High Crimes & Misdemeanors: Larceny Bourbon

Larceny is a new wheated bourbon from Heaven Hill. For years, Heaven Hill plodded along with the Old Fitzgerald line which ranges from decent to mediocre. Many whiskey lovers had given up hope in them putting any energy into a really good wheated bourbon. Then, in 2010, they surprised us all by releasing a wonderful ten year old wheated bourbon as part of the Parker's Heritage Collection series. Since then, we've all been wondering if they would expand their wheater line, and now they have.

Larceny has no age statement, but the distillery says it is aged from six to twelve years. It weighs in at 92 proof.


Larceny, 46% abv ($23)

The nose is very light with some fruit cocktail and cherry cough syrup. The palate is similarly light and sweet with bubblegum notes. The finish is fleeting.

Larceny is fine but not at all interesting. If you're looking for a light, sweet easy drinker, it might be for you, and it may be that it's targeting such folks (that is, Maker's Mark drinkers).

Craft Whiskey Wrap Up - Some Craft Whiskey Doesn't Suck

After a week of tasting craft whiskeys (and there will be more to come, though not immediately), I thought I'd record some general reflections. It's been two years since I wrote that Most Craft Whiskeys Suck, and two years is a lifetime in the very young craft movement.

As a whole, I think the quality of craft whiskey is improving (or at least there are more quality craft whiskeys out there than when I proclaimed them mostly sucky). Unlike some of the just plain bad whiskeys I had in earlier days, the Lost Spirits peated whiskeys and the McKenzie Rye tasted like high quality distillate. The problem is that they are still too young, or in the case of McKenzie, aged in small barrels which give them that raw, woody quality. Unlike some of the really bad craft whiskeys, though, those issues can be addressed, and Finger Lakes (the makers of McKenzie) have already laid down some spirit in large barrels.

Good whiskey takes time and there's just no way around that, but now we have some distilleries that are actually making good spirit, and hopefully in a few more years, they will have some decently aged whiskey that we can all enjoy.

Would I recommend buying one of these young whiskeys with potential. Certainly not. Yes, these whiskeys are promising, but I don't by bottles of promise, and certainly not at $40 or $50 a pop.

The bright spot here was the Balcones Brimstone, which is probably the only new craft whiskey I've tasted which I would actually recommend buying. It's also young, but it manages to coax out a lot of flavor and for some reason, possibly the heavy smoke, it doesn't have that new make taste (though even heavy peating couldn't cover up the new make taste in Lost Spirits' Leviathan).

I'm a thrill seeker, so as long as they make new whiskey, I'll continue to try it. For now, I'd say that I've replaced my bleak outlook about the craft whiskey movement with a bit of cautious optimism.

Ten Years at the LA County Fair

This year was my tenth consecutive year attending the LA County Fair. I first visited back in 2001, upon hearing of the deep fried Snickers bar, still one of my fair favorites. Over the years, I've become very strategic at navigating fair food, concentrating on a few old favorites (notably the aforementioned Snickers and Dr. Bob's excellent ice cream stand) while scouting for anything new that looks like it has potential. (All of my fair coverage can be found here.) This year, I came out with two new finds.

The best strategy at the fair is to look for stands that are connected to local restaurants. Why eat some generic corn dog when you could be eating a taco from King Taco or a shrimp po-boy from Harold & Belle's? This year's find was a stand from the famous East LA institution, Manuel's El Tepeyac. The fair stand, as with most stands, has a limited version of the regular menu, but it includes the Hollenbeck Burrito bursting with chili verde, beans, rice and guacamole and their famous taquitos, which are some of the best anywhere.

The next good find was from an unexpected source, Chicken Charlie's, that haven of deep fried crap (which may have been an actual menu item one year). I generally decry each year's deep fried novelty but then try it anyway because I'm a sucker for such things. This year, it was deep fried cookie dough. About the size of doughnut hole, the fried cookie dough balls were sweet and gooey with a chocolaty molten filling. The contrast of a sweet, gloppy filling with a fried exterior is exactly what you want out of a fried treat, and this one worked well.

The Fair has another week to go so you're not too late to catch some deep fried goodness.

Craft Whiskey Week - Balcones Brimstone

Balcones Distillery, in Waco, Texas, was opened in 2009 by Chip Tate. They make a number of whiskeys (and only whiskey), but their main emphasis has been on corn whiskey made with blue corn. Their corn whiskey is really more of a corn whiskey/bourbon hybrid. It is made with 100% Hopi blue corn but it is aged in charred oak barrels that have only been briefly used. Essentially, they are aging in new charred oak which gives their corn whiskey some strong bourbon characteristics with a corn whiskey mashbill. (For more detail on all the Balcones whiskeys see this excellent post by The Coopered Tot).

In 2011, Balcones introduced a new product, Brimstone. They took some of their corn whiskey and smoked the distillate (not the grain, as the Scots do with peat) using Texas scrub oak. They then aged the whiskey in 55 and 60 gallon barrels for less than two years.

I participated in a Balcones tasting earlier this year (courtesy of the distillery) and generally liked what I they had to offer. The Brimstone, though, was something quite unique.


Balcones Brimstone, 53% abv ($50)

The nose opens with a strong smell of burnt rubber, like when a semi slams on the brakes, followed by some bourbon, so like when a truck full of bourbon slams on the breaks, deep into the nose you acclimate to the smoke and there's an almost sherry like frutiness. The palate is both sweet, in that fruity way, and smoky. There's honey, some burnt orange rind, still a bit of rubber though not nearly as much as on the nose and lots of campfire. It modulates between sweet and smoky with other flavors poking up; there's smoked salmon, sea water, mezcal...the more you drink the more you taste. The finish is like Los Angeles in September, a strong smoky haze from a fire somewhere nearby.

This is a pretty remarkable whiskey, different from anything else on the market. It's really packed with flavor. The smoke in this is huge, but it's nothing like peat. When I first tried Brimstone, I wasn't sure about it, but after a few different tasting sessions, I've really come to enjoy and even crave its flavors.

The craft distillery movement is at its best when it offers something completely different, not just younger or more local, but a completely new flavor profile. That's one of the reasons I'm such a big fan of Charbay's hopped whiskeys; you just can't get that flavor anywhere else. The same is true of Balcones Brimstone. It's a new style of whiskey and one that I'd welcome more of.

Brimstone ranks as one of the few craft whiskeys I've tasted that I would actually pay the asking price for. Alright Balcones, you have my attention.

Craft Whiskey Week - Lost Spirits Seascape and Leviathan

A few years ago, I reviewed Obsello, a really nice absinthe made in Spain by expat American Bryan Davis (aka B. Alex). Davis sold his absinthe distillery and moved back to California to open Lost Spirits Distillery in Salinas.

Inspired by his first taste of Octomore, Bryan and his business partner Joanne, set out to make a peated American single malt. Using California barley and Canadian peat, they released their last two whiskeys last month: Seascape and Leviathan I.

Both whiskeys are cask strength, non-chill filtered, single cask bottlings that are aged in French oak late harvest Cabernet casks from a Napa winery. The difference is in peating level, with the Leviathan being peated to an Octomore-like 110 ppm and the Seascape being a somewhat more lightly peated 55 ppm, though that still puts it solidly in the Ardbeg/Lagavulin level. Given that they are cask strength, single barrel bottlings, the abv varies.


Lost Spirits Seascape, Cask 1, 53% abv ($45)

The nose on this is very new makey with some nice, mezcal like smokiness. The palate hits you right off with smoke, but not like a peated Scotch, more like inhaling the fumes from a camp fire with a little bit of sweet mint in the background. The finish is a day old ashtray. This stuff is way too young, but it's engaging and the smoky quality is nice. Nothing picks up new make like a bunch of peat.


Lost Spirits Leviathan I, Cask 2, 53% abv ($55)

The nose on the Leviathan has a new make quality similar to the Seascape, very malty, also with some smoky mezcal notes. On the palate I expected a peat assault, but it's more of that smoky mezcal. The finish has peat notes, but also lots of dark chocolate. The finish has barbecue ash. If I was blind tasting this, I most certainly would have guessed that it was a smoky mezcal.

Like lots of the better craft whiskeys out there, these show promise but are way too young tasting. Remember, most heavily peated Scotch ages at least five years. I'm guessing these are under a year. If you like smoky mezcal, you might enjoy these, but they are much closer to that (which is usually unaged) than a traditional peated whiskey.

Craft Whiskey Week - Bowen's Whiskey from Bakersfield

What with the massive explosion in craft distilleries, it's sort of surprising that Southern California hasn't seen much in the way of craft whiskey. After all, there are new distilleries in New York and Chicago and the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to the Canadian border has so many distilleries it's practically its own whiskey region. There is, however, not a single whiskey distillery in the city of Los Angeles, and only one in Los Angeles County (St. James Spirits in Irwindale, whose single malt I reviewed here).

For this reason, I get excited anytime a distillery opens south of Monterey, even if it's not exactly close. The latest southern California distillery is Bowen's Spirits in Bakersfield, named for owner Wade Bowen.

Bowen's is sort of a mysterious operation. They sent me a bottle but give very little information about what's inside. It's labeled "whiskey" but neither the label nor the website give any hint as to the grains used to make it. I asked what grains were used and how old it was and was told that the information was "proprietary." Well, let's see what it tastes like.


Bowen's Whiskey, 45% abv ($40)

On the nose this is very raw with wood chips, young wood, that Home Depot smell; you know what I mean. On the palate it has the same young wood notes with a bit of sweetness and a touch of mint; it tastes a bit diluted as well. The finish is minty, like mouthwash.

If I had to guess, I'd say this was a wheat whiskey aged in small barrels. It's got the mildness of wheat with the fresh wood of young whiskey in small barrels. The label features a campfire and describes the whiskey as "smokey" but I don't get smoke at all.

This is not a whiskey I'd recommend.

UPDATE: I'm told the Bowen's mashbill is 100% corn, so hey, what do I know?

Craft Whiskey Week - McKenzie Bourbon & Rye from Finger Lakes Distilling

The Finger Lakes Distilling Company is located in Seneca Falls New York. Founded in 2007 by two unrelated guys named McKenzie, Brian from New York and Tom from Alabama, it likely wasn't hard to come up with a name for their whiskeys: McKenzie. Finger Lakes makes bourbon, rye and an Irish style pure pot still whiskey under the McKeznie label as well as Glen Thunder Corn Whiskey and White Pike Whiskey, a white whiskey made from corn, spelt and malted wheat. As with many craft distillers, they also make a variety of other spirits, including vodka, gin, grappa, pear brandy and liqueurs.

Today, I'll be sampling their McKenzie Bourbon and Rye. Both are aged first in small barrels and then finished in wine barrels (the bourbon in chardonnay casks and the rye in sherry casks).


McKenzie Bourbon, 45.5%, Batch 7/2012 ($35)

The nose has young wood and licorice. The palate has that craft taste of young spirit aged in small barrels. There is a lot of raw wood but not too much else. The finish is slightly minty and just a little bitter.


McKenzie Rye, 45.5%, Batch 8/2012 ($46)

The nose on the rye is quite new makey, with some pine/fir type notes and lots of wood, like walking through the lumber aisle at Home Depot. The palate is sweet up front with some fruit. Rye spice comes in mid palate and into the finish, which is a nice sweet an spicy balance from the rye and sherry.


I liked the rye better than the bourbon, but both of these fit my stereotype of small barrel aged spirit. They taste very woody and very young (there is no age statement on the bottles, which should mean they are at least four years old, but I'd be surprised if that were the case, and knowing the TTB these days, who knows).

The rye, in particular, shows a lot of promise. You can tell it's really good distillate. It's one of the better small barrel whiskeys I've had, but I would love to taste it aged for six years in traditional sized casks. Hopefully, the McKenzies will consider it.