Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition 2024 Review

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Within the Four Roses enthusiast community, there is a common belief that the “odd-numbered years” are better than the “even numbered years” when it comes to the annual Small Batch Limited Edition (SmBLE) release. Painting something with generalizations like this has the pitfall of making enthusiasts predisposed to a certain opinion before they’ve had their first taste. Sure enough, I’ve seen early reviews panning the 2024 SmBLE since the day it was released. Should I even bother trying to find a bottle?

Every rose has its thorns

I won’t get into the backstory behind the label, but I will take a moment to brag about my chance to meet Brent Elliot back in August of this year (thanks Jamie!). He took a small group of us behind the scenes into the lab at the Lawrenceburg campus and allowed us to ask a bunch of candid questions. The highlight of our time with him was when he took us into his blending room and began to pull out some of the 25-year-old bourbon samples that were used in the 2023 Small Batch Limited Edition.

Our excitement turned into confusion because what we were tasting wasn’t really that good. It wasn’t the fact that it was over-oaked (which it was, but not to some ridiculous degree), but the 25-year-old barrels did seem dull and lifeless. Brent poured us a sample from another batch of 25-year-old barrels and while it was improved, it still wasn’t the holy grail we were hoping to taste. Brent used our experience to remind us that the Limited Edition’s greatest strength lies in the final blend, not in the individual components.

I got a chance to ask him why the SmBLE has used every Four Roses recipe except for one. It was almost like he’s heard this question before because he immediately responded with “You mean OBSO? Yeah, we’ve been tracking that.” He went on to say that there have been years where they uncover a really good batch of OBSO barrels and try to use them in the blend. Every time this has happened, those barrels end up curtailing the flavor profile and end up being left out. These rejected barrels either get sent to the Private Selection program or used in their blends. What a shame!

What’s in the 2024 SmBLE?

Since I’m on the topic of recipes, I decided to update the chart I made last year that shows how often each recipe has been used over the last 17 releases. It becomes immediately clear that there are four primary ones that Four Roses likes to concentrate on. What’s more telling is that it also might be telling us which recipes have the propensity to mature better than others over a longer period of time. I’m guessing the delicate floral notes in Q and F recipes aren’t well-known for holding up to the barrel influence after more than a decade of maturation.

With that said, there is one significant change this year, the addition of the OESF recipe. Even more surprisingly is the fact it makes up the largest percentage of barrels this year. Here are the breakdown of recipes and their ages:

31% OBSV (12 Years Old) Barrels
23% OESK (15 Years Old) Barrels
39% OESF (16 Years Old) Barrels
7% OBSV (20 Years Old) Barrels

B = High Rye Mash Bill: 60/35/5 E = Low Rye Mash Bill: 75/20/5

Moving on from all this recipe talk, Four Roses is one of the least-talked about bourbon producers that have large stocks of ultra-aged barrels in their inventory. When it comes to producers who regularly put out whiskey aged over 18 years, enthusiasts typically think of Heaven Hill or Buffalo Trace. But Four Roses has quietly been showing us they have plenty of 18+ barrels of their own. Just look at the random Father’s Day releases, the 20-year-old Gift Shop Opening release and their annual Small Batch Limited Edition.

The 2024 release is no different and even seems to reinforce the assumption that there are significant stocks of 20+ year old barrels of OBSV tucked away. So how is this year’s release with all of that old bourbon in it? Thanks to my friend James, I get to find out. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Initial scents are bright and fruity with plenty of herbal notes. If I was given this blind, I may have guessed it’s a rye whiskey. Sweet notes mainly revolve around wildflower honey, marshmallow fluff and those “fruit cocktail” (peach, cherry, pear) cups that had added syrup inside. Rye notes that stuck out include mint, fennel and non-descript floral notes. Spices are somewhat light on the nose and include cinnamon dust and grated nutmeg.

Palate: Each sip delivers a very rye-forward experience. Those non-descript floral scents really translate over to the tongue along with herbal notes like mint and ginger root. Fruit notes come courtesy of candied fruits, cherry licorice, tart lemons and berry (raspberry & blackberry) flavors. Honey is the dominant sweet note I’m finding whereas in previous years it’s been brown sugar or caramel. Spice notes include cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. I’m surprised how little oak I find considering the average age of all the recipes used in the blend.

Finish: The spice notes are most dominant on the finish with cinnamon, nutmeg and anise taking over. I expected the tannic notes from those 20-year-old barrels to show up at the end, but the oak continues to stay somewhat out of reach. Instead, it’s the rye flavors like mint, menthol and citrus rind that tilt the fading flavors towards a brighter ending than you’d expect.

Score: 8.3/10

As luck would have it, I recently had a blind pour of the 2015 Small Batch Limited Edition. I had written down my notes and – realizing the possibility of a comparison to the 2024 release – immediately poured some of the 2024 Small Batch Limited Edition. The similarities were striking. Both are rather odd for their lineage in the way that they have a brighter profile up front, but lack the depth typically found in other years. Both also depend a lot on rye, spice and fruit notes. Tannins and sweetness aren’t their strongest characteristics.

How did the 2024 release differ so much from the other recent releases? One thought I had was just how much the OESF barrels must have influenced the final flavor profile. It’s rare to see OESF picks in the wild (OBSO and OESF are two of the most rare recipes to find) and that means there are a lot of enthusiasts without much experience tasting them. I find that whenever a person has little experience with a certain profile that it can taste off to them. So are people rejecting this year’s release because they don’t have much experience with the OESF recipe? Or is there something else going on?

On a side note, I personally own only 3 OESF Private Selection picks and find they lean heavily towards honey and mint (ironically, one is a Liquor Barn pick named “Honeybear”). Did Four Roses do the right thing by using such a large percentage in this year’s blend?

Final Thoughts

While this isn’t my favorite Small Batch Limited Edition release, it’s also not the worst. It’s really all about context. If you’re coming into this expecting a repeat of the 2023 release, you’ll be disappointed. I recommend coming into it with an open mind – and an appreciation for high-rye bourbons.

I struggle to write this next opinion, but I don’t think that this year’s SmBLE is much better than an excellent Private Selection release. Obviously the label carries some clout, but this is a release I won’t be encouraging others to pay high secondary prices for. With that said, I won’t exactly scorn it either. It’s an entry that showcases just how expansive the profile can be for a Four Roses product. No other producer has the range of flavor profiles that Four Roses has.

In the end, more experienced enthusiasts probably won’t be as bothered by the curveball that Four Roses threw at us this year. They know that sometimes, it’s just the way it goes with the brand. At least we can say they never give us anything boring!