Review: Four Roses' New Single Barrel Collection Is A Must-Try For Fans Of The Brand

In 2024, Four Roses Single Barrel won the World Whiskies Award for Best Single Barrel Bourbon. Where to go from the top? Well, if you're this bottle, you spread the wealth around. Four Roses is, after all, famously blended from 10 recipes, and only one, OBSV, goes into the single-barrel bottles. The Kentucky-based bourbon has room to spread its wings with nine other recipes to showcase.

And son of a gun, that's just what they did, inviting New York-based whiskey writers down to Central Park's Tavern on the Green to taste the first three bottles in the new Single Barrel Collection: OESK, OBSF, and OESO. Here are my thoughts on what I tasted, along with a quick rundown of what the Single Barrel Collection is and where it stands in relation to the rest of the Four Roses family of straight bourbon whiskeys.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

The Single Barrel Collection is a chance for drinkers to taste each of the 10 recipes (two mash bills multiplied by five yeast strains) in the Four Roses core blend, unofficially known as Yellow Label, which have not been, for the most part, released to the world at large. You could previously only try some of these products as very scant limited-edition releases or part of the private barrel program, though not everybody has the time, budget, knowhow, or consumption capabilities to go pick out a barrel for themselves. Four Roses amended that by releasing a tasting sampler in 2023, which proved very popular, and swiftly sold out, but hasn't returned thus far. That release may also have been marking twain for the viability of this Single Barrel Collection, by proving just how much appetite is out there among fans of the bourbon blend, which has historically been considered a mighty good deal.

As with all Four Roses products, each release is a straight bourbon, meaning it's passed a few extra requirements meant to ensure quality of product under U.S. law and the auspices of the Tax and Trade Bureau. As single-barrel releases, these represent the best examples of what each recipe brings to the table. Both mash bills are considered high-rye, with Mash Bill B clocking in at 35% rye and 60% corn, and Mash Bill E comparatively lower with 20% rye atop 75% corn.

Good news! These bottles are available now and only cost $50 apiece, making them very affordable for anyone looking to pick up something a little more special. One thing you have to give Four Roses: it's a bourbon priced to sell, never produced to profiteer. However, these bottles could easily go for a lot more than $50, depending on where you live. The standard OBSV Single Barrel costs more than that (but check your Costco), and the world's had two decades to get its hand on a bottle of that bourbon.

Price creep is especially likely, considering that while every recipe will be released as part of the Single Barrel Collection, not all will come out at once, with three new bottles released each year. At the tasting event, Master Distiller Brent Elliott told us that Four Roses will just start rolling it over once all the recipes have been released, although excitingly, the distillery is also expanding its lineup to at least 20 recipes, though whether this will be more mash bills, more yeast strains, or both remains to be revealed. If nothing else, it opens up new possibilities for a Four Roses rye or single malt, or some other type of product that could become a core release, adding a — *gasp* — fifth rose or more to the lineup.

Alright, technically, this serving is the baseline, since OBSV has now spent 20 years as the single-barrel recipe, also weaving through the Small Batch Select and Yellow Label blends. And that's forgoing all the limited-edition small-batch releases that Four Roses' self-declared "flagship" is a component of. Regardless, it's great to try it again, so I know where it stands in relation to the adjustments the new bottles bring to the final product.

The nose is clean and bright, with maybe the most pure whiskey scent in the bunch, blossoming into the taste of citrus and melon and then exploding further into a touch of berry. There's a lot of tingle (it is a high-rye, after all) and then a very long, though not intense, oakiness.

Fruit and spice make this one the go-to for the classicists, although I think the real selling point would be the rare balance of oak making itself known without asserting itself as nutty or bitter. Man, it's good stuff, I'm probably going to pour myself one to celebrate turning in this article.

Our first minty, chocolatey, and nutty aroma (with the next two splitting it), OESK reverberates between fudge and a more bitter Dutch cocoa powder, bounces off of peanut brittle, and then pursues that saltiness into ... oyster? Look, all of these are just taste associations rather than any actual essence of the thing itself, so don't retch at finding a mollusk in your candy. Rather, appreciate how OESK can effortlessly maintain sweet, nutty in your nose, salty, and savory on your tongue. It's worth noting that Four Roses' much more informed tasting notes for this recipe come away with a different takeaway entirely. It underscores the importance of trying a whiskey on multiple occasions to get a true sense of it.

Even so, I'd call this perhaps the best of the bunch — it's certainly the most mellow in its heat, though also the most tart on its final flourish — but it's really hard to even say I have a favorite, let alone pick one. It's like having a favorite note on the musical scale. We're just getting to know these whiskeys and what each contributes to Four Roses blends. But if I'm buying for a group, have only one portrait of Ulysses S. Grant in my wallet, and want to ensure generalized satisfaction among everyone's tastes, this is what I'd confidently buy for them to enjoy.

Having had all three of this year's pours, and knowing my particular tastes, I would say my pick for my own shelf has a little more erratic personality. There's even more chocolate and peanut butter aroma in OBSF, despite using a different yeast and recipe from OESK. These two should have nothing in common, but ... here we are. And yes, I did everything to clear my palate with water in between, as well as trying again with our food tastings, as well as just going back and forth to see how these two differentiated. I'd describe it as "OESK but more so" in its scent, but it drinks very floral and spicy, with a moderate flare of heat fading to a very, very oaky finish while still on the pleasant side of such a thing.

If you like DuClaw beers, you'll probably want to pick OBSF, as its choco-nutty overtones glide right into lemon and raspberry. DuClaw might be my favorite brewer in the game, so OBSF is my subjective choice for its floral, fudgy, and fruity mélange. (At least Four Roses and I mainly agree on this one's profile).

And here's more mint — in fact, OESO is the mintiest out of two and a half of the bottles if I'm being honest, even though OESK is the truly minted product. There's also a bleachy lemon Pledge quality.

Taste-wise, OESO is very salty, before the mint returns with a pop. It, too, is tart. Adding some water, you'll find it dives into more tang, but this time atop a woody base, like herbal stems. This is the one to get if you like air fresheners, though I don't mean that in a backhanded way. It gives feisty and zesty vibes. Brent Elliott tells us that the E-strain yeast barrels tend toward very bright and fresh flavors. Even so, I'm not perceiving it as particularly fruity, as per the tasting notes. It's more citrusy, which is a fruit, but very much down a different direction.

I'd say this one comes back to being the second-most "whiskey"-tasting behind OBSV. It's good, but I wouldn't take it over the original champion.

Man, this is really going to mess with our ranking of every Four Roses release. Regardless, it's great news for bourbonados, a word I made up just now to describe enthusiasts of the brown spirit. With each recipe only reappearing every few years, and at special spring releases, prepare for market forces.

Now with that said, the demand has to be there. While whiskey enthusiasts might end up comparing and debating the qualities of each recipe over the next three years, a few clear favorites could emerge. And furthermore, none of this might be enough to affect the larger market of people who just enjoy a great, high-rye straight bourbon and see this as another premium single-barrel. In brief: Getting enough of these bottles to market might just create a small ecosystem of "something for everyone" and actually average out the demand for these higher-shelf expressions.

I enjoyed each of these, and while I don't think any of them is going to step into the ring with possibly the best whiskey of my life, they also cost less than half of 1% of that one's $12,500 price tag. For $50 each, it's going to be fun examining each recipe to find out how it makes Yellow Label a blast. Bringing unique characteristics, these entrants showcase what makes the base bourbon such a versatile pour in any situation. For more conservative experimentation, get OESK. For more funk, OBSF. Enjoy.