Earthy sweet. Long finish. Tremendous

Spicy and bold. The rye spice is high given this is their lower rye mash bill. The age is also apparent. Very flavorful and spicy up front, but almost melts in your mouth with a smooth finish. Great.

Leathery nose. Vanilla, berry, smoke, cherry, looong lingering finish.

One pour. The nose - disappointing. Just too subtle. Sun dried oak, brown tobacco... that’s about it. Sun, wood and ethanol. The color is surprisingly light. For what it is worth this bottle probably ha 2-3oz left so excessive oxidation could be playing a role. Entry is soft and flavors start out with vanilla, butterscotch, slight oak astringency, pear, faint tobacco. Second sip just gets better with more caramel and floral notes. More cinnamon, more allspice. I would put this on par with other 4R limited editions I’ve tried. The astringency is its Achilles heel for me. I expect no flaws in this range of fine bottles. Barterhouse 20 territory, slightly better perhaps. Lovely, balanced. But does it meet expectations? Not really, but expectations are a *****.

This is a Four Roses Elliott’s Select from 2016 of which there were 8000 bottles produced and this one comes in at 120.2 proof from warehouse QN, barrel number 53-4C. I have heard a lot of good things about Four Roses, but don’t think I’ve been able to taste one of their single barrels from them before now. Here’s hoping this one lives up to the legend of these. The nose started off with a ton of ethanol burn when I opened my sample but then after a few minutes that alcohol blast calmed down and started to open up. On the nose the first note I get is a big blast of caramel covered pecan clusters, then came fruit notes of stewed cinnamon apples, peaches, vanilla ice cream, milk chocolate, finishing off with barrel spices, leather and old polished oak with a light ethanol burn. The taste is very viscous and mouth coating with those caramel pecan clusters wrapping around your tongue with milk chocolate and back to those fruits of stewed cinnamon apples, peaches, vanilla ice cream leading to leather, old polished oak and finally barrel spices with a medium ethanol burn before finishing off with a long caramel pecan hug, stewed cinnamon apples, peaches, milk chocolate, leather and old polished oak that lingers for minutes. Wow, this one was incredible!!! The flavors just flow harmoniously together with not one overpowering the other. At 14 years old and with that 120.2 proof, this is a something that was aged just right and bottled at the right proof to get all those great flavors and viscosity. After I finished my tasting notes I had it do a trial by fire against my other 5 star whiskeys I have in stock (Garrison Cowboy and Old Carter Batch 4) and it basically punched out their teeth and crushed their skulls. This one is a monster that I would like to have in my cabinet, but the secondary has gone nuts with the only place I found that had it wanting almost 800 pounds for a bottle. So I’ll be happy with my sample of this and look for a single barrel from Four Roses in the 120 proof range to add to my collection in the future.

High proof makes for a very nice high tier bourbon to impress an old guy. Good whiskey. Not much to add.