Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon: The Chuck Cowdery Blend

Last week, the first stop for Bourbon Boot Camp was Four Roses, where we participated in a blending exercise. It was one of the highlights of the trip.

In the world of whiskey, 'blending' is a term of art. That means it has a specific meaning that is somewhat contrary to the ordinary dictionary meaning. "To blend" simply means to combine or mix two or more different substances, but in whiskey it specifically means a mixture of two or more different types of whiskey (and even non-whiskey spirits). Therefore, a mixture of straight bourbons is still a straight bourbon, but a mixture of bourbon whiskey and rye whiskey, for example, is a blended whiskey.

This is an especially sensitive subject at Four Roses because of the brand's history. In its pre-Prohibition heyday, Four Roses was one of the most popular straight bourbons in the country. After Prohibition the brand's new owner, Seagram's, converted it to a blended whiskey. Looking at the British and Canadian practice Seagram's, a Canadian company, decided that straight whiskey was an anachronism. Blends were the future.

Boy, were they wrong.

Four Roses began as an all-whiskey blend, but quickly began its descent into cheapness, as did most American blends. American blends (Seagram's Seven, Kessler's, Philadelphia, and Imperial are some examples) compete primarily on price, so the typical American blended whiskey is as cheap as the law allows, just 20 percent whiskey and 80 percent vodka in most cases. Four Roses American Blended Whiskey sucked. Sales declined to next to nothing and the brand was pulled from the U.S. market.

Strangely, Seagrams continued to sell Four Roses as a straight bourbon outside the U.S., and it became the leading American whiskey in many markets. After Kirin Brewing bought the brand a decade ago, they began the process of re-introducing Four Roses Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey back into the U.S.

Although the blends were a bad idea, not everything Seagram's did was wrong. One Seagram's practice that Four Roses still uses is the making of ten different bourbon recipes. Those are the ten full bottles in the picture. Since they are all straight bourbon, we blended them together in only the dictionary sense of the word. The result was not a blended whiskey, it was a straight bourbon.

Except for Four Roses Single Barrel, which is entirely the OSBV recipe (second from the left), every Four Roses product is a blend of two or more of the ten recipes. That's what we bourbon boot campers were given the opportunity to do, create our own Four Roses (Very) Small Batch Bourbon.

After sampling all ten (did I mention it was 10:00 o'clock in the morning?), I decided to make a high-rye bourbon. Four Roses uses two different mash bills and the higher rye one is 35 percent rye. That gave me five bourbons to work with, differentiated by their yeast strain. I chose OBSF as the base for its mildness, then tweaked it with the more flavorful OBSV and OBSQ.

If you have those three bourbons at home, and I know a few of you do, Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon: The Chuck Cowdery Blend is 60 percent OBSF, 30 percent OBSV, and 10 percent OBSQ. All were five to six years old.

It is a fine, well-balanced bourbon, and rarer than Pappy Van.

Who Makes Bulleit Bourbon?

Although I have taken some shots at the marketing of Bulleit bourbon, I've always been a fan of the product itself. It's well-made and has a distinctive taste profile. Bulleit is not a typical bourbon. The reason, we've always been told, is that the mash contains more rye than any other bourbon on the market, in the neighborhood of 35 percent.

Although there was a previous version of Bulleit made at Buffalo Trace, the current iteration has long been a product of the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. When Seagram's acquired the brand, it also owned the distillery. However, when Seagram's was dismantled (2001-2002) the Bulleit brand went to Diageo while the distillery (and Four Roses brand) went to Kirin.

Then as now, Diageo had no functioning distilleries in Kentucky, so as part of the sale to Kirin it contracted for Kirin/Four Roses to supply its bourbon needs. Although that initially meant aged whiskey, it has evolved to mean new make (i.e., white dog), which Diageo barrels and ages at the old Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Shively, Kentucky, which Diageo still owns. From solid industry sources, I can tell you that Diageo also contracts with Brown-Forman, Constellation and Jim Beam for white dog.

The amounts are significant (on the order of six million proof gallons a year) and Diageo has many other needs for bourbon. It still sells I.W. Harper Bourbon in Japan and other places, though not so much in the United States. Bourbon whiskey is also the second-biggest component, after neutral spirits, in Seagram's Seven Crown American Blended Whiskey, other American blends, and even some Canadian blends. Diageo, a scotch company at heart, is much bigger in North American blends than it is in straights.

But Bulleit, because of its distinctive taste profile, was believed to be all from Four Roses, which sells about 40 percent of its output to Diageo.

So I was surprised when, in the context of an event coming up next week at the Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, a Kirin executive objected to the characterization of Bulleit as being made by Four Roses. His assertion was that since Four Roses supplies whiskey to Diageo, but can't be sure what Diageo does with it, and because it's known that Diageo gets whiskey from other sources they (Kirin/Four Roses) don't believe Bulleit is 100 percent Four Roses whiskey. Another source tells me that organoleptic testing confirms that Bulleit is not 100 percent Four Roses-made whiskey.

So I contacted Diageo, told them what I was hearing, and asked them where Bulleit is made. Here's their reply:

"Bulleit Bourbon continues to be wholly distilled at the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, KY according to exacting standards developed by Tom Bulleit and the Bulleit Distilling Company. Bulleit Bourbon’s bold flavor is the product of a unique recipe featuring a high proportion of the rye grain and the use of a proprietary yeast culture. As with all Kentucky straight Bourbons, Bulleit Bourbon is aged in charred barrels made from new American Oak and contains absolutely no additives whatsoever."

Who is telling the truth? Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps more interesting is why, now, is Kirin/Four Roses getting its back up about this? Is Diageo doing what Four Roses says and Four Roses is putting them on notice that if they want to continue to invoke the good name of that distillery, they better stop diluting Bulleit with whiskey made in other places? Or is something else at work here? I'm pretty much at a dead end because I take everyone at their word unless I have reliable evidence to the contrary.

The Rufus M. Rose House Is For Sale.

Then

The Rufus M. Rose House is for sale.

Once valued at more than a million dollars, it was recently foreclosed and the bank has it listed for $315,000. They’ll probably take less.

Its significance, for our purposes, is that Rufus Mathewson Rose founded the original Four Roses Distillery. That claim is not universally accepted, however, as the present owners of Four Roses Bourbon only acknowledge its history back to Paul Jones, who brought the name from Atlanta to Louisville in 1884.

The Jones family built Four Roses Bourbon into a major national brand. For reasons unknown, Jones and his successors never acknowledged the Rose family, although they did claim that the Four Roses name was in use in Georgia as early as the 1860s.

As the Rose family’s version is told, the original "Four Roses" were Rufus Rose (1836-1910), his brother and business partner, and their respective sons who were also in the business. Four guys named Rose, hence "Four Roses."

Not very sexy.

The R. M. Rose & Co. Distillery was located twelve miles northwest of downtown, on Stillhouse Road in Vinings, Georgia. The Roses sold their whiskey through a chain of Atlanta-area stores that also sold tobacco.

Since whiskey brands, as such, were only just coming into existence in the last few decades of the 19th century, it’s possible Jones acquired some kind of rights from the Roses but it was Jones, not they, who first registered Four Roses as a national trademark in 1888.

The “official” (per the City of Atlanta) history of the house says the Roses were still making Four Roses Whiskey as late as 1907, when Georgia went dry and they moved to Tennessee, after which their trail grows cold. That claim, obviously, is inconsistent with the Paul Jones Company timeline.

Now

The house is prominently located on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta and is one of the few single family homes left in that neighborhood. It has five bedrooms, three baths, and 5,700 sq. ft. It is right next door to a Gladys Knight Chicken and Waffles location. If you want to find the listing, search the street address: 537 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30308.

According to the Atlanta Preservation Center, the 1901 house was designed by Atlanta architect Emil Charles Seitz Sr., in the Queen Anne style. For more than 50 years (1945-1998), it was the home of the Atlanta Museum, a privately-owned museum established by James H. Elliott, Sr. to display his eclectic collection, which included furniture belonging to Margaret Mitchell and a Japanese Zero war plane. It was the headquarters of the Atlanta Preservation Center from 1999 through 2001. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated as an Atlanta Landmark Building.

The Atlanta Urban Design Commission calls it “the sole survivor in the central business district of [the] era of grand residential development and is an invaluable part of our cultural heritage. It conveys a sense of residential Peachtree at a time when streetcars, not automobiles, determined the patterns of residential development and its importance as such cannot be overstated.”

The previous owner’s restoration plans fell through and Central Atlanta Progress, a private nonprofit community development organization, estimates it will take about $500,000 to whip it into shape as an office building or restaurant.

A better idea would be for Four Roses to buy it, restore it to its original glory, and operate it as a tourist attraction, which would also tastefully promote Four Roses Bourbon.

If you drink Four Roses Bourbon and think this is a good idea you might want to suggest it to them. They’d love to hear from you.

Who Makes Bulleit Bourbon?

The first post here to bear that headline was made five and a half years ago. The issue then was not who--it was widely known that Four Roses was the maker--but whether or not Bulleit Bourbon was all Four Roses.

It was obvious Diageo was using Stitzel-Weller for maturation. Diageo confirmed that, but they wouldn't say what was in the warehouses or where it came from. (They still won't.) It was also widely known, though never confirmed by Diageo, that at least three other distilleries were selling it bourbon distillate, to the tune of millions of proof gallons per year.

Although Bulleit is Diageo's only straight bourbon sold in the USA, Diageo makes I. W. Harper and other bourbons for international sale, and uses straight bourbon in its many blends.

Rumors always swirl because Diageo is so tight-lipped about its program as a non-distiller producer (NDP) of bourbon. Maybe they think it looks bad for the world's largest whiskey maker to be an NDP when it comes to bourbon and rye.

In 2008, Diageo made a rare, definitive statement about who makes Bulleit Bourbon. "Bulleit Bourbon continues to be wholly distilled at the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, KY according to exacting standards developed by Tom Bulleit and the Bulleit Distilling Company. Bulleit Bourbon’s bold flavor is the product of a unique recipe featuring a high proportion of the rye grain and the use of a proprietary yeast culture. As with all Kentucky straight Bourbons, Bulleit Bourbon is aged in charred barrels made from new American Oak and contains absolutely no additives whatsoever."

The use of "distilled" strongly suggested maturation is done elsewhere, but that was widely assumed even though Diageo wouldn't confirm it. Nothing distilled at Four Roses is matured there because they don't have any rackhouses at the distillery. They are over at Cox's Creek, in Nelson County. Most people, however, believe Bulleit Bourbon is aged at Diageo's Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville.

In 2011, when Diageo released Bulleit Rye, it announced that the whiskey was distilled at MGP of Indiana. The next year Dickel Rye was released with the same disclosure.

The Bulleit Bourbon label says "Bulleit Distilling Company, Lawrenceburg, Kentucky." TTB requires the label to show the producer's name ('Bulleit' is an assumed business name, but that's okay), and an address consisting of a city and state. All it has to be is a place of business of some kind (an office, a warehouse, a post office box), but it has to be something.

So, when I started to hear a very specific rumor that Four Roses was cutting Diageo off soon, or already had, I went to the source and asked again, "who makes Bulleit Bourbon?" Many times since the 2008 statement, Diageo executives have confirmed its essential truth, which I expected to hear again.

Instead, I got this: "We don’t comment on speculation nor talk about the specifics of our relationships with various partners but I can tell you that we are committed to providing our consumers with the same high-quality whiskey that Tom Bulleit created years ago."

Because the guy I am dealing with now is new, I explained the history. "Diageo has said repeatedly that every drop of Bulleit Bourbon is made at Four Roses in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. That claim was conveyed on several occasions by (your predecessor). Unless you’ve changed the label recently, it uses Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, as the Bulleit Distilling Company’s official address. Is that previous declaration still true? Is the label still accurate?"

His reply: "The label remains accurate."

What he didn't say is what Diageo has always said before. Surely this means it isn't all made there. Is any of it still made there? The label still says Lawrenceburg but that doesn't mean much, as the whiskey in the bottle now was distilled in 2008 or before. What about the Bulleit we'll be drinking in 2019 and beyond? That's the whiskey being made today, but where?

Diageo isn't talking.

Although Diageo is once again promising to open 'The Bulleit Experience at Stitzel-Weller' to the public, it has never said why Bulleit's 'homeplace' should be located there. It is generally believed that Bulleit is aged there, but that has never been confirmed. They're now selling tickets to an event there during The Kentucky Bourbon Affair in May. Someone is bound to ask.

The folks at Four Roses can't say much beyond confirming that Diageo is a customer and has been ever since the breakup of Seagrams, in which Diageo got Bulleit and Pernod got Four Roses, the brand and distillery. That Four Roses would sell whiskey to Diageo going forward was part of the master agreement between Diageo and Pernod, which Kirin inherited when it bought Four Roses from Pernod.

All Four Roses knows beyond that is how many gallons Diageo bought in the past and how much they expect to buy during the current cycle.That's all confidential. Four Roses has no idea what Diageo does with the whiskey.

So "who makes Bulleit Bourbon?" is a mystery once again. It's not up to Four Roses to answer that question, even though visitors often ask them for directions to the Bulleit Distilling Company. It's up to Diageo.

The Bulleit Story

I wrote this up for another purpose but it seemed like a good thing to share here as well. I've posted all of this before, but perhaps not all in one place. At any rate, Bulleit continues to grow and remains a stand out product for Diageo, even with the success of Orphan Barrel and the recent American re-launch of I. W. Harper.

This is the Bulleit Bourbon story, as succinct as I can make it.

Bulleit was started by Tom Bulleit in 1995. He contracted Buffalo Trace to make it and mostly intended to sell it in Japan, where he was already doing business as an attorney. There were two expressions. The packaging was completely different from what it is now.

Some years later, Seagram's started working on a new bourbon. They wanted to do a frontier theme and they were looking at old apothecary bottles for the package design. They liked the name 'bullet' but knew that wouldn't fly, so they were developing a product called 'Bullitt,' after Bullitt County, Kentucky. (Pronounced like the ammunition.) Then somebody told them about Bulleit (also pronounced that way) so, like any big company would, they made Tommy an offer he couldn't refuse. Jim Rutledge, who worked for Seagram's at the time, suggested a particular combination of Four Roses recipes and that became Seagram's Bulleit Bourbon. Same name, same spokesperson, different company, different package, different whiskey.

In 2000, when Seagram's was broken up for parts, their whiskey brands including Bulleit went to Diageo except Four Roses, which went to Pernod along with the distillery. Diageo also hired most of the Seagram's North American Whiskey marketing team. The year before, Diageo had sold the Bernheim Distillery and all of its American whiskey brands except George Dickel and I. W. Harper.

As part of the Seagram's acquisition, Diageo and Pernod contracted for Four Roses to make whiskey for Diageo. That sort of deal is standard when brands go one way and the distillery where they were produced goes elsewhere. That contract remained in force when Pernod sold Four Roses to Kirin almost immediately.

The initial contract involved both aged whiskey and new make, changing to all new make over time. Diageo aged the new make at its Stitzel-Weller Distillery.

Four Roses was content to fill its contract but when Diageo wanted more bourbon they said no, they needed it for their own products, and when the contract finally ran out over a year ago, Four Roses didn't renew it.

Four Roses wasn't the only distillery making bourbon for Diageo. A few years ago, I was told that Brown-Forman, Barton and Jim Beam were each making about 2 million proof gallons of new make per year for Diageo. My source was impeccable. That whiskey was also aged at Stitzel-Weller.

At around that same time I received a report that Four Roses had conducted chemical tests and determined that Bulleit contained whiskey not made at Four Roses. At the time, Diageo was proudly promoting the fact that every drop of Bulleit Bourbon was made at Four Roses. The person who provided the report refused to go public.

A little over a year ago, I was able to confirm that Four Roses was no longer providing new make to Diageo. More recently, Brown-Forman informed me that they are no longer providing new make to Diageo or anyone else. I have been unable to nail down anything about Barton or Jim Beam.

Obviously, the bourbon in Bulleit bottles today is at least mostly Four Roses. That will be the case for a few more years. Diageo has a problem with Bulleit that most non-distiller producers (NDPs) don't face, the product's recipe. Bulleit contains almost twice as much rye as a standard bourbon and that's a difference you can taste. Diageo can't sell just any old bourbon as Bulleit.

Contract distillers will, of course, make any recipe you want and Jim Beam already makes a similar product in Old Grand-Dad.

One assumes that Diageo would have been content to remain an NDP for bourbon purposes but with distillers pulling back on contract production to supply their own growing brands, Diageo was forced to build a new distillery of its own.

Presumably, Diageo has enough liquid in the pipeline or still being made for it by someone to supply Bulleit, accommodating its growth, until whiskey from the new distillery is ready to go. At present, there appears to be plenty of Bulleit to go around.

In Which I Stick Up for Diageo (a Little)

Diageo, the largest company in the distilled spirits business, has become the latest victim of a false advertising suit, based largely on a Bloomberg article and video in which I appear.

In the Bloomberg video, the reporter goes to the Anderson County Sheriff's office in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, to ask for directions to the Bulleit Distilling Company. The receptionist, gamely going along with the stunt, informs him that there is no such company with an address in Lawrenceburg. This seemingly contradicts the label reproduced above.

The label is not false.

Beyond a doubt, all or most of the whiskey in the bottle to which that label was affixed was distilled at a distillery in Lawrenceburg that was temporarily operating as the Bulleit Distilling Co., but which normally goes by the name Four Roses. It was a contract distilling job. The spirit was owned by Diageo, which owns Bulleit, the moment it was made. After distillation, it was taken in tankers to the cistern room at Diageo's Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Shively, south of Louisville, where it was barreled and then put away in one of the Stitzel-Weller warehouses. After aging, it was bottled by Diageo at their Plainfield, Illinois facility and distributed from there.

Except for the distilling claim, every other claim in the paragraph above should probably have the words 'most likely' in front of it, because excessively secretive Diageo won't confirm the other facts, but they are widely known and believed to be true. Diageo did, for many years, assert that every drop of Bulleit Bourbon is made at Four Roses. They no longer do.

If you Google 'shingle' you'll mostly find information about a nasty skin condition. But shingles, meaning a sign that names and marks the location of a business, have a long and venerable history in the whiskey trade.

Back in the earliest days of commercial distilling, distilleries didn't make brands. They made whiskey which they sold to rectifiers who created the brands under which the whiskey was marketed. Sometimes, to assure a supply, these companies would contract with the distillery to make a certain amount. In those more literal times, it was standard practice for the distillery to hang up a shingle indicating who the customer was at any given moment. While they were running whiskey for the Old Handlebar Distilling Company, the shingle said 'Old Handlebar Distilling Company.'

Many distilleries had boxes full of these shingles, which they dutifully changed according to what they were producing for whom. Depending on who had capacity or the best price, many different distilleries might do duty as Old Handlebar. This tradition died out with Prohibition. Today, most distilleries make multiple brands. Some only make brands they own, but others also do contract production. All of the non-distiller producer (NDP) products out there have to come from somewhere.

An assumed business name or DBA (for 'doing business as') might be called a legal fiction, but it is legal. While the Kentucky River Distillery is making whiskey under a contract with the Old Handlebar Distilling Company it is doing business as the Old Handlebar Distilling Company.

So the idea that Four Roses was acting as the Bulleit Distilling Company when it was fulfilling its production contract with Diageo is neither unique nor shady. It is a long established practice in many businesses.

But that doesn't entirely let Diageo off the hook. Two things.

Although both Diageo and Kirin (Four Roses) were always very secretive about the details of their contract, it became apparent about ten years ago that Four Roses wasn't producing enough whiskey for Diageo to account for all of the Bulleit Bourbon Diageo was selling. It also became known that Brown-Forman, Barton, and Jim Beam were all producing large quantities of spirit for Diageo, all of which was being aged at Stitzel-Weller.

Diageo had other needs for bourbon distillate, so there is no way to prove that any of that whiskey was being used for Bulleit, but it sure seemed likely that someone other than Four Roses was producing some of what became Bulleit Bourbon.

At about the same time, a source close to Four Roses reported that lab tests performed by Kirin confirmed that Bulleit contained whiskey not produced at Four Roses. This caused Four Roses to withdraw from an event in which it had earlier agreed to participate. While this was all very plausible and a lot of people knew about it, the original source clammed up and it became impossible to get confirmation so I never reported any of this widely and only do so now with all of the caveats above.

Finally, early last year, it became known that the Four Roses contract with Diageo had ended on December 31, 2013, and Four Roses was no longer producing any whiskey for Diageo, for Bulleit or any other brand. That fact obviously doesn't affect the label above, or any Bulleit bourbon that is being sold today, since that whiskey was distilled years ago. At some point a few years hence, none of the whiskey in a Bulleit Bourbon bottle will have been distilled in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and the label will have to change. Right now it's true.

Today, most of the big bourbon distilleries are running at capacity. Brown-Forman, long the favorite contract distiller for other big distilleries, announced that as of January 1, 2015, it would only be distilling for itself. No more contracts.

Other distillers still do contract distilling, mostly via long-term agreements, but other than MGP in Indiana, most have no more capacity so while existing contracts will be fulfilled, NDPs are finding it hard to grow because they can't increase their orders. New Riff, a relatively new distillery in Newport, Kentucky, is picking up some of the slack. Michter's has solved the problem by building a new distillery in Shively, which they should be firing up any day now. Willet, in Bardstown, has been distilling for about two years. Diageo, too, is building a distillery in Kentucky but it is more than a year away from completion.

I don't like all the time having to guess what Diageo is really up to. Transparent they are not. In that regard they are out of step with the other majors, as well as the growing legions of small distillers, who are generally very open and eager to answer every question. Even in their statements about the Bulleit lawsuit, Diageo didn't claim the label was true, they claimed it was legal. The Big Galoot, as I sometimes call Diageo, still has a lot to learn about what American whiskey fans want and expect. If it takes a lawsuit to knock a little of the arrogance off of them, that wouldn't be a bad thing, but I'm not holding my breath.

A New Limited Edition From Four Roses.

There are two kinds of limited edition releases in the American Whiskey business. Some are about the whiskey, some are about the bottle.

Four Roses has been one of the leaders in limited editions that are mainly about the whiskey. In recent years, they have rolled out a limited edition version of their single barrel expression each spring, just in time for the Kentucky Derby (May 1 this year).

For 2010 it is a 17-year-old bourbon that is being used to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the main building at the distillery site in Lawrenceburg. There have been distilleries on or near that site for almost 200 years, but the distinctive Spanish Mission-style building (pictured above) was built in 1910 by the sons of J. T. S. Brown, who ran it on both sides of Prohibition.

The Browns (cousins of the Brown-Forman Browns) had bought the place in 1904. In 1909, a nearby distillery burned down and while it was being rebuilt, the Browns decided theirs could stand to be spruced up too.

During WWII, Seagram’s bought the plant and renamed it Four Roses, after a brand they had also just acquired. Seagram’s was big in the production of neutral spirits for the war effort. They owned 14 Kentucky distilleries by war’s end. They must have liked the one they named Four Roses, because they gradually closed all the rest. By the time Seagram’s itself was sold a decade ago, Four Roses was the only Kentucky distillery they had left.

Today it is owned by Kirin and run by long-time Master Distiller Jim Rutledge. The Four Roses 100th Anniversary Limited Edition Single Barrel Bourbon will be released in early April. It is bottled at barrel strength (55 percent alcohol) and not chill filtered. About 2,300 bottles will be distributed in all U.S. markets where Four Roses currently is sold.

Even though Four Roses limited editions are about featuring a special whiskey, the bottles are nice too. For this one, an etching of the distillery, in gold, has been added to the standard Single Barrel package.

Although Four Roses makes ten different bourbons, it almost doesn’t matter which of those recipes this is, because at 17 years it is all about the wood. That doesn’t mean all 17-year-olds taste the same, of course. In this case, the result is a whiskey that is very dry, even astringent, but not overly tannic, the usual failing of an extra-aged bourbon.

Instead, the most striking taste here is pure oak, with just a little bit of char. Pretty quickly, though, this whiskey hits a wall. That’s when a splash of water helps to wake it up. Then you get figs and dark molasses, if you can imagine figs or dark molasses denuded of most of their sugar.

If what you like about bourbon is its sweetness, this may not be the bourbon for you.

Also to commemorate the anniversary, and as a tribute to the distillery’s employees, past and present; Four Roses is searching for the oldest living person who once worked at the Lawrenceburg plant. That person will receive bottle no. 1 of the limited edition and other nice prizes.

If you’re interested in a bottle for yourself, and you’re not a former employee, better call your whiskey-monger now.

"The Whiskeys of Four Roses," Tomorrow Night at Fountainhead

Fountainhead School of Spirits is back. Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 13th, I'll be presenting 'The Whiskeys of Four Roses' in Fountainhead's Barrel Room.

TITLE: American Whiskey 102: The Whiskeys of Four Roses

TASTING: 1. Four Roses Yellow Label Bourbon 2. Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon 3. Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon 4. Four Roses Single Barrel Fountainhead Selection

DESCRIPTION: Although it is a very old brand, Four Roses Bourbon was not sold in the United States until a decade ago. The Four Roses Distillery is unique because it makes ten different bourbon recipes, all rye-based. The yellow label combines all of them. Small Batch is a mixture of four. Single Barrel is just one. In this session we will taste a variety of these mashbills and yeast strains. 

Fountainhead is at 1970 Montrose Ave on Chicago's North Side. It's a bar and restaurant. We have a private room for the classes. Don't take the word 'classes' too seriously. It's a small group (about 25 people) and very informal. They have very good food so don't worry about having dinner first.

Click here for tickets.

NOTE: We intend to finish before the puck drops.

Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition Coming In September.

It’s hard to make money writing about whiskey but there are other benefits. I get lots of free samples for one. What’s more, I get lots of very good free samples, like advance tastes of limited releases.

While they are all great and I hope they never stop coming, some excite me more than others. Only a few invariably get tasted right away.

At the top of that list is Four Roses.

When a box arrives from Bandy Carroll Hellige (Four Roses’ ad agency) I can’t wait to get it open. Today it contained a tiny (100 ml) bottle of the 2010 Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition, which is scheduled for a September release of 3,600 bottles.

Four Roses, you see, has a unique advantage over other distilleries when it comes to limited editions. It is the only distillery that makes ten different bourbon recipes and because it makes them year in and year out, its warehouses contain all ten whiskeys at every possible age from newborn to double-digits.

The possibilities are endless.

In the USA, Four Roses has three platforms: (1) standard, a mixture of all 10 recipes; (2) small batch, a mixture of two to four recipes; and (3) single barrel, by definition a single recipe.

Each spring Four Roses issues a limited edition from the single barrel platform and each fall it issues one from the small batch platform.

Finally, for full geeky pleasure, the ten recipes have names, sort of, a sequence of four letters. To find out what it all means go here.

This fall’s small batch will be a mixture of three bourbons, a 15-year-old OBSV, an 11-year-old OBSK, and a 10-year-old OESK. It’s bottled uncut and unfiltered, so 110° proof (55% alcohol).

The nose is about what you would expect with tobacco-ey wood notes. I was surprised, therefore, that the taste starts out fresh and fruity, with citrus, raspberry, honey, and oak. Then came the dark caramel and molasses, syrupy and just slightly bitter. The finish, also slightly bitter, is very rich and long.

Every mixture of bourbons from the Four Roses vaults is interesting, but this is one of the more successful purely for drinking. To the extent they use these limited editions to test candidates for future regular-issue products, this would be a good one to consider.

Diageo May Be Dissing Me.

Another writer and I have taken to calling Diageo 'The Big Galoot,' TBG for short. In case you don't know, TBG is the world's biggest drinks company. It owns Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Bailey's, J&B, José Cuervo, Captain Morgan, and Tanqueray, to name a few.

One of their itty-bitty brands is Bulleit Bourbon, which is soon to be joined by Bulleit Rye, but you didn't hear it from me. Why? Because it appears that TBG is boycotting me, maybe just with regard to Bulleit Rye, or maybe with regard to everything from now on.

The Shanken Combine is all over it but I can't get my calls returned.

If TBG is boycotting me, I think I know why. It's because they don't want to talk about what I want to talk about, which is their source for this whiskey and their relationship to Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI), the Angostura-owned distillery that makes and bottles this rye on Diageo's behalf. Lawrenceburg, Indiana is clearly identified on the label as the source.

It's no scandal that Diageo is buying its whiskey from someone else. Diageo hasn't made a drop of bourbon or rye whiskey in more than a decade.

No, I want somebody to talk to me about LDI because it's interesting. LDI is known-to-be or believed-to-be the source of many recent whiskey releases, all on behalf of other people, none of whom are talking about the real distillery where it was made. LDI whiskey is being sold as Templeton, High West, Harrison, Redemption, and probably others.

LDI is identified as the producer of Bulleit Rye on the TTB label approval form and, of course, it says Lawrenceburg, Indiana on the label. There is only one active distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. (Lawrenceburg is near Cincinnati, by the way.)

The label also says Bulleit Rye has a 95 percent rye mashbill, which is a LDI hallmark.

LDI is owned by Angostura Holdings Ltd. Angostura and LDI are mysterious. I can't get anyone at either place to talk to me. LDI returned my call and referred me to my regular Diageo contact. I had already reached out to her. She usually is great but suddenly doesn't know who I am. (Or maybe she's on vacation.)

We do know this. Angostura is based in Trinidad and Tobago. Yes, it's the company that makes Angostura Bitters, but they're a big rum and vodka producer too for the Caribbean market. Twenty months ago, Angostura Holdings Ltd was suspended from trading on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) because the company had failed to submit audited financial statements for 2008 and 2009. The stock resumed trading last month. About 75 percent of Angostura is owned by the CL Financial Group, which is now under the control of the Trinidad and Tobago government as a result of the 2008 worldwide financial meltdown.

So it's understandable that they haven't been very interested in publicity, but now they're trading again, and their chairman says in the latest financials that "there is a bright future ahead for Angostura," so why won't they talk about their American business interests, which also include an active distillery in Florida and a silent one in Kentucky?

If I can get someone at TBG to talk to me, maybe I'll also ask why they're still saying Bulleit Bourbon is made at Four Roses even though the owners of Four Roses say, no, it's not.

The Four Roses Distillery is in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and the Bulleit Bourbon label says "Distilled by the Bulleit Distilling Co., Lawrenceburg, Kentucky."

But here's the story. TBG got Four Roses in the Seagram's break-up. When TBG sold Four Roses to Kirin Brewery, the deal included a contract to supply TBG with whiskey. That was more than ten years ago and the amount Four Roses is obliged to supply has decreased in each year of the contract. The exact terms are secret but eventually that sales agreement goes away.

No one is willing to talk about this on the record but I have it from reliable sources that the amount Four Roses is supplying now is way below the amount Bulleit is selling. Similarly, I know Kirin has done chemical analysis and determined that while some of the whiskey in a typical bottle of Bulleit Bourbon was made at Four Roses, it wasn't all made there.

I also know that TBG has been buying bourbon white dog from Brown-Forman, Jim Beam and Tom Moore, in quantities amounting to millions of gallons a year, and aging it at the former Stitzel-Weller Distillery in the Louisville suburb of Shively, Kentucky, which TBG owns.

There is nothing wrong with any of this. It's all a perfectly legitimate way to do business.

What's weird is that I can't get anyone to talk about it, any of it. People are particularly interested in LDI, this major distillery (previously owned by Pernod-Ricard, briefly, and for a long time by Seagram's) that nobody knows much about. I know a few things, but it's mostly pieced together from different sources, some of them dated, most of it vague and incomplete.

There's no reason somebody can't spend 20 minutes on the phone with me or, heaven forbid, give me a tour.

Fountainhead School of Spirits Spring Session Announced

As you may recall, we launched the Fountainhead School of Spirits in February. Classes resume on April 29. The spring session runs through June 3. Classes are held on Tuesday nights in the Barrel Room at Fountainhead, 1970 W. Montrose, on the North Side of Chicago. For more information, call Fountainhead at (773) 697-8204, or visit their web site.

It goes like this. We taste four or five whiskeys. We taste and talk. It lasts about 90 minutes. It is very informal and probably a bit geeky, but also fun. For the spring session, Sean Ludford is teaching the scotch and Irish classes, I'm teaching the American whiskey classes. The links below take you to Brown Paper Tickets, where you can register and pay for your classes.

The room holds about 20 people so classes often sell out. To avoid disappointment, sign up now.

Tuesday, April 29th, Presenter: Sean Ludford, $40 
TITLE: Scotch 150: Intro to Islay
TASTING: 1. Black Bottle 2. Bowmore 12yr 3. Kilchoman Machir Bay 4. Laphroaig 10yr 5. Lagavulin 16yr
DESCRIPTION: We welcome The Beverage Expert, Sean Ludford (BevX.com), to the Barrel Room to discuss an extraordinary anomaly; a small Atlantic Island that produces whiskies passionately sought after all over the globe. But be advised, it’s not just peat and smoke. Experience a tour around Islay and learn the tasty variations in these beautiful whiskies

Tuesday, May 6th,  Presenter: Sean Ludford, $40 
TITLE: Irish 150: Irish Single Malts Explored
TASTING: 1. Bushmills 10yr 2. Tullamore Dew 12yr 3. Knappogue Castle 12yr 4. Tyrconnel Port Finish 5. Connemara Peated 12yr
DESCRIPTION: Sean’s back to tout the single malt wares of his home country. Let’s get past the bar shots and talk about some serious Irish Malts. The range of these selections is formidable and Sean has mentioned he might have a surprise on hand to enhance the experience. If you haven’t met Sean…that’s a very good thing!

Tuesday, May 13th Presenter: Chuck Cowdery $30
TITLE: American Whiskey 102: The Whiskeys of Four Roses
TASTING: 1. Four Roses Yellow Label Bourbon 2. Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon 3. Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon 4. Four Roses Single Barrel Fountainhead Selection
DESCRIPTION: Although it is a very old brand, Four Roses Bourbon was not sold in the United States until a decade ago. The Four Roses Distillery is unique because it makes ten different bourbon recipes, all rye-based. The yellow label combines all of them. Small Batch is a mixture of four. Single Barrel is just one. In this session we will taste a variety of these mashbills and yeast strains.

Tuesday, May 20th Presenter: Chuck Cowdery $25
TITLE: North American Whiskey 102: The American Whiskeys of Diageo
TASTING: 1. George Dickel No. 12 Tennessee Whiskey 2. Bulleit Bourbon 3. Bulleit Rye 4. Crown Royal Black Canadian Whiskey
DESCRIPTION: Diageo, the world’s largest drinks company, has a limited presence in American whiskey. It owns the George Dickel Distillery in Tennessee but its Bulleit whiskeys are contract- produced. Its biggest American whiskey is from north of the border, but has bourbon as an ingredient. This course offers a rich taste of American whiskey geography, moving from Tennessee whiskey to Kentucky bourbon and Indiana rye, and ending in Gimli, Manitoba, with the best-selling Canadian blended whisky.

Tuesday, May 27th Presenter: Chuck Cowdery $30 
TITLE: American Whisky 150: The Whiskeys of Jim Beam-Advanced
TASTING: 1. Jim Beam Black Label Bourbon 2. Old Grand-Dad 3. Basil Hayden Bourbon 4. Maker’s 46 Bourbon 5. Knob Creek Rye
DESCRIPTION: In this session, we taste the step-up versions of the Beam whiskeys from the basic course. The black label is aged twice as long as white, as is Basil Hayden compared to Grand-Dad. Maker’s 46 undergoes a unique wood treatment after aging. Knob Creek Rye shows how the Beam rye recipe changes as the whiskey matures.

Tuesday, June 3rd Presenter: Chuck Cowdery $25
TITLE: American Whiskey 102: The Whiskeys of Brown Forman
TASTING: 1. Jack Daniel’s Old Number 7 Tennessee Whiskey 2. Early Times 354 Bourbon 3. Old Forester Bourbon 4. Woodford Reserve Bourbon
DESCRIPTION: Brown-Forman is America’s largest whiskey producer and is the only one that makes its own barrels. Most of that whiskey is Tennessee’s Jack Daniel’s Old Number 7, which is second only to Johnnie Walker among all whiskeys in the world. Brown-Forman, a Kentucky company, makes bourbon at its two Kentucky distilleries. Its Woodford Reserve distillery is the only major distillery in the U.S. that exclusively uses pot stills. Among other things, this course will explain the real difference between bourbon whiskey and Tennessee whiskey.

We preview the 2009 Four Roses Single Barrel Limited Edition.

'Challenging,' like 'interesting,' is commonly used as a backhanded compliment to describe something of dubious merit which the observer is unprepared to condemn outright. Heavily-peated single malts often receive one or both of those assessments.

But 'challenging' also can mean a creation that requires extra effort from the reader or viewer or, in our case, drinker, an effort which ultimately is rewarded.

Four Roses Bourbon is notable, in its standard expressions, for its exceptional balance, which makes it easy to enjoy. But Four Roses also has had an aggressive limited release program and some of those whiskeys have been challenging, though usually in the good way.

That is the case with the 2009 single barrel limited edition, which won’t be in stores until June.

I got a preview.

The Four Roses Single Barrel Limited Edition 2009 Release will be uncut and not chill filtered. The distillery will be able to produce up to 1,800 bottles, from the super select barrels, that will be distributed in select U.S. markets.

Master Distiller Jim Rutledge specially selected the sophisticated 11-year-old whiskey from among the 10 bourbon recipes the distillery produces.

"We’re excited to continue the tradition of releasing an exceptional, and very unique single barrel limited edition that consists of one recipe we feel exhibits various combinations of flavors and aromas pleasing to any Bourbon enthusiast," said Rutledge.

What makes this release challenging is an unusual bite that persists in the aftertaste. It still has the complex but balanced flavor profile for which Four Roses is famous, but with an edge. I taste citrus, licorice, honey, and wheatgrass, all improbably rolled into one.

This is not a starter bourbon, but most experienced bourbon drinkers should appreciate it.

These releases are very small and typically sell out quickly. The price point will be a little higher than the standard Four Roses Single Barrel, which sells for about $40 a bottle. If you’re interested, it is not too early to alert your favorite whiskey monger and ask them to reserve a bottle for you.

Four Roses is now available in almost 20 U.S. states, and will continue expansion in other markets throughout 2009.

Four Roses, the All-Bourbon Blend

Though well-intentioned, the Federal regulations known as the Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits can have unintended consequences. One is that a perfectly good descriptive word has been taken out of the lexicon.

That word is 'blend,' as in 'blended whiskey.' The rules say a combination of two or more different whiskeys is a blend, but a combination of two or more whiskeys that have the same classification is not a blend. Therefore Four Roses Yellow Label (pictured, above) is labeled 'Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey,' even though it is a blend of ten different straight bourbons.

'Blend' is generally considered a dirty word because it can also mean a combination of straight whiskey with neutral spirits (i.e., vodka). In the USA and nowhere else, a mixture that is 80 percent vodka and just 20 percent whiskey can be called 'blended whiskey.' Since that describes most blends on the market, it's no wonder the word is eschewed.

Then there is Four Roses Yellow Label. A perfectly good way to describe this product is as a blend of ten different bourbon recipes. They usually resort to 'mixture' or 'combination' to avoid the dreaded b-word.

Four Roses arrives at ten recipes by combining two different mash bills with five different yeasts. They explain it all very well on their web site, here. Although Four Roses likes to talk about the ten recipes and the characteristics of their five yeasts, what they won't tell you are the all-important proportions. How much OBSK is in yellow label, how much OESO.

Four Roses used to be owned by Seagrams and blending is very Seagramsey. Crown Royal, the best-selling of what used to be Seagrams whiskeys, is a Canadian Blended Whisky. Canadian rules are very different and Canadian blends are respectable, as are Scotch blends. It's only a dirty word here.

This is too bad, because as the American whiskey industry continues to evolve, blending has a lot of potential. Wild Turkey has just released a limited edition called Forgiven that blends straight bourbon with straight rye. They say it was an accident but it looks more like a deliberate imitation of High West's Bourye. Jim Beam's Devil's Cut could be considered an all-bourbon blend since it combines regular Jim Beam Bourbon with the very smoky bourbon they extract from empty barrels. The 2012 edition of Heaven Hill's Parker's Heritage Collection (PHC) combined rye-recipe bourbon with wheated bourbon.

Four Roses Yellow Label is an excellent bourbon and a great value at around $20, but the 2012 PHC really shows the potential of all-whiskey blends. It is an example of what whiskey-makers at the height of their powers can accomplish. The whiskeys selected and the blending proportions (never revealed) resulted in a superb whiskey that is so much more than the sum of its parts, it ranks as one of the best American whiskeys ever made.

With micro-distillers inventing new whiskeys every day, and with MGP of Indiana making more than ten different whiskey recipes, blending is becoming a way for non-distiller producers (NDPs) to create original whiskeys rather than just bottling an existing whiskey made by one of the major distilleries. That's revolutionary and could be really cool, especially if the NDPs don't lie about it (a long shot).

Mini Skirts And Straight Bourbon.

Mini skirts were the fashion craze of the 1960s. Designers, always trying to profit by creating the next new trend, followed that up with something called the maxi skirt.

As the name implies, the maxi skirt was long, typically ending mid-calf. As fashion leaders always do, they urged women to discard their mini skirts immediately in favor of the new maxi skirts.

Women refused (and men cheered).

Much like the introduction of New Coke, the failure of the maxi skirt proved that there is a limit to what marketers can shove down the throat of the American consumer.

At about that same time, some of the largest distilled spirits companies tried to wean Americans away from straight whiskeys such as straight bourbon and straight rye. Instead, they thought we should drink blended whiskey or the newly-developed light whiskey.

Americans were turning away from straights at that time. They were drinking more blended scotch and blended Canadian whiskey, but also a lot more vodka, gin, rum and tequila, all of which were lighter in taste than American straight whiskey.

All of those products were also cheaper to make, which is why the producers were so enamoured of them. They even tried to get the Standards of Identity changed so they could make a lighter and cheaper product, by reusing barrels and distilling at higher proofs, and still call it straight bourbon.

That proposal was rejected by the BATF and light whiskey was solidly rejected by consumers. Blended whiskey--which combines a little straight whiskey with a lot of vodka (i.e., neutral spirit)--gained a little traction but never got close to unseating the straights.

When American whiskey began to rebound in the 1990s it was Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey that led the charge.

This is essentially the story of Four Roses. The brand started in the mid-19th century as a straight bourbon and returned after Prohibition that way too. Eventually it was acquired by the Jos. E. Seagram Company, a Canadian producer that only made blends there and thought that's what we should drink down here too. In the U.S. market they converted Four Roses into a blend, although they sold it in the rest of the world as a bourbon.

As time went on, competitive pressures caused Seagrams to cheapen the blend by reducing its straight whiskey component. The legal minimum is a mere 20 percent. Even among blended whiskey drinkers, Four Roses was considered rot gut.

When Seagrams was sold for parts a decade ago, Kirin (which had been partners with Seagrams in Japan) became the new owner of Four Roses and immediately began to reintroduce it into the United States as a high quality straight bourbon whiskey. They had to overcome the blend's bad reputation, but by that time the brand was such a loser that most younger consumers had never even heard of it. To them, Four Roses Bourbon was a new brand.

They began the revival in Kentucky, naturally, and gradually expanded as they were able to produce enough to meet the growing demand. That process is now just about complete. With the new year, Four Roses is now available in Michigan, Maryland and New Hampshire.

No, they were not expanding alphabetically. For a variety of reasons, they chose to expand into control states last.

So the next time you enjoy a fine straight bourbon, think about the American consumers who refused to be herded like sheep so many years ago.

How Do You Make Ten Different Bourbons at One Distillery?

Brent Elliott, the new Four Roses Master Distiller.

There has been a lot of symbolic torch passing at this year's Kentucky Bourbon Festival (KBF), underway now in Bardstown and other locations.

Having a whiskey event at multiple locations, some quite distant from each other, would seem like a bad idea considering that drinking and driving shouldn't be encouraged. Yet they do it, during the KBF and the Bourbon Affair. They encourage designated drivers, of course, and you can pay for transportation, but still.

One of the best KBF events has always been 'Let's Talk Bourbon,' which takes place on Friday morning at Four Roses. It's a great event because Jim Rutledge gives a presentation that really gets into detail about how bourbon is made. It's generally free of marketing fluff. They serve a nice breakfast too. They have capped attendance at about 300 people and always sell out.

They do a great job and you can understand why Four Roses wants to have it at the distillery and not somewhere in Bardstown, but Four Roses is about 42 miles from Bardstown.

Yesterday morning, Rutledge, who is recently retired, passed the torch to Brent Elliott, the new Four Roses Master Distiller.

After the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame Induction on Wednesday, I happened to walk with Elliot to where our cars were parked at My Old Kentucky Home State Park. Rutledge was never able to explain to me how Four Roses is able to make ten different recipes 'in line,' i.e., without shutting down to change over. The inability to understand is entirely my fault, not Jim's, so I thought I would give Elliott a try. He gave me a little more detail that helped my understanding.

In even more fairness to Rutledge, I've asked him the question at events with lots of other people vying for his attention. I had Elliot all to myself on a warm Kentucky afternoon when neither of us minded spending a few more minutes standing in the sun.

The key is timing, he explained, which begins when the last fermenter of a given recipe heads to the beer well, followed by the first fermenter from the next recipe. There is a little bit of overlap in the beer well itself, he conceded, because it has to be maintained at a constant level. They know how long it takes for that last fermenter of mash to get from the beer well through distillation to barrel entry, and that's when they change over the barrel head stencils to indicate the new recipe.

This means, of course, that a tiny handful of OESV barrels might have a little bit of OESK in them. The mind reels.

A Special Four Roses Single Barrel Bottling Is Coming to Binny's.

We're lucky here in Illinois, because Four Roses is presently available in only seven states and this is one of them. Sorry Iowa, Wisconsin. and the rest of you.

We're about to get even luckier.

Sources tell me that Brett Pontoni, the Specialty Spirits Buyer at Binny's, has selected three casks for a special Binny's exclusive Four Roses Single Barrel bottling.

Binny's already has many special bottlings of casks selected by Brett, of both American and Scottish whiskey. One of my favorites is his pick of an Elmer T. Lee Bourbon, from Buffalo Trace.

These "buy a barrel" deals are good for everybody. The producer/distributor sells the equivalent of a barrel of whiskey (about 20 cases), maybe more than the retailer normally would buy. The retailer gets an exclusive product and a story to tell, and the customer gets the opportunity to taste something a little bit different.

Buffalo Trace has been the leader with these programs, but Four Roses has seen a good thing and gotten in the game too. At this as with many things, Four Roses brings something unique to the party. They do what no other American distiller does, they make ten different bourbon formulas, by combining five different yeasts with two different mash bills. Their standard, yellow label expression is a mixture of all ten, but by its nature a single barrel can be just one. For the standard issue Four Roses Single Barrel, they don't want too much variation from barrel to barrel, but with a special bottling like this one for Binny's, getting a couple of different tastes is the whole idea.

I'm told they should be available in the next month or so and will be labeled Cask 1, Cask 2 and Cask 3. I'm told that Cask 3 is the "fattest."

Trust me, the crazy people I know will buy as many bottles of all three as they can afford, so don't wait too long. Three barrels, or about 60 cases, may sound like a lot but I predict that it will go fast.

Coming Soon, Another Limited Edition from Four Roses.

Gentlemen and Ladies, start your engines. Or start salivating. Whatever. Here comes the next Four Roses Limited Edition.

In April, just in time for the Kentucky Derby, Four Roses will release another limited edition bourbon. It is to honor the brand's founding 120 years ago. It will be barrel strength again, single barrel and in the single barrel bottle, very similar to the Rutledge 40th Anniversary edition in that respect. This is a 12-year-old and non-chill filtered. Proofs will range from 103 to 116. There will be approximately 3,000 bottles produced.

I've had a sample and it's very unusual, with very bright fruit flavors. My main thought was of the homemade raspberry preserves a friend of mine's mom makes, maybe even pomegranate. I haven't talked to Jim Rutledge about it, but my impression is that he set out to find something a bit different. Don't even think about stashing this in the bunker. You really have to drink it.

Although they haven't said so per se, I suspect this will be an annual thing, at least as long as they continue to be successful. The last one sold out quickly and generated a lot of buzz.

The 40th was primarily sold in Kentucky, with a little bit going to New York. This one will be in Kentucky, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee and Illinois.

Suggested retail is $69 to $100, depending on the market, probably cheapest in Kentucky and Tennessee, most expensive in NYC. That's a bit more than last fall's Rutledge 40th. The standard Four Roses Single Barrel sells for about $35 a bottle, so they basically double it for the limited editions.

Also, here's good news for those of you just dying to get your hands on any Four Roses bourbons. Although I don't know which ones, they expect to have distribution in 15 more states by the end of 2008, bringing the total to 20.

Four Roses 2014 Limited Edition Single Barrel Is a Tribute to Bourbon Fans

Four Roses Bourbon has two annual limited edition releases, a Single Barrel in the spring and a Small Batch in the fall. This spring's Single Barrel is an 11-year-old OESF, which means it's their 20 percent rye mash bill with their herbal essence yeast. (Four Roses makes ten different bourbon recipes.) It's also barrel strength, which will range between 108.3° and 127.6° proof (54.15% ABV to 63.8% ABV).

"This year's Limited Edition Single Barrel is a tribute to the loyal following we are so fortunate to have," said Master Distiller Jim Rutledge. "This bourbon went into the barrel and was put away at a time when Four Roses had just returned to the states and it's remarkable to see how far we've come as a company since then."

The bottle proclaims the tribute by including a toast submitted during the Year of the Toast campaign that celebrated Four Roses 125th anniversary. The winner, from Frank Wheatley of Louisville: "If I could age like bourbon, I wouldn't mind getting old."

'Limited,' in this case, means 5,000 bottles. It should be in stores by Father's Day.

What Do Terns 'High Rye' And 'Low Rye' Mean?

The question was posed to me about the rye content of bourbon recipes. "What does the industry mean," the questioner wondered, "when they say 'high' or 'low' rye?"

I answered that 'high rye and 'low rye' are terms used more by enthusiasts than by producers. Four Roses is about the only producer that uses them, and they would probably say 'high rye' and 'standard rye.' The two mash bills at Four Roses are 20% and 35% rye, respectively. Even their 'low rye' is high relative to the rest of the industry, where 12% to 15% rye is more typical.

Buffalo Trace, which also makes two rye-recipe bourbon mash bills, explicitly rejects the high/low terminology. They won't reveal their exact mash bills, but #1 is probably less than 10% rye, while #2 is nearer to the 12% to 15% standard.

Bulleit is one of the few producers that talks about rye content. They use the Four Roses 35% rye mash bill. Old Grand-Dad/Basil Hayden, made by Jim Beam, is the other true 'high rye' mash bill, at about 30%. Their other recipe, the one used for Jim Beam and most of their other bourbons, is about 15% rye.

Dynamic Beverages, a small producer, uses the terms which they picked up from enthusiasts. They get their whiskey from LDI which, as a former Seagram's plant, uses many of the same recipes as Four Roses, and Dynamic uses the term 'high rye,' but the 20% rye recipe is hardly 'low.' Their Redemption Bourbon uses the 35% rye formula while their Temptation Bourbon uses the 20% rye recipe.

Four Roses, LDI, Beam, Buffalo Trace and Brown Forman are the only major distilleries that make two or more different rye-recipe bourbons.

At Brown-Forman, the Woodford/Old Forester recipe is 18% rye, Jack Daniel's is 8% and Early Times is 11%. So they have three different recipes, two in the 'typical' range and one legitimately low.

While there is no industry standard, I would refer to anything with more than 30% rye as 'high' and anything less than 12% as 'low,' while anything in between is 'standard' or 'typical.'

Here Are the Bourbon Classic Cocktail Challenge Winners

As I confessed on Sunday, I was too busy enjoying myself Friday evening to pay much attention to the competitive part of the event, but I recognize its importance.

In recent years, Louisville has come on strong as a great place for creative cuisine and cocktails, and in most cases the purveyors are heavy into bourbon. No event of which I'm aware has highlighted this better than last Friday's Bourbon Classic Cocktail Challenge.

In addition to producing a great event, the Bourbon Classic folks have introduced a new term: 'bourbon arts.' We can't all make bourbon, but if we exercise creativity in its service, we are practitioners of the 'bourbon arts.' Okay, why not?

So, here is the press release:

Bourbon Classic 2013, the new bourbon arts celebration that took place at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts this past weekend, brought together hundreds of enthusiasts from across the country to identify the best of bourbon cocktail and culinary pairings.

A packed Kentucky Center witnessed Jared Schubert’s “Dust Bowl Smash” take honors as the Grand Champion in the 2013 Bourbon Classic Cocktail Challenge. The Bourbon Classic’s Friday night “Cocktail Challenge” featured cocktails and hors d’oeuvre pairings prepared by teams of chefs and master bartenders.

Emcee Angie Fenton guided attendees through the event as they voted for their favorite small plate. Cocktails were judged by an expert panel including Celebrity Chef Edward Lee, 610 Magnolia, Joy Perrine, author of The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book, and Noah Rothbaum, Editor-in-Chief, Liquor.com.

The following winners were recognized:

• 2013 Grand Champion: Jared Schubert of Monkey Wrench, representing Four Roses.
• 2013 Classic Cocktail Winner: Isaac Fox of Volare, representing Maker’s Mark, serving a “Vieux Carre” cocktail.
• 2013 Contemporary Cocktail Winner: Jared Schubert of Monkey Wrench representing Four Roses, serving a “Dust Bowl Smash.”
• 2013 People’s Choice Classic Small Plate: Anthony Lamas of Seviche, serving Tuna “Old Fashioned” Seviche, paired with Four Roses.
• 2013 People’s Choice Contemporary Small Plate: Shawn Ward of Jack Fry’s, serving Seared Scallop and Dried Citrus with Edamame Puree, paired with Michter’s.

The event represented some of the bourbon industry’s most well-known brands, which signed up as founding sponsors. The Urban Bourbon Trail is the welcoming sponsor of this event and Kentucky Proud is the Culinary Sponsor, joining Buffalo Trace Distillery, Four Roses Bourbon, Michter’s Distillery, Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc., Jim Beam, Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company, Maker’s Mark, Blanton’s, Sullivan University National Center for Hospitality Studies, Angel’s Envy, Bulleit Bourbon, Jefferson’s Bourbon, Nestle Waters, Spirits on Ice, LLC, Wildcat Water, Willett Distillery, Art Eatables, Corsair Distillery, Limestone Branch Distillery and Neil Sulier Art.

The Bourbon Classic was co-founded by Tony Butler of FSA Management Group, an established event planning company based in Louisville, and Justin Thompson and Seth Thompson of The Bourbon Review.

“Congratulations to all these winners, who helped make the event such a huge success,” says Tony Butler, co-founder of the Bourbon Classic. “Like Bourbon Classic, these winners help tell the story of Bourbon—and showcase all the talent that drives the industry forward.”

“Bourbon Classic’s Friday night event brought together nationally known chefs, bartenders and distillers which is believed to be the first attempt at having this many stars of the Bourbon Arts working together at the same event,” says Justin Thompson, co-founder of the Bourbon Classic.