Four Roses - Single Barrel - Barrel Strength - OBSF (2021)
AVG: $100
Four Roses – Single Barrel – Barrel Strength – OBSF (2021)
Collection: OBSF “Store Pick” – Four Roses Gift Shop. Warehouse RS / Barrel 71-1M
Proof: 109.42
Age: 10 Years 6 Months
Distillery: Four Roses
Type: Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey / Store Pick
Mash: 60% Corn / 35% Rye / 5% Barley
Website: Four Roses
*Disclaimer: A score of 5 is the midpoint for my reviews. Above 5 I like it. Below 5 I didn’t for some reason. Most of my reviews are between 4-7. It takes something really really special to go above 7 or below 4. See the methodologies for rating at the end of the article
Nose: Mild Rye Spice, Lightly Charred Oak, Bubble Gum, Rose Pedal, and Walnut.
Taste/Palate: Mild heat & Medium Mouthfeel. Barrel Char hits first. Fruity and Floral hits on the midpalate. Tart Apple, Pear, Apricot, & Herbal Tea.
Finish: The heat picks up at the beginning of the finish, but quickly fades and leaves you with mature notes of Tobacco Leaf & Charred Oak. After a minute of your last sip you get mostly floral notes of Saffron.
Verdict: Highly Recommend. The last time I had complex profile flavors similar to this the juice it had to be barrel finished 3 separate times. Four Roses was able to bottle straight from the barrel without any finishing techniques. With this particular batch I wouldn’t 100% agree with the 4 roses flavor profile for OBSF (Mint, Fruity, Spicy, Full Body). I get more floral out of this bottle and I love it. There is a lot going on with this barrel and the Brent Elliot (Master Distiller) pick knocked it out of the park. *Note, each barrel is different and Four Roses flavor profile is a guide.
MSRP: BUY Price Ceiling: $125 since it’s distillers select (The most I’d pay for this bottle)
Distillers Description: “This 10 Year 6 Month old Bourbon was bottled exclusively for the Four Roses Gift Shops. This Bourbon has a nose of vibrant baking spice and clove. Flavors of rich Vanilla and candied fruit fade into a long finish of light mint and caramel. Enjoy!”
***I would trust the nose and palate of master distiller Brent Elliott over me. I’m sure this goes without saying. My take on this dram however was much different. If this bourbon tasted and smelled the way it’s described I can guarantee you I would not have liked it as much from what I got out of it based on my palate.
Head to Head:
OESK: This was more traditional with complex Bourbon Notes. If this was a choose one and only one for the end of time, I would choose this over the OBSF. Given that’s not the real life case I picked the OBSF over OESK which was a surprise to me given the Four Roses general tasting notes and Rye Mash Bills.
OBSF: To me the Rye seemed more tame in this dram vs the OESK that was reviewed even though it contained 15% more. It had a Floral complexity even though I was expecting herbal. The balance and uniqueness made this my choice of the 2 bottles, but both were fantastic and vaulted to the top 10% of ratings I’ve reviewed so far. Four Roses has 2 that caught my attention for 2 completely different reasons.
The Story: My local store was releasing their Four Roses Barrel Pick. People were lining up outside of the store at 5AM on release date. I like Four Roses, but not quite that much. Following that release my friend was doing the Kentucky Bourbon Trail over Thanksgiving and picked this bottle up for me. I didn’t know what Four Roses Formula it was, I just said grab it. Once he got it to me I looked at the Recipe and was like… Well let see how this hits me. It is what it is. If I were to rank Four Roses formulas based on their description and my palate OBSF would be the 7th draft on my picks. Needless to say I was surprised when I tried this and I didn’t get a lot of “spice” and “mint”. I get that Ryes and high Rye Bourbons have Mint essence to them, but I don’t want to be chewing on wintergreen when I’m drinking my whiskeys.
The Distillery’s Story: Check out the link to Four Rose’s Site above for their story. My summary…. Four Roses is a very “simple” distillery. They do very little and they do it VERY well. They don’t have 100 variations. They have 5 staple selections. They also have 10 different Formulas. On the Barrel Selections they can pick from these 10 different recipes. There are 2 different Mash Bills; One that has 20% Rye and the other has 35% Rye. With these 2 mash bills they have 5 different yeast strains that they marry with these mashes. The combination of 2 mashes and 5 yeast strains gives them 10 total recipes. More info in the graphs below. The last thing that I’d like to mention is that Four Roses only uses 1 story Rickhouses. This is almost unheard of. It’s likely cheaper and requires less land to build up and not out. Four Roses’ theory is their barrels are more consistent from one to another based on the one story design. I’m sure this is true given most higher aged bourbons are usually lower on the Rickhouses and if you want faster aging put it higher up in the heat and elements.
Methodologies for Rating:
1. Dump it down the drain or regift it to someone you don’t care for.
2. This doesn’t even belong in a mixed drink. Use in case of an emergency.
3. It’s really not for me, but I heard some people like it.
4. Its only good when I’ve had too many and it’s decent in a mixer.
5. Solid. It hit all of what’s expected.
6. Above average. Good to bring to an event and you wouldn’t expect any guff from it.
7. Buy two if you see it to make sure you have one on reserve.
8. Very Very good. Constantly a GREAT POUR.
9. Superb. If I were to drink this and only this from now on I’d be a happy person.
10. Perfection is impossible. But this really comes as close as you can possibly get.
Nose, Palate, and Finish I rank regardless of cost. Value (recent addition) is ranked based on taste vs price.
Reviewer: David S
