2021 Holiday Shopping List, the Bourbons: the Heaven Hill Barrel Proof duo

‘Tis the season of giving, so we’re going 2-for-1 today. Which is fitting, because when these two are good, they have so very, very much to give. I’m including them together simply because they occupy a similar headspace in my mind palace, although I think I champion Larceny Barrel Proof a little stronger than most. Sadly both have been increasingly rarer to see on shelves/at MSRP over the last two years, at least in my region. At this point I think we must conclude the secret is out and all the hard luck Stagg hunters are swallowing their Sazerac fandom to start hoarding the goods flowing out of Bardstown. Which I can’t blame them for doing, because when you find a dynamite batch of these, there’s very little that can compete with it.

With all due respect to Old Fitz and the Weller infinity gauntlet, I think it’s between Larceny Barrel Proof and Makers Cask Strength/Private Selection as the best wheated bourbons I’ve ever had this side of Pappy 15. And while I’ve had a few adventurously funky Makers stave finished bottles, I’m consistently entertained by how iconoclastic Larceny BP drinks. It is most definitely the rebel wild child of Kentucky wheated bourbon — sure there’s the caramel-soaked brown sugar, but instead of plodding through the same played out wheater notes of grass and sugar, Larceny BP launches into undiscovered country with bold flourishes of leather, oak, and spice. It’s a drinking man’s wheater. And it’s all yours for $55 SRP.

With the small caveat that I didn’t find ECBP B521 to live up to the insanely magnificent run of the three batches that preceded it, I still ardently contend that Elijah Craig Barrel Proof remains one of the best bourbon labels in the world today. Bourbon drinkers hunt ECBP the way collectors hunt the Polish release of Blanton’s so they can finish their map of the Warsaw Pact they made with the other bottles. And why? Because it’s 12 year old, uncut bourbon bliss at $70 a pop that, every now and then, the working man has a chance of finding and buying.

These are the bottles you want to buy for the friend, relative, or loved one who actually opens their allocated bottles (even better if they have a habit of sharing the big guns). These are bourbon *drinker’s* bourbons — they won’t win any Instagram polls, but bourbon fans are going to be over the moon to replace that ECBP they just finished. Or you know, buy them for you. Because that way you know they’ll be appreciated.

Image courtesy of Jon who also writes on Low Class & High Proof.

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