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Four Roses
Four Roses History
The company was started in 1884 by Paul Jones Jr. on Louisville’s Whiskey Row. The influence of the company’s name came from his sweetheart who told him that she would wear four red roses to a grand ball if she were to accept his proposal. She did and he used the moment as an inspiration for his new bourbon business. Had she not accepted the name may have been slightly darker and somewhat disparaging, but such is not the case and we are left with a rosy whiskey.
Over the years many distillers have produced bourbon in the heart of Kentucky. What is widely available on today’s shelves is the cream of the crop among those distilleries. Four Roses has a checkered past, one marked by a few company buyouts and one of those which led to a near extinction of the brand in the U.S. market.
What Makes Four Roses Different
What Four Roses has going for it today is that it is the only bourbon whiskey distillery to use five proprietary yeasts with two separate mash bills ranging from 60 to 75 percent corn to produce 10 different bourbons. They also use single-story rick houses to age the bourbon while many of their counterparts have grown to use multi-story houses.
Here is a primer to help you understand Four Roses Bourbons:
- All 10 recipes are used in the brand’s signature Yellow label.
- Three to four recipes are used to create a Small Batch.
- One recipe is used to create a Single Barrel.
- Limited Edition releases of any of the above are hand-picked by the Master Distiller.
Jim Rutledge did a wonderful job from 1995 to 2015 as the Four Roses Master Distiller. He continues to work closely with his successor, Brent Elliott. The distillery is located in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky while the rick houses are in Cox’s Creek, and both are open for tours.
Each recipe is described by a four letter “code.” This indicates the production facility, the mashbill, the spirit type and the yeast strain.
The first and third letters remain the same: “O” for Four Roses, and “S” for straight whiskey. The second shows which one of two mash bills is used: the “E,” or low-rye, which is 20 percent rye, 75 percent corn, and 5 percent malted barley; and the “B,” which is 35 percent rye, 60 percent corn, and 5 percent malted barley. The last letter of the code reflects the yeast strain: “V” (delicate fruit), “K” (slight spice), “O” (rich fruit), “Q” (floral essence), and “F” (herbal notes).