Four Roses Barrel Strength Bourbon - Small Batch - 2017 Release

The origins of the Four Roses bourbon brand are disputed, but the trademark was already in possession of the Paul Jones Company when they bought the Old Prentice distillery in 1922. Old Prentice had been built in 1910 and was in possession of one of only six official US government-granted licences to distil during Prohibition.

Four Roses became one of the USA’s biggest bourbon brands after Prohibition ended, and the company was snapped up in 1943 by Canadian giant Seagram Distillers, who built Four Roses into an international bourbon brand in export markets but replaced it with a bottom shelf blended whiskey in the USA. Four Roses was bought by Kirin in 2002 after Seagram was dismantled, and this historic bourbon brand has now returned to its home market to great acclaim.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.