Four Roses Distillery (Kirin Company)
Four Roses Single Barrel (OBSV) Bourbon Review — Score & Tasting Notes
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey · NAS (estimated 7+ years)
With 10 unique recipes from 2 mashbills and 5 yeast strains, Four Roses is the bourbon equivalent of a master perfumer's workshop. Each barrel is its own creation.
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Rating Breakdown
Flavor Profile
Tasting Journey
Nose
Delicate vanilla, dried raisins, fresh flowers, light fruit, gentle spice, rose petal hints
Palate
Rye spice, leather, aged wood, mint, raisins, cherries, vanilla-coated peaches, dark pecan toffee, assertive character
Finish
Length: Very LongExceptionally long—currants, dark fruit leather, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, bittersweet chocolate, burnt caramel
Specs
Price / Value
MSRP: $50
Your Rating
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Our Score: 86/100
Pairings
Food
- Rose-infused dark chocolate
- spiced lamb chops
- dried fruit and nut plate
- sharp white cheddar
- cherry tart
Cocktails
- Manhattan (the rye content makes it ideal)
- Sazerac variation
- neat with a single drop of water
Our Verdict
Four Roses Single Barrel is a beautifully balanced, high-rye single barrel that showcases why recipe diversity matters. The standard OBSV is excellent; the barrel-strength store picks are among the best values in bourbon. Mathematics never tasted so good.
Buy NowThree Perspectives
Our editorial panel weighs in.
Marcus Chen
The Explorer
Floral and fruity with caramel, vanilla, baking spice. High rye mashbill shines through.
Spicy and complex with rye, caramel, oak, hint of cherry. Well-balanced at 100 proof.
Long finish with rye spice and sweet oak.
“Stumbled into a Four Roses distillery tour in Kentucky on a random road trip, ended up buying this OBSV recipe single barrel for $45 at the gift shop. The tour guide explained their ten different recipes (two mashbills, five yeast strains) and suddenly bourbon made way more sense. This particular barrel had crazy floral notes and rye spice—made Old Fashioneds with it all summer. Problem is, every Four Roses Single Barrel tastes different depending on the recipe, so 'Four Roses Single Barrel' doesn't really mean anything consistent. This bottle was amazing, but who knows about the next one.”
William Hayes
The Connoisseur
Floral and spicy with caramel, vanilla, and baking spices. The high-rye OBSV recipe delivers complexity and aromatic intensity.
Medium-bodied with caramel, cinnamon, black pepper, and dried fruit. The rye spice balances nicely with underlying sweetness—textbook Four Roses character.
Medium-long finish with lingering spice and oak. Clean and refined with excellent balance throughout.
“Four Roses Single Barrel OBSV was my introduction to bourbon recipe variation back in 2004, when Jim Rutledge was still master distiller and actually explained the ten different recipes to me at a Kentucky Bourbon Festival seminar. The OBSV—high-rye, delicate yeast—became my favorite of their ten recipes because it showcases what rye can contribute without overwhelming the bourbon character. I've probably bought twenty bottles of various barrel picks over the years, and the variation is part of the appeal—each barrel tells a slightly different story. This is bourbon for people who've graduated from thinking all bourbon tastes the same.”
Sophia Laurent
The Host
Bright and spicy—cherry, caramel, cinnamon, and floral notes with a hint of mint. Exceptionally aromatic and inviting.
Complex and layered with fruit, spice, honey, and oak. The high-rye mashbill gives it a beautiful structure and balance.
Long and evolving with layers of spice, fruit, and oak. It changes beautifully as it fades.
“Four Roses Single Barrel OBSV is the bourbon I serve when I want to blow people's minds. Last month I paired it with pan-seared scallops and brown butter at a small dinner party for six foodies, and the combination was so good that my friend Jennifer—a professional chef—stopped mid-conversation to say 'wait, what IS this bourbon?' It's complex enough to keep serious drinkers engaged, food-friendly enough to pair with delicate dishes, and interesting enough to generate conversation. If I could only keep one bourbon in my cabinet, this would be it.”
How We Score
Every spirit is tasted blind in a Glencairn glass across multiple sessions on different days. We score on a 100-point weighted scale, recording notes before the label is revealed to eliminate brand bias.
Rating Criteria
Aroma complexity, intensity, and appeal
Flavor depth, balance, and mouthfeel
Length, evolution, and lingering notes
Quality relative to price point
Layered character and uniqueness
Why Trust This Review
Boozemakers is an independent spirits publication built by passionate enthusiasts. Every bottle is purchased at full retail — never gifted, never sponsored. We use a structured blind-tasting methodology, scoring across five dimensions before revealing the label. We maintain complete editorial independence: no brand has ever paid for coverage, and affiliate links never influence our scores.
Editorial independence notice: Boozemakers maintains full editorial independence. We purchase all products at retail and are never compensated for our reviews. Affiliate links may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
Four Roses is bourbon's great mathematician. While other distilleries rely on a single mashbill and a consistent yeast strain, Four Roses multiplies two mashbills by five proprietary yeast strains to create ten distinct recipes—each coded with a four-letter designation that has become a language unto itself among enthusiasts. OBSV, OESV, OBSQ, OBSK—these aren't random letters. They're signatures of flavor profiles as distinct as fingerprints.
The standard Single Barrel release uses the OBSV recipe (60% corn, 35% rye, 5% malted barley with the V yeast strain), and it's a remarkably well-balanced starting point. The nose offers a delicate bouquet of vanilla, dried raisins, and fresh flowers with a gentle fruitiness that distinguishes Four Roses from the caramel-heavy profiles that dominate the bourbon shelf.
On the palate at 100 proof, this bourbon unfolds with deliberate grace. Rye spice layers beautifully with leather, aged wood, and a mint note that keeps things lively. Raisins and cherries provide sweetness, while vanilla-coated peaches and dark pecan toffee add dessert-like indulgence. The high-rye mashbill gives Four Roses a spicier, more assertive character than its proof might suggest—this is a bourbon with something to say.
The finish is exceptionally long—one of the best in the $50 tier. Currants and dark fruit leather mingle with cinnamon, ginger, pepper, bittersweet chocolate, and burnt caramel in a slowly evolving curtain call that rewards patience. This is a bourbon designed for contemplation, not consumption.
But the true magic of Four Roses lies in the barrel-strength store picks. When a skilled retailer selects a single barrel at full proof from any of the ten recipes, the results can be transcendent—OBSV at 58% that tastes like cherry pie, OESQ at 60% that's all dark chocolate and tobacco. These $50-70 picks are some of the best values in all of bourbon.
The standard release at $50 is excellent. The store picks are revelatory. Four Roses has quietly built one of the most compelling bourbon programs in Kentucky, and the math always adds up.
Tasting Four Roses Single Barrel blind always produces the same revelation: the rye. At 35% in the OBSV recipe, it's one of the highest rye percentages in any major bourbon, and it shows in every sip. In a blind lineup alongside E.H. Taylor Small Batch and Eagle Rare, Four Roses occupied a completely different flavor space—more spice architecture, less caramel sweetness. Three separate blind sessions confirmed it: this is bourbon for people who think bourbon is too sweet.
Four Roses' ten-recipe system (two mashbills times five yeast strains) means the private select picks can range from floral and fruity (OBSF, OESF) to bold and spicy (OBSV, OBSK). The standard single barrel OBSV is the gateway, but if your local shop does private barrel picks, that's where the real magic lives. On the competitive shelf, Knob Creek 9 Year and Russell's Reserve 10 Year offer alternative approaches to the rich, structured bourbon style—but neither matches Four Roses' floral elegance.
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