Four Roses Single Barrel (Binny’s Barrel Pick) OBSQ

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• DISTILLERY – Four Roses
• REGION –  Lawrenceburg, KY
• AGE – 10 yrs & 7 months
• STRENGTH – 57.4% (114.8 Proof)
• MASH BILL – Contains the rye-forward “B” mashbill (60% Corn, 35% Rye, 5% Malted Barley) with the floral “Q” yeast strain.
• MSRP – $80 (At Binny’s)

GLANCE

A nice rich copper look to it, with medium viscosity.

NOSE

There is a strong smell of floral like, like rose syrup or some sort of floral perfume and herbal note. To make sure I wasn’t being influenced by the beautiful rose design on the bottle or the fact its called Four Roses, I did two tastings which were two weeks apart. Collectively with both tastings, on the nose along with floral notes I got brown sugar, newly baked cornbread and freshly baked sugar cookies.

TASTE

The mouthfeel was oily and packed a good punch. There was a lot going on here. Throughout my palate I was tasting nuttiness, pepper spice, baking spice, vanilla and floral syrup. Some oakiness or char notes. Towards the end I get chocolate vanilla ice cream with nutmeg spice. Even with 114.8 proof, it drinks like a low 90 proofer without compromising a lot on the flavors.

FINISH

The finish was of medium length that was mix of hot nutmeg/cinnamon spice and floral corn sweetness that lingers on.

CLOSING REMARKS

Four Roses is quite distinct from all the other bourbons available on the market. This was no exception. I decide to spend the extra and take the jump with this single barrel pick from Binny’s, as I had enjoyed the others from them. The nose and palate were a joy to experience. As it opened up there was more evident notes of floral, herbal which popped in and out along with the traditional sweet/spicy bourbon notes. According to the master distiller Brent Elliott, the yeast strain Q has a lot to do with this. As he states on their website:

The Q yeast strain’s expressed character is quite different from our other strains, and it is especially interesting how it evolves over time in the barrel. Historically, Q batches were only used at a low formulary percentage for “top notes” in Four Roses Bourbon. The delicate and fresh notes of honeysuckle, rose and lavender – which are very apparent on the nose at younger ages – contribute to the complexity and final character of Four Roses Bourbon.

However, once we started aging Q batches longer for our Private Selection Single Barrel Program, the taste changed, melding oak tones from the extra maturation with floral tones to create a candied and rich Bourbon with much more depth and complexity than expressed at younger ages.

– Master Distiller, Brent Elliott

It felt well balanced and a decent mouth feel. The two things I felt were lacking on this was it smelled and tasted light. Even with the high proof and almost 11 years aged, it didn’t drink creamy and felt a little too smooth like water in texture. This also prompted me to revisit it and see if I can tease any more flavors out of it. As Brent mentions the longer aging with Q strain resulted in melding of oak tones, I have to agree because the oakiness or char notes were subtle. Personally, I like to taste those flavors a bit in longer aged bourbons as it adds nice spice and complexity to the overall flavor profile. The second thing I felt that around this proof, the finish should have been longer and more complex. After experiencing all that spice, cornbread and floral sweetness on the tongue the finish is almost just corn sweetness with spice sprinkled. You have to let it really breathe and then I was able to extract a more complex spice profile. For $80 I am not sure if its a great value. It could be enjoyable if you like the Four Rose’s flavor profile and even though I do, it was pushing it a bit. Nevertheless its a fairly complex bourbon and you have to work to tease out all the flavors. I wouldn’t call this a daily sipper. It’s something you break out to go on an unique journey, and try to hone in on all the notes.

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