Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon Whiskey Review

Updated January 19, 2025

By Richard Thomas

Average Rating: B

While working up a feature on the 2025 release of a Single Barrel Collection by Four Roses, one containing four of the ten bourbon variants the distillery makes, I realized that our review for Four Roses Single Barrel was published in 2011 and last updated in 2016. It was therefore well overdue for some refreshing.

Once a popular and highly regarded Kentucky bourbon brand, Four Roses was acquired by the Canadian conglomerate Seagram in the 1940s. Seagram discontinued the Four Roses Bourbon in the US in the 1950s, keeping the brand in American under the label of a very downmarket, cheap blend while using the bourbon for export. The result was the degradation of the reputation of Four Roses over the latter half of the 20th Century. Mercifully, the collapse of Seagram led to the brand and distillery being acquired by the Japanese beer-maker Kirin. The result was a remarkable comeback coinciding with the years just before the Bourbon Boom took off in earnest. Four Roses Distillery is now respected again, and enjoys a devoted fan following.

Four Roses Single Barrel is not just a single barrel bourbon, but also represents an opportunity for consumers to get at just one of the ten formulations of bourbon made at the distillery. Four Roses famously has two mash bills–one in the traditional and one in the high rye style (see below for that recipe)–as well as five house yeast strains. Combinations therein yield ten separate variations in bourbon. They identify each of these variants with a lettercode, and in the case of the standard Single Barrel that is always OBSV. The B refers to the mash, and the V indicated the yeast strain.

Otherwise, individual barrels of OBSV are tapped for single barrel duty at seven to nine years of age, and bottled at 100 proof.

The Bourbon

Four Roses Single Barrel is made from a recipe of 60% corn, 35% rye and 5% malted barley. The bourbon has light, bright amber coloring

I found the nose leading with its earthy caramel and nougat, sweetened with boozy pears and another fruity note that sad between apricots and peaches. That aspect is undoubtedly a product of the V strain of yeast. Behind that, the high rye mash made its presence felt with cinnamon sticks and a shard of musty old wood. The flavor sat pretty firmly in benchmark bourbon territory, albeit leaning hard onto the spicy corner of that territory. In a 90 degree turn, the finish opened silky and sweet, but soon turned to lightly peppered wood as it lingered.

Addendum by Debbie Shocair

The aroma is one of deep caramel, honey and taffy. After breaking it with ½ tsp water, notes something like saltwater taffy became more prominent. The mouthfeel was along the top of the tongue. In terms of finish, it’s short and spicy, with notes of caramel, toasted wood, and cardamom. It’s lingering and pleasant.

The Price
The pricing on this bottle has gone up since we first covered it some 13 1/2 years ago, and has even gone up since we last covered it 8 years ago. The cheapest online retailers list it for $40 now, but $50 is far more common. That represents an increase of between $5 and $15 over more than a decade, which isn’t bad if you know what that actually means. Relatively speaking, this expression is quite a bargain anywhere in that price range.