Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Strength #9 Review
Four ROSES BARREL STRENGTH SiB OESK
Selected past G&L, CA (2017)Mash BILL – 75% corn, 20% rye, 5% barley
PROOF – 110
Historic period – 10 years
DISTILLERY – 4 Roses
Toll – $70
Purchase Again? – I can't, they're all gone. Only future well-aged OESK SiBs? Yep, then long as the price doesn't go along to climb…
Though I put out some cursory notes on this bottle already in the context of a post on oaky bourbons, I thought it deserved its own post. It'due south just so dang interesting. I'm kind of obsessed with it.
Four Roses invites obsession. The ten recipes they piece of work with, derived from two high-rye brew bills and five yeast strains, yield endless blending possibilities. Released singularly in these barrel strength shop picks, consumers can try each recipe on its own merits and at ages varying from 8 to even 12 years or so. Proofs besides range from around 100 to 125, depending on where the barrel was shelved. Diehard Four Roses fans will fifty-fifty hunt down single barrels that lucifer the blending specs advertised for their favorite of the annual Express Edition Pocket-size Batch releases, and then effort to recreate the blend at home!
This 2017 Yard&50 pick of the OESK recipe had been waiting patiently on my shelf for a bit over 2 years while I've been slowly making my mode through a serial of Four Roses Single Barrel releases, always opening a new bottle equally the last draws toward its finish. The two bottles I accept open at whatever given time vary by only one of the recipe's elements, whether the mash bill or yeast strain. I was less strict near matching age. It's been an extended experiment in comparison the recipes over time while my palate itself continues to develop. This OESK is the seventh of xi bottles in my electric current line-up:
THESE ARE DONE ☟
OESO, 10 years 11 months, 105 proof, picked past Plumpjack Wines & Spirits
OESV, ix years 11 months, 107.4 proof, picked by Plumpjack Wines & Spirits
OBSV, eight years viii months, 121.half dozen proof, picked by One thousand&L
OBSO, 11 years, 110.2 proof, picked by Ledger'south Liquors
OBSV, 10 years x months, 127.2 proof, picked by Thousand&L
OBSK, ten years 9 months, 120 proof, picked by Bounty Hunter
HERE We ARE ☟
OESK, 10 years, 110 proof, picked by K&L
AND THESE ARE Side by side ☟
OESV, ten years, 122.half-dozen proof, picked by Thousand&L
OESK, 14 years, 113.iv proof, Elliott's Select 2016 Limited Edition
OBSK, 8 years two months, 122.viii proof, picked by K&L
OBSO, viii years xi months, 109.half-dozen proof, picked by Bitters & Bottles
Here are some notes in brief, taken from tasting it in both a Glencairn and simple brandy drinking glass, about a month subsequently uncorking and nearing halfway through the bottle:
Color – a burnt yellow-orange, similar wheat in sunset light.
Olfactory organ – dusty oak, meaty orange peel, caramel, cinnamon, clove, brown carbohydrate
TASTE – oak and caramel side past side, the meaty orange peel now grilled, honey, freshly toasted wheat bread
Finish – warm and tingly, butter, caramel, oak, with oak tannins that outlast the sweets and fruits…
OVERALL – a very pleasing mix of oak, caramels, cinnamons, and fruits, united by toasted and grilled qualities
I recollect I'll never get tired of 4 Roses. Information technology's not what I reach for every day. Simply whenever I practise achieve for it I'one thousand inevitably rewarded by Iv Roses' characteristically dense, textural, nicely blended flavors of oak, caramel, fruits, and cinnamons. In the case of this OESK the fruits are steeped in oranges. That's a development since the uncorking. Looking back at my notes from and then, I'd initially noticed blood-red berries. Other bottles have featured cherries, boozy stewed apricots, even roasted peaches. Chocolate and vanilla turn up a lot. Heat rises and falls co-ordinate to the rye quotient and varying proofs. At that place is a tremendous range to be experienced.
I wonder if Four Roses has never become a "daily sipper" for me because it's so thought provoking. The density and flexibility of flavor commands attention. A practiced Four Roses bourbon can end me, unfurling such thick layers of specific flavors that conversation halts and I'grand compelled to sort carefully through the olfactory organ, taste, and stop to figure out what all in the heck is going on there.
At a total x years quondam and a very manageable 110 proof, this OESK has experience, ease, personality, and patience. If it were a person I'd go to it for advice and likely come up away both informed and having had a practiced laugh to boot.
Though you lot can't likely find this specific barrel anymore, practise seek out 1 with like specs. It will inevitably differ from what I'1000 tasting here. But in my feel the combination of the OESK recipe, near a decade in the butt, and a 100 to 115 proof window is inevitably a winner, able to delight a range of palates and expectations. It volition be interesting plenty to compel aficionados, and welcoming enough to entice more casual drinkers.
And that'due south the bang-up matter about Iv Roses. Information technology's a true administrator for the sheer variety of what bourbon has to offering. In that location's something in Four Roses for everyone.
Thank you!
Appendix:
How to Read a 4 Roses Butt Strength Single Barrel Label
The ten recipes Four Roses Distillery uses create the puzzle of piecing together ane's own preferences within the infinite variety of what their butt strength single barrel program has to offer. Here's a quick dissection of the two pertinent labels.
This lilliputian strip is the standard Four Roses label referencing the exact barrel. It appears on the lower front end of whatsoever single butt bottle. Reading the label from left to correct:
55.0% — This bourbon was bottled at its natural barrel force of 55% ABV, or 110 Proof.
QS — The barrel was stored in Warehouse Q, on its due south side. Warehouses have their micro-climates. You might observe y'all like what tends to happen to bourbons stored in one warehouse versus some other, and even 1 side of the warehouse versus another.
51-1D — The barrel was stored on Rick 51 (a rick is a vertical stack of shelves, or, tiers) Tier one (Four Roses uses ricks built of six tiers), and was the 4th butt from the front—the letter of the alphabet D beingness 4th in the alphabet. The most pertinent attribute here is the tier. Tier ane is at floor level, for example, and tier vi is the meridian-most level. This matters considering rut rises, and temperature impacts evaporation during the aging procedure. The more than liquid evaporates, the more full-bodied the alcohol and flavors are in what remains. Given this One thousand&L bottle aged on the everyman level, Tier 1, it's no surprise that its proof is only 110. Barrels aged on higher, warmer tiers lose more than volume over fourth dimension and tend to come out at proofs closer to 120+.
And this label is the custom characterization generated for the shop that picked the barrel. Information technology's ever affixed to ane side of the bottle:
The store tin choose what to include on it. In this instance, 1000&L is the store in question and included their logo. They selected this barrel on October 18, 2017. That does not guarantee the barrel was also bottled on that day. But probable it was bottled one-time shortly thereafter.
The historic period of this barrel is listed at 10 years. Historic period is typically rounded to the lowest month. So this 10-twelvemonth barrel may literally be 10 years and 13 days, for example. Similarly, a barrel listed at an age of viii years three months might literally be eight years, iii months, and 4 days.
The mash bill recipe here is OESK. In the 4-letter recipe code, the O and South never change—O referring to the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, KY, and S to the whiskey existence directly (i.e. aged at least two years). The second letter refers to one of two mash bills: E (75% corn / 20% rye/ five% barley) or B (60% corn / 35% rye / 5% barley). The 4th letter refers to one of v yeast strains—F, Grand, O, Q, V—each providing their own impact on flavor. Four Roses attaches a tag to the neck of their single barrel bottles featuring this handy at-a-glance recipe guide, with very full general tasting notes:
Over time, by paying attention to the details offered on the Iv Roses labels, you lot tin can strop in on what amongst their recipes and crumbling factors you tend to enjoy most. This helps to make more than educated guesses when purchasing your next canteen. I accept found, for instance, that yeasts F and Q generally don't appeal to me as much as yeasts V and 1000, and that I find yeast O highly-seasoned but very ho-hum to open up later on uncorking. Equally for mash bills E versus B, I enjoy both for different reasons. Comparatively, brew bill Due east tends to be sweeter and B spicier. Which of them I choose depends on my mood.
Enjoy your adventures in the Four Roses garden!
Source: https://the-right-spirit.com/2020/04/17/four-roses-barrel-strength-single-barrel-oesk/
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