I’d like to thank Four Roses for providing this review sample with no strings attached.
I don’t get to write about Four Roses very often, even though I am a big fan of their products. The issue is that they’ve only got four products. And I’ve written about all of them multiple times. So when Fall Limited Bourbon Release Season approaches, I get very excited because it lets me let my inner fanboy out. Because I am an unashamed Four Roses Fanboy. Maybe less so now that these releases have reached the $200 price range and are basically only available via retailer lottery. But that’s primarily due to my short attention span and the fact that there is no use getting excited about something that 1) I won’t see and 2) I couldn’t really afford if I did. (That excitement level will shoot through the roof, should I ever win a lottery for this product…I might even splurge and purchase it.)
So, though I’ve been covering these for most of the last 12 years, let’s go over some of the basics.
What is the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch bourbon?
Every fall, Four Roses releases a bourbon that can showcase their ten bourbon “recipes.” They have two mash bills and five yeast strains, which gives them a huge advantage when it comes to blending bourbons (don’t let them hear you call it blending, though; they are still smarting over being forced to be a Blended Whiskey brand by corporate overlords for decades). They use all ten for their main bourbon, one recipe (OBSV) for the single barrel, four (OBSK, OBSO, OESK, and OESO) for the Small Batch, and six (OBSV, OBSK, OBSF, OESV, OESK, OESF) for Small Batch Select. The yearly Limited Edition Small Batch allows them to experiment with recipes and combinations that they don’t use in the main product line. In the past, releases have even used the Q yeast, one of my favorites but one many people do not prefer. They also tend to use much older product than their main-line bourbons.
Ok, you listed a lot of codes in that last explanation. What do they mean?
The codes are a legacy of being a part of the Seagram’s family before it disintegrated back at the turn of the millennium. Each of the codes corresponds to one combination of mash bill and yeast. Every code starts with O, which is the old Seagram’s designation for the current Four Roses Distillery (they had a lot of distilleries). The second letter designates which mash bill is being used. It will be a B if it uses the 35% rye mash bill or an E if it uses the 20% rye mash bill, the only two that Four Roses still uses. The third letter will always be an S because it stands for “Straight Whiskey” and is another legacy of Seagram’s having a lot of products in their portfolio. The final letter tells you which yeast strain is being used. V yeast tends to provide a delicate fruit note, K a slight spice, O rich fruit notes, Q tends to provide a floral note (that I love), and F tends to yield herbal notes.
Great. So, which are used in the Limited Edition Small Batch this year?
Great question. Brent Elliott used four batches of three different recipes this year. 40% of the product is a 14-year-old OESK, 35% is a 12-year-old OESV, 20% is a 16-year-old OESV, and the final 5% is a 25-year OBSV. All barrels used in this batch were from the bottom three levels of Four Roses’ single-story warehouses.
So is it any good?
Let’s find out.
Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, 2023
Purchase Info: This sample was provided for review purchases at no charge. The suggested retail price is $199.99.
Price per Drink (50 mL): $13.33
Nose: Vanilla, caramel, rose petals, spearmint, oak and cinnamon.
Mouth: Cinnamon spice, honey, floral spearmint, stone fruits, and oak.
Finish: Long and hot. Notes of cinnamon spice, nutmeg, rose petals, and oak.
Thoughts: I wanted not to like this. I wanted not to be tempted to enter lotteries for this. I wanted not to have to spend $200 on a single bottle of bourbon should I be one of the folks chosen to purchase a bottle. Guess what? I love this. Even graded on a $200 curve, I love this. I fully expected to say the opposite. That nothing is worth that price. But I'll be damned if I don't need to eat some crow, along with my preconceived notions. This is spicy and floral with just the right amount of oak. It's just absolutely delicious.
This is not just in the running for BourbonGuy Bourbon-of-the-Year; it’s leading the pack by a long margin. Hell, it’s the first one to get a heart in well over a year.
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