LEXINGTON, Ky. — What do distillers create when they play? How about the 2021 Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch?
"It's the most fun I have every year, for sure," said master distiller Brent Elliott, who was named the 2020 Master Distiller of the Year by Whisky Magazine. "It's a lot of fun, enjoy putting those batches together."
Elliott said that this year's version uses older barrels of bourbon made with the distillery's "Q" yeast strain, known for its floral notes.
"But once you get over 14 years old, you lose the thin high notes and it becomes more candy," Elliott said last week during an online tasting with journalists.
Combined with three other Four Roses variations, all 12 to 16 years old, the 2021 Limited Edition Small Batch leans into that a unique nose and palate.
"You don't get so much floral, but just enough candy flavor, that combined with the other batches gives it a unique berry-like candy flavor," he said.
But don't be expecting this to come off like a sweet "flavored whiskey" because at 114.2 proof it packs a punch.
"It's very robust, with a higher proof than any Small Batch Limited Edition we've had before," he said.
The result starts with semi-sweet fruit and ends with a complex finish of vanilla, cinnamon, leather, dark chocolate and oak.
About 14,500 bottles of the 2021 version will go on sale in late September in Kentucky and eventually around the country with a suggested retail price of $150.
The Four Roses visitors' center gift shop in Lawrenceburg will have it for sale. But to buy a bottle you'll have to enter an online lottery. If you're chosen, you'll be able to name your date to go pick it up.
Register online at FourRosesBourbon.com through Sept. 12.
Eventually the popular bourbon will be released nationally but good luck finding it on store shelves. The coveted release always goes fast.
Elliott said that creating the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch begins with about 15 to 20 batches of the distillery's bourbon expressions.
Four Roses is unique in that it uses two mashbill recipes, including one that is high rye, and five different yeast strains to create 10 different distillates. Elliott started with a base of 16-year-old OESV and 12-year-old OESK, brought in the 14-year-old OBSQ to adding the candied, berried fruit notes and topped it off with 16-year-old OBSV for spicy balance.
"Ultimately it's what I like, with consideration of what people would like," Elliott said. People liked the Small Batch Select, which is a permanent addition to the lineup launched in 2019, "so the limited editions are about exploring different avenues of what we can create as a company."
Elliott said the question he gets asked the most, probably once a day, is "when is Four Roses going to do a rye?" He said Monday that the expansion they completed in 2019 has given them room to think about what's next and releasing a rye is definitely on the table.
"I think it's a logical next step," Elliott said.
Four Roses also isn't quite done growing: Elliott said that this winter they plan to open a new 14,000-square-foot visitors' center, just up the hill from the one currently open Wednesday through Sunday.
