The Rich-Tasting Wheated Bourbon Rival That's About 97% Cheaper Than Pappy Van Winkle

Pappy Van Winkle has a well-earned legacy that puts dollars on the tag — and a lot of them. The youngest of what's been referred to as "Face Pappys" (featuring the portrait of Julian Van Winkle Sr.) is the 15-year-old, which can cost as much as $2,199 per bottle. Those who want to experience decadent and hyped-up bourbons of a similar makeup need not spend thousands. A distant cousin of sorts, Heaven Hill Distillery's Larceny Barrel Proof is a wheated bourbon that shirks around 97% of that cost, and is usually priced somewhere between $50 and $70. The thing is, this more affordable option is far from being 97% less tasty. In fact, Larceny Barrel Proof has its own hype-train of dedicated fans who scramble to try each of the three batches released every year.

Pappy Van Winkle and Larceny Barrel Proof are both wheated Kentucky straight bourbon whiskeys, meaning wheat is chosen over rye as the secondary flavoring grain to lend character to the corn-lead spirit. Larceny Barrel Proof comprises 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley, and while Pappy's mash bill isn't openly confirmed, it's thought that there's a similar amount of wheat in play. For Larceny, the wheat manifests in a range of dessert-like notes, such as baking spice, vanilla, caramel, nuts, and fruit, layered with sweetness. Pappy shares some of these confectionary notes, but it's Larceny's lively representation of wheated bourbon that earned one of its batches the title of Whisky Advocate's "Whisky of the Year" in 2020.

The observant sipper may notice that each of the three batches released in either January, May, or September comes with a batch number. This comprises a letter (to indicate which of three batches), a single digit for the month, and two more for the year. Heaven Hill's award winning batch, for example, was B520, from the second batch "B", released in May 2020. So ... who cares? Well, because this Larceny range is barrel proof, whiskey is blended across casks between six and eight years old, but water isn't added to standardize the alcohol volume. That means that each batch has a unique proof-point, and also that there are variances in flavor between releases. This can also make the price slightly variable, too. In fact, the batch release system has meant that Larceny fans flurry around release dates and weigh up different expressions. 

Larceny Barrel Proof uses what Heaven Hill refers to as Old Fitzgerald Distillate (O.F.D.), a wheated bourbon recipe with a name inspired by John E. Fitzgerald (a larcenous U.S. treasury agent who held keys to bourbon rickhouses), and whose namesake brand was sold to Heaven Hill, after having once been produced by Julian Van Winkle Sr. at Stitzel-Weller Distillery. Pappy Van Winkle 15 bottles produced before 2009 contain Pappy's spirit remaining from the original Stitzel-Weller Distillery, and fetch prices as high as $4,999. There are also other alternatives to Pappy Van Winkle for those who don't want to spend several thousand dollars, whether they're wheated or single-barrel options that deliver big flavor.