Four Roses Small Batch Select Bourbon

Vanilla Carmel. Long finish—pepper.

Let me say that I am tasting the 2019 batch out of Georgia. Not sure if that makes a difference or not but I'm not that impressed. Things have gotten better with the bottle since it's opened up and believe me it's needed going on 3 months to open up. Plus you need to let it open up in the glass before enjoying as well. I've had samplings of the standard single barrel and while strong it wasn't an overpowering solvent smell. The select however is exactly that. It's all alcohol and acetone on the nose. While not as punch in the face as it was 3 months ago it's still the first note you get from the nose. Once that unpleasantness is gone some vanilla, apricot, caramel and a hint of cherry come up in the glass along with some ethyl alcohol. Palate is much better opened up it's still quite hot and alcohol forward but baking spices, cinnamon, the apricot, caramel and vanilla cream are allowed to come through with possible cherry hiding. Finish is actually the best thing regardless of time of drinking. No bitterness, no heavy oak, just lingering spice and the vanilla cream ending in cooling mint that leaves the mouth feeling mouthwash fresh. If they could tone down the acetone/solvent issue and the punch in the face overwhelming ethyl alcohol notes especially when opening a fresh bottle this would be a much higher score. Time will tell.

The scent has that iconic light vanilla sweetness Four Roses is known for, but with more of an ethanol bite, although not enough to steer you away. Out of the Four Roses products, small batch has always been my favorite, mostly for the mash bill choices. This entry, however, uses basically the opposite mash bills as the regular small batch. I can't speak to exactly how well the chosen 6 mash bills blend with each other, but I'm certainly not able to piece together the tasting notes from all 6 separate bourbons. There's a typical rye spice up front, but a powerful barrel/oak sweetness quickly takes over, and is actually impressive, especially given the increased proof. The finish is a slight return of the spice, but is overall quick and only lingers a bit with the before sweetness and a tiny bit of smoke.