Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon (2016)

This is some excellent bourbon, especially once it has a little time to breathe. Initially, it presents as your average bourbon - buttery spoonbread, apple, spices, a little wood, a little leather on the nose. The palate, too, opened with green apple, baking spice, a hint of buttered skillet cornbread, and leather. Over time, the fruit dialed itself back and the spices cane more forward - with the usual cinnamon and nutmeg were clove, black pepper, and white pepper. There was a little bit of bite, but nothing too harsh. A damn fine bourbon; many thanks to @PBMichiganWolverine for sharing!

I’ve had a few of these LESBs lately—-2014, 2016, and 2017. One year ago, I’d have thought all of these are the same, makes no difference. I’d be dead wrong. Four Roses has a 4 letter nomenclature which indicates yeast strains used. It’s always in the format OxSy, where the first letter is usually an O, meaning location of distillery ( Lawrenceburg, KY). The x is either E or B. E = 75% corn, 20% rye, 5% malted barley. B= 60/35/5 corn/rye/barley. The E is probably sweeter. The next letter S means straight whiskey. The variable letter y is the yeast strain. Can be either V = Light Fruitiness, Light Vanilla, Caramel and Creamy K = Light Slight Spice, Light Caramel and Full Bodied O = Rich Fruitiness, Light Vanilla, Caramel and Full Bodied Q = Essences of Floral F = Essences of Herbal Aromas So there you have it. These four letters amount to 10 possible recipes. Anyway, this 2016 version was my hands down favorite out of the three I’ve tried. Quite rich, sweet but not overly, and complex. The prices of course are just plain silly...I think I’ve seen this one go,for $350. It’s really good, probably hands down my favorite bourbon,..but $350 is quite pricey. You can get most of the way there by getting one of the single barrel Four Roses ( which means just one of the recipe variants, like an OESK, for example), for $60-80. Or maybe 80% of the way ther with an Elijah Craig full proof for $60. Is it worth $350? Depends...for me, this was the best bourbon I’ve had, so yes. Maybe not for others, just very individualistic. Fortunately I didn’t pay a dime for this... got it as a gift for teaching someone how to do puts and calls