I’d like to thank the folks at Four Roses for providing this review sample to me with no strings attached.
If you’ve been reading for a while now, you’ll know that every year I travel to Bardstown, Kentucky to attend the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. For years, one of the highlights of my trip to the Festival had been my first taste of that year’s Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch at one of the events hosted by Four Roses during the Festival. Sadly, this will not happen this year. The Kentucky Bourbon Festival has been postponed and has gone virtual. While this means that many more people may be able to watch the educational content, I’m sad that I won’t get to hang out with the friends that I’ve made over the years.
However, that doesn’t mean that I do not get to taste this yearly release. As they did last year, Four Roses was kind enough the send my first taste to me ahead of the release of the product. And I thought that this would be a good way to kick off 2020’s Bourbon Month.
Here is what the company had to say about their new release:
Non-chill filtered and bottled at a 111.4 proof, the 2020 Limited Edition Small Batch features four different hand-selected batches aged 12 to 19 years. These batches represent four of the distillery’s 10 distinct Bourbon recipes – a 12-year-old Bourbon from the OBSV recipe, a 12-year-old OESV, a 16-year-old OESK, and a 19-year-old OBSK. “Each batch in this year’s limited edition bottling is an exceptional whiskey that could have stood on its own as a single barrel offering,” Elliott said. “But in this case the sum is even greater than the parts – as together these bring a perfect balance of bright, vibrant flavors and aromas from the 12 and 16-year-old barrels combined with the oak tones and aged expressions from the 19-year-old batch.”
This product will be heading out to retailers in late September and since there will be no events or camping out at the distillery in order to try to get a bottle, they are having an online lottery from August 25 until September 9, 2020. If you are feeling lucky (and will be able to get to the distillery to pick it up) you can enter at the Four Roses website.
2020 Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch
Purchase Info: This sample was graciously provided by Four Roses for review purposes. Suggested retail price is $150.
Details: 55.65% ABV. OBSV 12-year-old, OESV 12-year-old, OESK 16-year-old, OBSK 19-year-old
Nose: Sweet caramel, floral vanilla, cinnamon, cocoa, and oak.
Mouth: Sweet and spicy. Follows the nose with Caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, nutty cocoa, and oak but adds a fruity note and some nice heat.
Finish: Warm and long. Strong cinnamon, JuicyFruit Gum, vanilla, and oak.
Thoughts: This is one of the more "stereotypical bourbon" flavor profiles I've seen in one of their Limited Small Batch bourbons. I think a lot of people are going to really like this one. It isn’t the fruity/herbal profile I prefer from Four roses, but it is very good and has just enough of that JuicyFruit gum flavor that has kept me coming back to Four Roses over the years. I’m giving this is a high Like rating bordering on a Love. It’s very close but it doesn't quite get over the hump for me.
Curious how this compares to previous releases in the Limited Small Batch line? Stay tuned this month as we put 8 of them head to head to see which of the last 8 years was the best of the bunch! Thanks to Master Distiller Brent Elliot for convincing me that it was time to bring those guys off the shelf and open them up.
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