Four Roses 130th Small Batch
“They say love is blind....and marriage is an institution. Well I’m not ready for an institution for the blind just yet”
According to our sums, the 2018 Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch is the 12th iteration of their limited edition small batch offerings. It also coincides and celebrates the 130th Anniversary of the Four Roses brand. This annual September release (occasionally there are two each year) also ties in with Bourbon Heritage month which celebrates the unique history of the spirit. This series was first introduced in 2008 and was then known as the Four Roses Mariage Collection. Yes, we thought it was a spelling mistake but it’s French for marriage, of course!
There were just over 13,000 hand numbered bottles available on release and we were lucky enough to be able to grab one. Brent Elliott (personal friend of the Gents), Master Distiller of Four Roses, said he wanted to create something very special to celebrate the 130th Anniversary. He said that he focused on building around the unique fruit flavours in their F and V yeast strains and wanted to include a spicy older batch. Four different bourbons with two mashbills were used to achieve this, each with differing ages. For a really straightforward explanation of the Four Roses mashbills and what they bring to the bourbon we might as well point you to the source Four Roses recipes
A superb nose full of caramel, dark fruits, blackberries, dark chocolate, orange peel and cashew nuts. You can literally pick out a different note each time it is nosed. Butterscotch, cinnamon, pepper and oak on the palate with a long and lingering warming heat to finish.
There are not any particularly bad reviews of this 2018 limited edition, and we are not going to break the mould and declare anything too controversial. This is a damn fine whiskey, but it certainly took us longer than usual to feel the love for it. It just didn’t hit the mark on our initial introduction and we had to come back to it several months later and start again. Will we buy another Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch… of course we bloody will, but maybe not every one.
