Every Bottle Of Four Roses Bourbon, Power Ranked From Good To Great

Four Roses is one of the most beloved bourbon brands in the world, and for good reason.

With a storied history dating back to 1888, and currently ten and soon to be twenty total grain recipes in its arsenal, the brand boasts an enviable breadth of flavors and an unparalleled legacy to its credit. With all of that to its name, Four Roses is perhaps most beloved for the way it’s able to deliver so many unique flavor experiences under its barrel proof single barrel series. The success of those offerings has since led to the brand releasing a tasting kit with 10 miniature bottles, one of each recipe currently in its repertoire, so that fans can experience them all without having to search high and low for their barrel strength equivalents (the bourbon in the tasting kit is notably proofed down to 52% ABV).

Aside from its 10 recipes, made up of five yeast strains and two mash bills, Four Roses is also notable for having some of Kentucky’s only single-story rickhouses. With barrels maturing on only six different tiers, there’s less, albeit still discernible, differentiation from one tier to the next. It might seem like a limiting factor, but Four Roses fans will tell you just how much the flavors can vary from recipe to recipe and tier to tier, with many of them staking their claim on a single set of variables and sticking to it in their purchasing habits.

The good thing is that for those who are less interested in the minutiae, and simply want the best bourbon available without having to think about it, Master Distiller Brent Elliott has taken out the guess work with award-winning blends like Four Roses Small Batch Select, and the brand’s premium offering, Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon. The former is a regular release that’s matured for 6-7 years, hits shelves at about $60, and combines a blend of six recipes — OBSV, OBSK, OBSF, OESV, OESK, and OESF. The latter is a highly allocated annual release with a blend that changes each year and is designed to showcase those diminutive rickhouses’ most outstanding barrels.

With that background out of the way, you may be asking yourself one final question: What’s the best bourbon Four Roses makes? I’ve tasted them all, and I’ve rounded up and ranked them all for you.

Here is every bottle of Four Roses Bourbon, ranked from good to great!

• • We Blind Taste Tested Bourbons Between $35-$230 In Search Of The ‘Smoothest’ — The Winner Shocked Us
  • These Are The 20 Best Bottles Of Buffalo Trace Whiskey Ever, Ranked
  • The Best Double Gold Bourbons From The 2025 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Ranked
  • The Best Bourbons Over 120-Proof, Power Ranked For Hot Sipping
  • Breaking Down The 24 Bottles That Every Bourbon Fan Needs In Their Collection

9. Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon

ABV: 45%
Average Price: $30

The Whiskey:

Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon blends four of the brand’s recipes: OBSK, OESK, OBSO, and OESO, to create one product. The whiskeys are aged for six to seven years before being blended, cut with soft Kentucky water, and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose on Four Roses Small Batch bourbon opens with a nice, inviting wave of honey, torched orange peel, and apricots, before revealing a hint of black pepper spice. There are some slightly sour notes, with red berries featuring prominently in this regard, and some clove and nutmeg in the mix as well.

Palate: Once on the palate, this whiskey is all red berries (think ripe raspberries), and salted caramel. On a second sip, there’s a bit of red apple flavor to go with faint citrus tones, a splash of dilute honey, and youthful oak. Some sweetgrass notes, allspice, and sage start creeping in as it transitions to the finish.

Finish: The finish on this whiskey is fairly succinct, but it features a balanced, dialed-down display of the bourbon’s most prominent notes. That means reserved honey, apple chips, and allspice are the last partygoers on your palate.

Bottom Line:

Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon is a damn good pour that does a great job of exemplifying both the quality of the distillery’s base liquid, and the blending prowess of their team, led by Master Distiller Brent Elliott. While I tend to spring for the brand’s single-barrel expression, which sits just a few bucks above $40, when it comes to the budget-friendly options in their portfolio, this one delivers a smooth drinking experience.

8. Four Roses Bourbon

ABV: 40%
Average Price: $19

The Whiskey:

Four Roses Bourbon, the oft-overlooked entry-level offering from Four Roses, features a blend of all ten recipes that the distillery is famous for. Little-known fact: Four Roses regularly utilizes slightly older bourbon in these blends, which is part of the reason they eschew an age statement. It’s also part of the reason that this remarkably consistent expression is so damn good.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose on Four Roses Bourbon begins with a touch of honeysuckle, the floral aspect of rosewater, and stone fruits like white peach and Golden Delicious apples.

Palate: On the palate, this whiskey is surprisingly spry, as the lean mouthfeel allows notes of black tea, white peach, and honey to coast over your tongue. A touch of vanilla and black pepper spice can be found as each sip transitions from midpalate to the finish, which adds a bit of nuance to the generally light flavor profile.

Finish: On the finish is where the sweet notes make their final stamp, with honey and vanilla leading the way as this pour succinctly falls off the palate.

Bottom Line:

Four Roses Bourbon is one of the best easy-going bourbons that money can buy, and it’s one I regularly keep on hand for the hotter summer months. While it’s a fairly straightforward whiskey when enjoyed neat, follow this tip for summer sipping: pop it in the freezer and pour heartily when you need a refreshing drink that’s a tad bit stronger than water. It’s as smooth as silk, and that approachability puts it a hair above Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon for me.

7. Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon OBSF

ABV: 50%
Average Price: $54

The Whiskey:

Four Roses’ OBSF recipe is said to have “delicate rye and mint” with high-rye mashbill B combined with the herbal tones from yeast strain F. The OBSF recipe was one of the components in Four Roses’ award-winning 2017 Al Young 50th Anniversary Limited Edition Small Batch.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Surprisingly vegetal with dark chocolate, allspice, and lavender showing up in a major way. Herbal tea and spearmint are definitely at the core of this recipe, but there are certainly some interesting accents, allspice chief among them, that help to elevate the nose of this whiskey.

Palate: Maple candy, honey, black pepper, and a surprising vegetal aspect reminiscent of radicchio come through. Talk about interesting. On another sip, the vegetal note identifies itself more overtly as mintiness, and the mouthfeel is warming without being overwhelming.

Finish: More minty flavors with a touch of clove, caramel, and barrel char begin to blossom on the finish. It has a medium length that works well with the overall flavor profile.

Bottom Line:

While the flavors in this OBSF expression aren’t as harmonious as I would like, several impressive notes work well on their own. OBSF is one of those recipes that distinctly knows what it is and does well to take you to its preferred destination from nose to palate and through the finish. It isn’t my favorite recipe, but it is consistent.

6. Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon OBSV

ABV: 50%
Average Price: $44

The Whiskey:

This bottle, a single-barrel version of Four Roses’ OBSV recipe (learn about all of their recipes here), is an absolutely classic bourbon. The brand describes the OBSV recipe as having a delicate, fruit-forward yeast and a high-rye mash bill.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nosing notes are resplendent with red berries as the aroma of raspberries and black cherries leap out of the glass, along with a touch of sage, singed mint, Brazil nuts, and blood oranges. This is one expressive and inviting nose.

Palate: On the palate, those flavors continue to develop as the blood orange fuses with black cherries, and they’re joined by black pepper spice, singed mint, sage, and even a bit of cedar at midpalate. The juxtaposition of citrus, sweetness, woodsiness, and baking spice might seem like a cacophony of flavors, but they all come together harmoniously.

Finish: The finish is where the baking spice slightly wins out over the fruit-forward notes as it lingers with medium length on the tongue, sizzling the tip and leaving bits of bright cherry and Valencia orange meat on the back end.

Bottom Line:

Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon is packed with flavor but still maintains an approachability and sweetness that will make it appealing to connoisseurs and novices alike. Furthermore, it has a berry-forward flavor profile that absolutely shines when enjoyed neat, but it still lands at a price point that makes it fair game for mixing in cocktails.

5. Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon OESK

ABV: 50%
Average Price: $54

The Whiskey:

Take a close look at Four Roses’ OESK recipe, high in corn with the “slight spice” yeast strain, because it is a sight to see. Want some proof? 12 of the last 14 Limited Edition Small Batch expressions have featured OESK in the blend.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Clove and nutmeg lead the way with this alluring nose while toffee can be found at the periphery flittering through the air. One word that comes to mind? Versatile. This OESK plays a lot of the traditional “bourbon aroma” hits and accents them with a slightly herbal tone and some gentle oak.

Palate: Mellow baking spices come tumbling over the tongue at first with a lot of red apple, and candied ginger flowing soon thereafter. The mouthfeel on this OESK recipe is a bit quotidian, but the punch of flavor that it packs with each sip is formidable, and the freshness of the fruit notes in particular is worth savoring.

Finish: Features like white pepper, fresh Granny Smith apples, rich vanilla, and clove can be found on the finish of OESK. The baking spice is truly what punches through the most, leaving a slight tingling sensation behind.

Bottom Line:

Sure, all ten Four Roses recipes display some of the brand’s core elements, but OESK is definitely one of the more middle-of-the-road expressions, and that’s meant in a good way. OESK is a winner in that it displays many of the hallmark mellow spices that Four Roses is known for, as well as more classic bourbon notes like caramel, oak, and chocolate.

4. Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon OESO

ABV: 50%
Average Price: $54

The Whiskey:

Four Roses’ high corn mashbill meets their rich fruit yeast for this recipe. OESO is a component in Four Roses Bourbon and Small Batch bourbon but it also made an appearance in the Jim Rutledge 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Single Barrel back in 2007.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Floral notes kick things off with rye spice and peanut brittle floating in soon after. As some slight smoke introduces itself there’s also a touch of dark chocolate which draws you in for deeper inhalation. Once you take that deep breath, more aromas like herbal tea and even some slight paprika will be there to greet you with open arms.

Palate: Herbal tea and black pepper blast off on the palate with a lot of sweet, bright maraschino cherry flavors and a touch of honey. This is one for the sweet-toothers but the herbal tea notes are joined by a touch of menthol at midpalate which is a refreshing break in the middle of all those sugary notes.

Finish: A few dashes of black pepper, cinnamon, apple chips, and gentle tannic tones form a ring around the sweet notes from the palate. With only a moderate length, it’s impressive that these new notes, and the addition of fresh clove, really put a bow on every sip, providing the perfect climax to OESO’s nuanced flavor profile.

Bottom Line:

OESO’s bright cherry notes really send this pour into the stratosphere but on your journey to outer space, it offers plenty of stars to see along the way. Peanut brittle, herbal tea, and menthol notes all make stunning appearances and the restrained finish allows the perfect amount of time for all of those disparate parts to pull themselves together and reach their full potential.

3. Four Roses Small Batch Select Bourbon

ABV: 52%
Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

Four Roses Small Batch Select uses six of the brand’s ten recipes (OBSV, OBSK, OBSF, OESV, OESK, and OESF) for a unique blend concocted by Master Distiller Brent Elliott and ages the liquid for six to seven years before batching, lightly proofing, and bottling it all up.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: On the nose, Four Roses Small Batch Select offers cola nut, bright red cherries, black pepper, nutmeg, and clove with some oak and caramel tones following behind those initial top notes. It’s robust and inviting, with a lovely baking spice presence that displays a ton of balance.

Palate: Four Roses Small Batch Select hits the palate with a full-bodied richness that coats your tongue and sends you mining your taste buds to discover the flavor of jammy cherries, nutmeg, black pepper, and honeyed black tea. The texture would count as its defining quality if it weren’t for the impressive balance of the flavors ever-so-slightly outperforming the viscous mouthfeel.

Finish: The lingering finish is where you’ll find vanilla extract, raspberries, brown sugar, and a light mint note, which reminds you that this is a robust Four Roses bourbon.

Bottom Line:

Four Roses Small Batch Select is such a great option to buy in this price range. Because it tends to get overlooked when folks are shopping for bottles under $50 and passed over for pricier bottles when they’re feeling spendier, it’s possible you’ve overlooked one of the very best bourbons in Four Roses’ entire lineup. That needs to change today.

2. Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Proof Bourbon

ABV: Varies by the bottle
Average Price: $120

The Whiskey:

Four Roses Single Barrel, offered at Barrel Proof, is one of the single-barrel bourbon world’s best offerings. Not only does Four Roses make all ten of its recipes available in the single-barrel program, but by offering them at an undiluted strength, it showcases their distillate in its purest form every time. This particular single barrel is a nine-year and ten-month version of the OESV recipe.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Juicy orange rinds, bright red cherries, and sweet brown sugar aromas come flying out of the glass with this delicious bourbon freshly poured. There’s also a touch of sage, vanilla frosting, and tobacco leaf to be found.

Palate: Brown sugar and red currants are the most immediately available flavors to download once you take a first sip of this single-barrel bourbon. The dense oak introduces some clove and mellow black pepper baking spice notes, as well as grips the palate and pushes towards the finish.

Finish: The finish is mellow and lingering, with figs and cherries fusing with juicy orange notes and barrel char before pulsing off your palate.

Bottom Line:

No matter the recipe, Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Proof Bourbon is an exemplar of the single-barrel format, though we do have our favorites. There’s a case to be made that this is Four Roses bourbon in its purest form, and if that’s a notion you subscribe to, then you definitely would agree that this is one of the best bourbons available today.

1. Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon 2024

ABV: 54.1%
Average Price: $220

The Whiskey:

Four Roses’ highly anticipated Limited Edition Small Batch for 2024 has finally been announced, and we were able to get a first taste of it. For this year’s release, Master Distiller Brent Elliott opted to blend three of Four Roses’ ten bourbon recipes with a 12-year-old OBSV, 15-year-old OESK, 16-year-old OESF, and more OBSV, this time at 20 years old, to create the final product.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose is initially floral with ripe apples, butterscotch, and butter pecan ice cream. Faint bits of dark chocolate, star anise, and tobacco leaf help to round out the beautiful bouquet of aromas.

Palate: The butterscotch and apple note really pops on the palate off the bat. The whiskey is well-rounded with a mellow black pepper baking spice tone to go with a more pronounced helping of cinnamon bark, pecans, and brown sugar. The range of flavors reminds me a lot of fried apple pie with a splash of citrus zest. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied and enhances the depth of the flavors without becoming an attraction unto itself.

Finish: The finish has a mature oak backbone with the additional flavor of caramel chews and Fuji apple skin. It’s medium-length, but that brevity really works, urging your focus on the next sip rather than your last.

Bottom Line:

If you want evidence that 2024 was the best year for bourbon releases in recent memory, look no further than this bottle here. Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch is annually considered one of the stars of the fall-release schedule and its consistently high quality is indicative of why. In another year, this could’ve easily been the best or, at worst, second-best bourbon of the year, which goes to show how thin the margin was between each of the expressions on 2024’s “Best Bourbons Of The Year” list.

When it comes to the best bottle of Four Roses in all of the land, there’s no topping this annual delight.