Four roses is just an all around great brand and the Four Roses Single Barrel bourbons are easily some of the most delicious and well priced bourbons around – and that’s just eh regular releases. Where things get even more exciting are with the store selections. Why are they so impressive? Because store selections come in at barrel proof and you can get recipes other than the OBSV, that’s why.
Your typical Four Roses Single Barrels are usually the OBSV recipe and get cut down to 50% before being bottled and shipped out, but the gold necked store bottlings have no water added and get delivered to the store, and then to your glass, at full cask strength which also means they will fluctuate a bit from bottle to bottle. For a great example of that take a look at the Four Roses Icons of Whiskey tasting we did at LAWS. Consisting of all cask strength bottles, and all 10 recipes, the ABV on the bottles ranged from 53.7% to 60.7% (107.4 proof to 121.4 proof). They’re truly as individual as you can get.
Four Roses Single Barrel – Flask Fine Wines ME 25-26 Info
Region: Kentucky, USA
Distiller: Four Roses
Mashbill: 60% corn, 35% rye, 5% malted barley (OBSK)
Cask: New charred oak
ABV: 54.9%
Cask Strength | Non-Chill Filtered | Natural Color
Warehouse: ME
Barrel: 25-26
Price: $70
Four Roses Single Barrel – Flask Fine Wines ME 25-26 Review
EYE
Ruddy caramel
NOSE
Big woody notes followed by nice sweet aromas of caramel, vanilla, spice, dark fruit, candied citrus rind, a light oily nuttiness and a pleasant butterscotch undertone.
PALATE
Oak, dark sweets, dark fruit, spice, pine needles and mint with a bit of vanilla kicking up at the end. Water brings out some deeper sweet nuances, but doesn’t fully round it out. With water or neat it feels a hair off-balance on the palate with the sweet notes hanging a bit heavy.
FINISH
Long and woody with notes of dark sweets, mint and a hint of soap.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Good balance, round full body and a gripping, but not overpoweringly so, warm feel.
OVERALL
This particular Four Roses Single Barrel is great, but the bit of soap on the finish and the slight off-balance on the palate are what kept it out of the 90s for me. Despite these nit-picking quibbles it’s still a pretty good bourbon. It’s only available at Flask Fine Wines here in LA so unless you live here you’re out of luck, but if reading this makes you curious check out your local bottle shops and see who’s carrying one. You might just find yourself a new favorite bottle of bourbon.
SCORE: 88/100