing - $90-$110 for a 375mL bottle
Rating - 91

Bourbon and Rye Day Friday: Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey (2015)

Bulleit is owned by Diageo, though sources its rye from MDP and bourbon from Four Roses. Diageo admits outright that its rye is from the Midwest Grain Products WonderFactory™. The bourbon source though remains a bit cloudy. It's either a mix of Four Roses recipes or there's another distillery's stuff in there. At some point in a few years, someone else's juice will indeed be in the mix now that the Four Roses contract has finished. For better informed speculation about all of this stuff, I recommend this post by Chuck Cowdery and its comment section.  Bulleit's original source, in the '90s, was Ancient Age. Their future source (they hope) will be their own distillery in Shelby, KY—which actually had its ribbon cut two weeks ago.

Yes, this is a Diageo product. And, yes, the whole "Frontier Whiskey" branding thing is dubious. But I've always found it to be a reliable whiskey. It was always $19.99 at Trader Joe's and its generous rye content made it a good ingredient for cocktails. Plus, I think every casual bourbon drinker I know has told me he or she loves the stuff. Thus my opinion on this bourbon matters even less than usual, but that never stopped me before.

Brand: Bulleit

Distillered at: Four Roses Distillery (probably)

Owner: Diageo

Type: straight bourbon whiskey

Age: allegedly 6 years, though take that with a byte of salt

Mashbill: 68% corn, 28% rye, 4% malted barley

Bottling Year: 2015

Alcohol by Volume: 45%
(Sample from my father-in-law's bottle)

The nose starts off with some serious rye notes, almost like Alberta Distillers' 100% stuff. But then comes some charred corn, musty oak and a small farmy note. Some earthy molasses, clay and hazelnuts. After 20+ minutes, there's some honey butter and a hint of vanilla. There's a very even delivery to the palate. It's not too sweet, with the corn syrup note staying in the background and the berry notes registering more like essence than sugar. The good rye buzz shows up here. A hint of wood smoke. Some good heat. It finishes with (honey) sweetness and (rye & wood) spice. A hint of fried plantains. A moderate warmth. Simple but problem-free.

Totally reliable stuff. Can't say I love it, but it carries the ball without fumbling. That's a terrible metaphor. Because its price is still very reasonable, I recommend this bourbon most for cocktails. It makes a decent Old Fashioned, Manhattan and Highball. I am curious to see what happens to its quality once there's no Four Roses bourbon in the bottle. I'll review it again then...

Availability - Everywhere
Pricing - $20-$35
Rating - 83 (though a couple points better when in cocktails)

Ben Nevis 17 year old 1996 The Maltman, Fino sherry cask

I was going to review only two Ben Nevises this week, but I was bummed out by yesterday's whisky. It was as if a reliable buddy had let me down. I'm so spiritually shattered.

I'm going to try another indie Fino sherry cask Ben Nevis of a similar age from a similar time period. Will this help me rebound from my despair, or will it endanger further emotional deterioration?

Distillery: Ben Nevis
Region: Highlands (Western)

Independent Bottler: Meadowside Blending
Range: The Maltman

Age: 17 years old
Distilled: 1996

Maturation: Fino sherry butt

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chill-filtered? No
Caramel colored? No
(Thanks to Saint Brett for the sample!)

NEAT
The color is light gold, darker than the Càrn Mòr, but definitely refill. On the nose, ah there it is, some dunnage mold. Buttery and nutty. Almond liqueur. Lots of toasted almonds, actually. Grenadine and a floral-citrus thing. A definite pinot noir note too. The palate's delivery registers aggressively peppery and acidic, sharp and austere (that fulfills my once-a-week quota). Once that fades, and it does take a while, there's some candy sweetness, fabric, earth, salt and grain. The finish is sweeter than the palate. Has some salt, slight sulphur and smoke. Marzipan.

WITH WATER (~40%abv)
The nose has lots of nutty sherry and a little bit of malt. A good orange peel note and a hint of aromatic wood smoke. The palate has gotten more mossy, but remains very peppery and closed. Moments of sweet stewed fruits in the background. Dried berries and toasted oak in the finish but still lots of straightforward pepper.

Gonna try a little more water.

WITH WATER (~33%abv)
The dunnage note returns in the nose. Some sugary barbecue sauce and a sulphur-like smoke. The palate is dry, with hints of moss, berries and granulated sugar. The finish is identical to the palate.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Well, it's a full step up from the Càrn Mòr. The nose is quite dandy at times as it bumps around the nuts and fruits and mold. But once the palate fully opens up it almost feels like a high-malt blend (with Ben Nevis, of course).  It lurks around category 3 with some of category 1's fruits, and the cask wasn't totally devoid of life. But I don't really recommend it, especially considering its nonsensical price. At half its cost, it would become a "maybe". The Montgomerie's bottling beats the two Fino casks by a solid measure.

Availability - about a dozen or so US specialty retailers
Pricing - $135-$155 (yeesh)
Rating - 84

Ben Nevis 16 year old 1998 Càrn Mòr, Fino sherry cask

To say I've been underwhelmed by the other three Càrn Mòr's single malts I've tried would be an understatement. While I greatly enjoy refill cask whisky, some casks are too "refill". Dead wood often results in flat, spirity, sour poorly developed whisky. And all three previous Càrn Mòr's I've tried were from some dead-ass casks.

So I swore off even trying any future Càrn Mòr single malts, until I saw that they released a Ben Nevis......in a fino sherry cask! Can't go wrong with Ben Nevis in a sherry cask right? And in a Fino, no less. That's why I picked up this bottle for my OC Scotch Club going-away event, last July. When would be the next time any of us would see a teenage Nevis in Fino?

Distillery: Ben Nevis
Region: Highlands (Western)

Independent Bottler: Càrn Mòr
Range: Strictly Limited

Age: 16 years old – 1998 to 2015

Maturation: Fino sherry cask
Bottles: 733

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chill-filtered? No
Caramel colored? No
Sample from an bottle I chose for an OC Scotch Club event.

NEAT
As you may be able to glean from the photo above, the color is a very light amber. The nose starts floral (blossoms, not smoke) then adds in a tiny bit of prunes and black raisins. Dark chocolate, citronella and tangerines. Though this all sounds nice, it's barely there, all very faint. About 20 minutes in, its fades into an indistinct malt. The palate has quiet notes of prunes and dried cherries. Has a light orange candy sweetness. Some smoky chocolate. A strong pepperiness that might be sulphur-related. Gets maltier with time. The finish has black raisins, milk chocolate and a low malty rumble. Warm and tingly. Slightly acidic.

WITH WATER (~40%abv)
The nose gets younger. Barley and yeast. Chalky. Hints of black raisins and sulphur. The palate perks up a little with dried cherries and blackberry fruit leather. Its ethyl sting actually increases. There's almost no finish. A whiff of raisins. Bitterness, heat and acid.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
There goes Monday's theory about the three types of Ben Nevii, as this doesn't really fit into any of those categories. It's the least Ben Nevis Ben Nevis I've ever had. Though there are some quiet sherry-like dried fruits, there is very little of Fino's dryness. I'm sure Fino casks must be expensive, so I wonder if Càrn Mòr found a third-fill one for a good deal and/or re-racked a couple flat ex-bourbon hoggies worth of Nevis into it. Too bad none of the spirit's gonzo flair or dynamic richness found its way through.

It's not a bad whisky, in fact it's very drinkable. The nose is better neat. The palate improves a little with water, but then the finish blanks out. Since it's not chillfiltered there's a decent oiliness to the whisky. Also, it's not as if the spirit was overwhelmed by the wine. And now I'm running out of nice things to say.

Availability - a few European specialty retailers
Pricing - $70-$90 (w/o shipping)
Rating - 81