Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch 2017

Four Roses Small Batch is Four Roses’s almost-budget offering which combines a static set of four of their recipes. The Limited Edition version is a more expensive and less distributed offering which goes down the same path, combining a bunch of (presumably slightly more premium) barrels and recipes to produce an annual blend. Luckily for us in Europe, this is one of the premium Bourbon releases that actually gets distribution over here. This is 2017’s blend, and it consists of 15 year old OESK, 13 year old OESK and 12 year old OESV.

This is a blind review that was done in a set of 21 blind bourbon reviews, tasted in sets of 3 (on different days). None of the bourbons were revealed until all 21 were drunk.

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Distiller: Four Roses (Kirin)
ABV: 53.95%
Age: 12yo
Setting: Blind, in a trio with Old Forester 1920 and Four Roses SiB OESK

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Nose: Candied cherry sweetness, hazelnut spread, funky hay. A really nice rich leatheriness. I really like the funky complexity here, getting some mossy forest and wet earth with the hay. Great nose.
Palate: Pretty light on the palate (low proof?), drying oak with some cut grass notes.
Finish: Rich golden syrup, a dusty graininess, drying oak. Ends on a mildly astringent note.
Overall: I am really digging this. I hope this is a special bottle, because it tastes pretty special.
Guess: The drying and slightly astringent finish and funkiness on the nose hints at some age, and the overall profile (particularly the mossy forest note) makes me think Wild Turkey, and that fits with my feeling that this is a lower proof.
Rank: 7
Reveal: Damn, was I wrong on the guess. I realised at the end of the all these 21 blind tastings that I didn’t guess a single one as Four Roses, and that was interesting since two of them were. I also I thought that I could pick Four Roses blind, which adds insult to injury. I guess that only applies to the single recipe OBSV SiB. Regardless, a cracking bourbon that I am glad I own a bottle of.