Heaven Hill Larceny

I had this at a bar in Atlanta somewhat recently and would echo your thoughts about Makers Mark. MM is cheaper and at least just as good if not better. So this whiskey seems a bit pointless to me.

@OdysseusUnbound thank you for your review.

I've had standard Larceny from about 4 different bottles over the last 4 or 5 years and I have never been very favourably impressed by it. The irony is that I love my bottle of Old Fitzgerald BIB, which is Heaven Hill wheated bourbon from 10 years ago. I might add that Heaven Hill's Parker's Heritage Collection 10 yo Wheated bourbon (also from 10 years ago) is one of the wonders of the world.

Sometimes I wonder what these big companies are doing with their batches of mass market products.

Another outlier observation is that Whisky Advocate Magazine recently named the cask strength version of Larceny their number ONE whiski.

My current #1 recommendation for wheated whiski is Old Elk Wheat Whiskey. Van Winkle is nice, of course, but getting some may be ridiculously difficult, expensive, or both.

@Victor I wonder if Old Elk will ever migrate into our neck of the woods….

@Victor I think I would also add in the Rebel Yell 10 year single barrel as a very good HH Wheated Bourbon and decently priced in the US as well as available in many markets.

@Astroke I’ll take your word for it. “Decently-priced” is not the Ontario reality. (Shocking, I know)

@Astroke I don't think that I have yet had the pleasure of tasting the Rebel Yell 10 yo SB, though I very much enjoyed my old bottle of Rebel Reserve. As you gentlemen well know, distribution of whiski brands is very uneven. Prices too.

@OdysseusUnbound I saw those, the Luxrow increase at the LCBO reached a ridiculous level with the Blood Oath 7 for $289.

@Astroke It’s further confirmation of how good a deal Wild Turkey’s offerings are……for now.

@OdysseusUnbound Yes, now if the LCBO would just get off it's collective ass and bring in Russell's Reserve single barrel Bourbon and Rye instead of not even knowing they exist, or caring.

@OdysseusUnbound I haven't seen that Rebel Yell 10yo for any less than $85USD on shelves despite it's MSRP of $60. It's out of stock on Lux Row website too.

@casualtorture the pattern remains the same. A consensus fan favourite will be bid up in price under current market conditions. It is tricky to get around this pattern. The way to beat the pattern is to identify high quality before the consensus forms, but to do that you have to take the rather large risk of being an early purchaser, relying solely on either intuition or luck to decide that you will risk your money on the purchase. Best case scenario is if you are able to get an early sample without having to buy a bottle and then have the nerve to trust your own judgment that the sample is outstanding enough to warrant bottle purchases.

But even here you can still be burned, as I have been burned on occasions. Excellent samples have sometimes been followed by me by immediate bottle purchases which came nowhere near to the quality of the sample I had just consumed. I had this happen to me with OB Mortlach 12 and with Exotico Reposado Tequila.

Live and learn. There are no guarantees in advance as to the quality of what is the bottle which you are about to purchase.