Four Roses Single Barrel

About the Four Roses Single Barrel

Four Roses Single Barrel is a single barrel bourbon from Four Roses in Kentucky. It is the flagship of the range, bottled at 50% ABV from one cask rather than a blend. Each barrel spends seven to nine years in wood before bottling. Because no two casks mature alike, every bottle differs slightly. That variation is the point here, not a flaw. Ten different recipes sit behind that simple label. The distillery dates to 1888 and distils in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Barrels then mature at Cox's Creek. Two mashbills and five proprietary yeast strains give the company ten distinct bourbon recipes. This bottling draws on only one of them, OBSV. Mash Bill B carries 35% rye and 60% corn, so spice leads. The V yeast strain layers in delicate fruit, apricot and pear especially. Master Distiller Brent Elliott hand-picks each cask. Dried spice and pear open the nose, with cocoa, vanilla and maple syrup behind them. The palate turns fruity, all ripe plum and cherry. Honey and soft wood spice sit underneath. At 50% ABV the sweet notes stay bright rather than heavy. The finish runs long and gentle instead of hot. Rye spice arrives last and keeps the whole thing from tipping into syrup. Nothing shouts, yet little stays hidden. The rest of the Four Roses lineup blends several recipes into each bottle. Four Roses Single Barrel does the opposite. It shows one recipe alone, unmixed with the other nine. That approach inspired the Single Barrel Collection, which rotates further recipes through the same 100 proof format. OBSV stays the permanent flagship. Pick this bottling if you want the high-rye recipe on its own, chosen barrel by barrel.