Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon (2024) Review

There are a lot of yearly, limited edition bourbon releases I look forward to on the annual calendar, but few of them are as consistently excellent as Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch tends to be, year in and out. And it’s not just the consistency of “it always tastes great,” either–it’s also the consistent novelty of how different the profile actually tends to be in any given year. Thanks to the central thesis of Four Roses blending, and the use of the 10 different recipes, there’s a functionally unlimited palette of flavor profiles available to Master Distiller Brent Elliott, and he always seems to make the best of the opportunity to create something new and memorable. This year’s 2024 expression is just one more reminder of how good the guy is at his job.

To be more specific, the 2024 expression is the 17th overall in the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon series, and will first release to a bevy of lucky consumers at the company’s visitor’s center in Lawrenceburg, KY on Sept. 14. The approximately 16,680 total bottles will also hit limited distribution across the company’s distribution network across the country, but good luck coming across one in the wild without prevailing in something like a package store lottery system. Here in Virginia, where the state-run liquor industry has only grown more and more vulnerable to corruption, it’s difficult to imagine that anyone but the most committed flippers and insiders will have a chance to purchase these. But if I could, this is one of the few instances where I would consider a $220 MSRP to be a fair price.

As ever, 2024’s Limited Edition Small Batch is a blend of several Four Roses recipes selected by Elliott to achieve a specific profile. They range in age from 12 to 20 years, including the following:

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— 12 year old OBSV
— 15 year old OESK
— 16 year old OESF
— 20 year old OBSV

The resulting bourbon is non-chill filtered and bottled at 54.1% ABV (108.2 proof). It’s a fairly standard type of recipe blend for this annual release, as many of them are often based around the “V” (delicate fruit) and “K” (baking spice) yeast strains, with the most notable inclusion here for whiskey geeks probably being the 16-year-old OESF. The “F” yeast strain (herbal, minty) doesn’t show up quite as often in Four Roses products, though it can be found featured prominently year-round in the Small Batch Select, and was last in the 2022 Limited Edition Small Batch. If I’m being honest, though? My first impression is that this 2024 release easily surpasses that 2022 one.

So with that said, let’s get into tasting this one.

On the nose, the first thing you note here is that for a bourbon with such mature whiskeys in it, this retains an amazing degree of brightness. It’s hard to describe to a non-drinker what an adjective like “bright” would really mean in this context, but it’s really the defining characteristic here. It’s a certain suggestion of acidity, a liveliness that pairs well with fruity impressions, and that’s something this expression has in spades. On first pass, there’s lots of citrus and stone fruit (apricot) leaping out of the glass, pairing nicely with vanilla bean, mint, and fresh herbal rye with a slightly green feel to it. This is married to decadently rich caramel notes and some sweet oak and cocoa, which balance the brighter fruit impressions with character that reflects the age statements and maturity of the blend. It closes with baking spice, landing between cinnamon brown sugar and clove, with some moderate ethanol heat. The overall profile suggests nothing as much as a fresh baked fruit tart, and it is really gorgeous.

On the palate, the super bright fruitiness carries through with lively notes of citrus, but then veers simultaneously into darker cooked fruit/jammy tones that I wasn’t getting so much on the nose. Cherry and red berries are a huge and winning note here, with a vibe suggesting cherry candy and milk chocolate, along with sweet oak that has the slightest woody tang to it. Quite sweet overall, this brings toasted dessert baking spices, along with light honey toffee and wisps of peppery rye grain. A little tingly ethanol heat hints at the proof, but this is pretty gentle overall, allowing the drinker to simple revel in all the developing waves of luscious fruit and spice.

All in all, the fruitiness of this Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch expression is just an absolute showstopper, and it immediately enters contention as one of my favorite whiskey releases of 2024 to date. If I could find a bottle of this at MSRP, there’s no doubt I’d plunk down the investment. Brent Elliott just continues to crank out exceptional special releases, in an industry where few releases seem that “special” anymore.

Distillery: Four Roses (Kirin)
City: Lawrenceburg, KY
Style: Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey
ABV: 54.1% (108.2 proof)
Availability: Limited, 750 ml bottles, $220 MSRP

Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.