Four Roses – The Ten Recipe Tasting Experience.
Mike Rosen

Bourbon

August 1, 2023

To coincide with the celebration of Four Roses 135th anniversary, Four Roses released a limited-edition kit featuring the ten recipes that makeup Four Roses bourbons. This kit includes ten 50ml bottles of each recipe. Master Distiller Brent Elliott says, “This is the first time Four Roses has offered all ten recipes to the consumer, to be able to taste side by side, the differences between each one of the recipes. Each one of the recipes has been cut to 104 proof for parity during the tasting. All of these are pulled from the private barrel program, so the ages are all pretty similar”.

On the back of the box, there is a QR code that takes you to a site that gives each chapter a short video for each recipe. Here, Brent talks about the recipe, gives tasting notes, and discusses what the recipe is used for and which Four Roses bourbons they’re used in. I like the very casual and easy-going way Brent does this, explaining his take on each recipe while he’s tasting it. Even if you don’t have this kit, it’s interesting to see what the master distiller has to say about each recipe.

Distillery: Four Roses Distillery.

Proof: 104.

Age: 8 to 10 years.

5 Yeast strains:
V – Delicate Fruit
K – Slight Spice
O – Rich Fruit
Q – Floral Essence
F – Herbal Notes

O & S:
O – Indicates that it is from Four Roses Distillery, Lawrenceburg, KY (Old Prentice Distillery back in the Seagram days).
S – Indicates Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

2 Mash bills:
Low Rye E mash bill – 75% Corn/20% Rye/5% Malted Barley.
High Rye B mash bill – 60% Corn/35% Rye/5% Malted Barley.

Price: $130.00.

Tasting notes for OBSV

Taken: In an Aged & Ore half ounce tasting glass.

Nose

Very nice rye and herbal notes upfront. A touch of dill, clove, and green tea notes come to mind. Caramel with some apricot, pear, vanilla, and a touch of lemon citrus. There are also some nice floral notes and pecan. This is a very good and balanced example of an OBSV.

Palate

The nose moves onto the palate nicely with the same elevated rye and herbal notes but with more green tea and stone fruit. The oak is especially tasty, and the mouthfeel is very good. This profile is what you would expect from the nose being heavily influenced by rye spice and herbal notes but with the addition of some very good fruit and oak. The result is a very tasty balance with some complexity

Finish

Allspice lingers all over the palate with dill, green tea, and vanilla coming back around with a very nice balance of oak. The finish is pretty good and lasts longer than I expected.

Comments

The first Chapter of the tasting experience starts with OBSV. The OBSV recipe is what’s in the standard flagship Four Roses Single Barrel which is always bottled at 100 proof, aged 7 to 9 years, and one of the 6 recipes in Small Batch Select. I’ve always enjoyed the Four Roses standard 100 proof Single Barrel and I have a 10 year, 108 proof OBSV single barrel private selection. The OBSV sample that Four Roses chose for this tasting is a very good example of an OBSV. I found myself refilling my tasting glass until the sample was almost gone. It makes sense that Four Roses picked some very good barrels for this tasting experience.

I think this tasting experience is a great idea and very well done. I’m looking forward to trying them all over the next few weeks to compare and write notes. Plus, I get to sample recipes (like OESO) that I haven’t had the chance to try before. I appreciate that Four Roses chose to bottle these at 104 proof (same as Small Batch Select) and are aged from 8 to 10 years. Rather than opting to use younger barrels and going lower on the proof.

I’m going to have a lot of fun with this kit and to me its money well spent. If this is a success, I hope Four Roses will make The Ten Recipe Tasting Experience an annual release.

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