264. Larceny Barrel Proof A122 Review

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

But you know who likes to give back to their community is one of our sponsors, Jim. Chris Cruz from Cruz Customs Flags. He does custom flags out of bourbon barrels. Not only does that, he do that, but he's also using veterans to build those flags with. I've got one right behind me, Jim. I know you got one on your bar. Beautifully handcrafted, repurposing a bourbon barrel, not throwing it away, not making it into smoking chips, making a piece of Americana, right?

something that'll last probably quite a few years longer than a bourbon barrel would, right?

Not only that, but he's using veterans to build those pieces of art with. You know, you got to love that. But he's also giving back to his community at all times, helping veterans out like ourselves. He is really in tune to that. Go check his site out, uh, cruise customs, flags.com. You can buy his flags on their key holders. Jim's got some, uh, these neat little cups that are chart inside made out of oak that you can put a cocktail in.

They call those the whiskey grail, don't they?

Yeah, that is, it kind of reminds you, you know, when you think of a grail, but truly a whiskey grail right there. Go check those out at Cruz Customs Flags, purchased from this guy, veteran owned, veteran operated, making a veteran built product.

Hello everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. I'm our guy. This is the Bourbon Road. Today, Mike, we've got a bottle that I would say is on everybody's list.

Well, not everybody's. I mean, you really got to like weeded bourbon, right?

Yeah. There's just this, there are these bottles that are sought after, but they're not super rare. In other words, you can get them, right? You can get them. So it always puts a smile on somebody's face when they're walking through a liquor store and they look up and they see something like this on the shelf. It may not be super rare, But man, it's kind of a nice find when you do find it.

It was a find. You can imagine my surprise day. I'm at a liquor store, Paradise Spirits and Wine here in Shelbyville, Kentucky. And I spin around and I see this set in there, six of them. And I was like, I had to relook and make sure that it was the right thing. But what we're talking about listeners is the larceny. Kentucky straight bourbon barrel proof. This is the A122, meaning it is the first release of the year.

One would be January. Yep. 22 of the year, 2022. Yes, sir.

And then A would be the first release of the year. And usually there's four of these a year. This one comes in at 124.4 proof. Wow. So it's going to have some packing some heat. I'm sure it is packing some heat. I think I haven't opened this fresh crack. Now if you're asking about the mass bill about this, it's 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley. Some people like to say that this is the highest content of wheat, and Jim and I can guarantee you it's not. It's not. It's not.

But it's a respectable amount of wheat.

It is. The color on this is a dark amber. It is one of the darkest whiskeys you can get. We believe it's not age stated, but it's six to eight years old, we think. And the MSRP for this is $50, but I would doubt that you're going to find one for $50. I paid $65 for this. not even bat an eye. I think that's a respectable price to pay for it. So if you find one, I would surely snag it up. You find it in the fifties and sixties. It's probably not bad. I would not pay 70 or 80 or a hundred for it. It just, it's not going to happen.

Well, larceny, non-barrel proof, is a 94 bourbon, also roughly in that age range. It's also a weeded bourbon and it's available pretty much everywhere.

Now, if you're wondering why it is larceny, that was after John E. Fitzgerald. Now, he was a treasury agent at Heaven Hill, the story goes. I don't know if it was Heaven Hill at the time though, where he was the treasury agent at. But he was the guy that kept the keys to the bonded warehouses. And what he'd like to do is dip into those honey barrels, as they would call them, and take himself a little bourbon until he got caught. So a little history there. You might know the name of Old Fitzgerald, which is highly sought after bottled bond whiskey. That's him. And this was a kind of a What would you call that to him?

Tribute to him. Tribute to him. And like there's a big key on the front of the bottle.

Well, there's the key hole. And if you look through the bottle, you'll see the key inside. Right. Yeah. Kind of cool marketing design on there, but I'd be shocked if we don't like this.

I'd be shocked. I'd say there's a pretty good chance we're going to think it's okay. At least 50-50. Yeah. All right. Well, cheers. Cheers. Wow. Sorghum molasses.

Yeah, I could get that. I was thinking those chocolate covered cherries you'd buy back in the 80s or 90s.

Yeah, it's got some well-aged notes to it though. I'm picking up the kind of the leather tobacco kind of stuff off of it a little bit.

Yeah, that sorghum molasses though, that's spot on.

Molasses cookies, did you like molasses cookies?

Yeah, they're good. Maybe a little bit of ginger in this, maybe from ginger snap cookies.

There you go, I could go that direction.

That's got a beautiful nose on. I think we just kept getting stuff on. I get a little bit of spice in the nose. Maybe that's that ginger I'm whiffing.

It's a nice dark whiskey. And it's not like sizzling my nose hairs. No. Surprisingly. Yeah.

Now this thing's got some legs on it too, Jim, as you look at it in the glass. Well, heck, let's get to this thing. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, wow. Getting all spice. So definitely the cookies, the molasses cookies, the ginger snap cookies, bit of all spice.

If they made a brown sugar nutted Cheerios, this would be it right here. Honey nut Cheerios. That's what I was thinking.

Yeah, it's got a bite to it. It's a hot whiskey. It's not too hot. I mean, it's appropriately hot for 125 proof.

You gotta have your big boy grown woman pants on for this one. Most certainly. I'm getting that leather. I'm getting that tobacco in this. I mean, this thing is just layered up with flavors and stuff, but that molasses is there. That Kentucky hug is building and it sticks on your palate.

Yeah, it does. This is sticky. It's a little dripping too. You feel it coming down the sides of your tongue. Sells in on the back. I would say the finish on this is long. Oh, heck yeah. Heck yeah. I would agree with you.

Did your mom ever, when you were a kid, a little kid, she ever give you a hot toddy or anything for cold?

No, we never did get those, but older, when I got older, I'd have a few. This would be good for a hot toddy. Yeah, this, this would, this would definitely fix what ails you. No doubt about it. When they're talking about whiskey is good medicine. This is it.

Man, I, Jim, I mean, you've drank three whiskies this year that I would say was, we could say almost that they're competing for whiskey of the year. Um, we drank, um, the dueling grounds. One that me and you were both like, wow, the Lincoln Pinch bourbon. Yeah. Yeah. Surprised the heck out of us. It's a weeder. Really great. And then that Casson Key batch too. Yeah. Good Lord. And I would say this is going to be right up there.

Well, we'll consider it, but this is hot. This is a hot bourbon. It is a hot one. Yeah, it is. Got some great flavors to it. It's very layered. Got a lot of notes. Let's make sure we mentioned the fact that I think you already did tobacco, leather, definitely those extra age notes, those extra powerful notes that you get from a bourbon that spends some time in the barrel.

Yeah. You'd, you'd almost think this is over a 10 year, but we know it's not. Um, but it's just that delicious dark rich, that dark rich honey to it. Better be a grown man or grown woman to pick this bottle up. Not a bottle to play around with. I would really hate to see this mixed in anything. It would mix great in something, but this is definitely a couple of pours like we got right now and you're good.

Yeah. I mean, if you, if you had a old fashioned with this, it would, it would take you out. I mean, two ounces of this in an old fashioned. Oh my goodness. It'd probably be pretty delicious, though.

I think it would be delicious. But a great whiskey from Heaven Hill. You always got to respect what they're doing. I love when they put these these barrel proofs out. They're still attainable. If you see one in the store, don't pass it up. Don't pass up this one for sure.

Yeah, it's a double take, right? You're walking down the aisle, you don't expect to see anything like this, but you see it. Like I mentioned earlier, it's not some unicorn bottle that everybody's trying to get. It's just one of those bottles that's released. but four times during the year, right? So when they do come out, they're usually snapped up pretty quick. They're not, again, super unicorn bottles, but when you do happen upon one on the shelf, it's kind of like an Easter egg hunt. You're kind of happy.

I was kind of surprised that James put this out on the shelf. It's quite shocked because that's usually not what he does. You got to be a loyal customer to come in there and ask for something. But, uh, He put it out of shelf. They did say one per customer. I understood that. I like that he did that because you don't want somebody going there and being greedy and buying all six of them and reselling on that stuff. So. Maybe that's what he's trying to do. You know, if two guys come in there, me and you come in there, we each get a bottle of this. Um, that's the way I like to see it. I don't know. You never know. This may be on the roadie bar at one of our events. It could be possibly quite possibly you could see this, um, on the, on the shelf. Um, that'd be hard for me. This might be gone by then, but we might have to pick up another bottle of it just to have on the bar. Um, a great whiskey, man, I just can't believe how complex it is and it's sticking on my palate. You know, we're sitting here talking.

This is a thinking whiskey. I think you could definitely, this is a campfire whiskey, right? Most certainly. So you can sit out at the campfire and chat with your buddies and sipping on this and thinking about the layers and the things going on in the whiskey. I think it's a good whiskey. It's a good sipping whiskey. Another great review, Jim. Where can people find us on social media? You can find us on all the social medias, and we are at The Bourbon Road. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. Find us on TikTok. We are putting out some videos here now and again. Now and again. You can also find us on our private Facebook page called The Bourbon Roadies. Just get onto Facebook, search out The Bourbon Roadies and ask to join. Three questions. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? Of course you do. That's why you're listening to this podcast. And do you agree to play nice? Because once you're in the group, we expect you to be one of our friends, not one of our enemies.

Right, Mike? Heck yeah. We got three great moderators in there. Jason Drew and Adam, some great guys that try to keep our podcast clean. You know, no politics, no religion, no social issues. We stick straight to the whiskey inside that group. People putting out great photos in there and great stories. We love to hear those stories to your birthdays, your retirements. births of grandchildren, of children, even a death of a loved one, celebrating that life. We love when a roadie does that and tries to raise a glass to somebody that loved whiskey themselves.

Yeah. The only thing we ask is that you don't shame another roadie for what they're drinking. Let them choose what they like to drink and don't tell them, It's the wrong thing to be drinking. Yeah.

I had somebody the other day, Jim, tell me, I told him I used to drink 10 high and I was like, well, that's what I could afford. They were like, oh, that's gross. And I'm like, that's what I could afford. That's saying a lot. Maybe that's all one of our roadies can afford is something from that bottom shelf. And that's why we like to share these pours like this right here.

And every whiskey has some redeeming quality. It may not be flavor. It might be price. Most certainly.

Make sure you're paying attention to our podcast. Make sure you're listening. We've been pretty spot on about doing giveaways, Jim.

Yeah, it seems like, I don't know how many weeks in a row it is now. You've been keeping track for a while. 20 weeks straight, we've given away a bottle of whiskey. And that's not on the craft distillery Monday episodes, but every now and then we do sneak a giveaway in on a craft distillery episode. We do.

I got some giveaways coming, hint, hint, for some craft distilleries in the future events. Maybe even something for your dog. So pay attention. I might even have something for your dog. on one of our craft distillery Mondays. So make sure you're paying attention to those.

All right. So we do two shows every week. We do a short episode like today's. where today we're doing a Crafty Story Monday episode. We're reviewing Larseny Barrel Proof A112. I think Mike and I are both giving it a big thumbs up. Heck yeah. I love that long finish. A little hot, but at the same token, it's got a lot of notes. If you want to sit down with a whiskey that's complex, that you can tear apart and search out those different notes, this is a good one. It's got a lot of notes, and it's got a great finish, and it'll give you a little bit of a hug too. Evenings are still a little cold, so if you're out at the campfire, getting a little chilly in the evening still, probably not a bad one to have.

It's about that campfire time.

It is. It absolutely is. Well, we do also a long episode every Wednesday where we spend about two 30-minute halves getting into a subject, having a guest on the show, drinking through a number of expressions. That's our big show every week. It's on Wednesdays. We'd love to have you listen to both episodes. Not missing a one. Mike, what do they have to do to make sure they don't miss a single episode of the Bourbon Road?

Well, wherever you listen to us, whether Spotify, Apple, Amazon, YouTube. Alexa. Alexa. I didn't hear you don't have one. Upstairs. Upstairs. What we would need you to do is usually at the top of that page, you'll see a subscribe, a check sign, a plus sign, or a join. Make sure you hit that button. That'll let the app, that service, it'll tell you, hey, these two guys have an episode that's out right now. Then we need you to scroll on down. You know what I'm gonna say. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon wants you to give us a five star and some comments. If not, he's gonna come over to your house, dragging some of this larceny barrel proof with him and drink it all night long. By the end of the night, I would guarantee if they drink this all night long, Jim, they're going to be giving us some five stars. Probably have a headache. You're gonna be seeing stars. But seriously, those five star reviews, those comments, not only me and Jim like those, but it helps distilleries see that we're putting out great content, that our listeners love what we're putting out. It opens up those doors to those distilleries so we can get great guests on, so we can get great whiskey in our hands to do reviews like this of this larceny barrel proof. We'd really appreciate it.

Yeah. Well, we'd love to hear from you. Mike and I are very approachable. So hop onto our website, get to that Contact Us page, tell Mike and I what you think. If you've got an idea for a guest or a bottle that should be featured on the show, let us know. You can also send us an email. I'm jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's mike at the bourbonroad.com. But like we always say, probably the best way is to hit up our DMs on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief. And we'll see you down at the Bourbon Road.

You can do it