Four Roses Small Batch (revisited)...

Four Roses Small Batch (45.0%): I like to revisit some household favorites on the blog from time to time to see if my palate has changed or if they tweaked the recipe slightly... There are quite a few bottles I purchase frequently especially the ones I categorize as my daily pours but Four Roses Small Batch is definitely one of my oldest regulars. It was almost five years ago since posted my tasting notes about the Small Batch and it was also before I started to give scores in my reviews. Well, this bottle deserves a score, so I decided to make it happen today... I am sure that most of you are familiar with Four Roses' ten different recipes created by combining two different mash-bills and five different yeast strains in every permutation. Small Batch is using four of these ten recipes: OBSO, OBSK, OESO and OESK. If you are interested to figure out what actually the codes I listed above mean and if you want to reach all the info about the ten different recipes you can simply click this "link" to reach the related page on Four Roses' website. Although I strongly encourage you to do so I will jump ahead here and start with the tasting notes right away.

Color: Light amber, polished copper color with thick, oily and slow moving legs.

Nose: Warm pumpernickel bread, unsalted butter and fruit cake. Cinnamon, honey and cloves. Dusty old newspapers, pie crust and polished wood furniture. After adding a few drops of water and letting it air: Fruit bon bon candies, dried fruit pieces and crystalized ginger.

Palate: Although the nose was driven mostly by rye the palate opens up with corn notes: Peanut brittles, salted caramel bars and molasses. Oak, vanilla and ground cloves. The texture handles the water quite well... It still holds up and there are even some additional notes after: Chocolate mousse, dark chocolate and pipe tobacco.

Finish: Medium-long with rosemary honey, unsweetened peanut butter.

Overall: One of the best price/value bourbons out there, period... It's widely available, it's good in cocktails and it's good to sip by itself neat or with a couple of ice cubes. I don't know how anyone can ask more from this Bourbon... It's been a staple of our house bar for years and it looks like it will stay as one.

Price: $29

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