An 8 year old single barrel Four Roses selected by the distillery and bottled for sale at its own Kentucky gift shops. These barrel strength bottlings rarely travel far from Lawrenceburg, and each one shows a single recipe and a single cask.
About This Bourbon
Gift shop single barrels are chosen by the master distiller and bottled straight from one cask with no water added and no chill filtration, so strength and flavour change from barrel to barrel. The label records the recipe code, warehouse, barrel number and exact age, so check the bottle for those details. At around eight years old these bottlings usually sit at the point where the grain is still lively but the oak has added caramel and spice.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Vanilla and caramel with red fruit, cinnamon and a floral edge from the Four Roses yeast.
- Palate: Full and lively. Toffee, ripe cherry and baking spice over a sweet corn base, with rye pepper building.
- Finish: Long and warm, drying to oak, clove and a little mint.
Serving & Food
Check the proof on the label first; at barrel strength most people add a splash of still water. Smoked duck or roast pork belly work, as does a slice of pecan tart.
How to Enjoy
Four Roses fans who want a barrel strength single cask that was never widely sold outside the distillery.
Product Details
Producer: Four Roses Distillery
Expression: 8 Year Single Barrel, distillery gift shop selection
Category: Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey
Country: USA
Region: Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
Age: 8 years
Strength: Barrel strength, varies by barrel (see label)
Filtration: Non-chill filtered
Volume: 750mL
About the Distillery
Four Roses was trademarked by Paul Jones Jr. in 1888. Its distillery at Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, a Spanish Mission style building from 1910, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Japan's Kirin owned the company from 2002 until April 2026, when it passed to E. & J. Gallo of California. Barrels age in single-storey rack warehouses at Cox's Creek, where temperatures stay more even than in tall rickhouses.
The distillery works with two mash bills, B at 60% corn and 35% rye and E at 75% corn and 20% rye, and five house yeast strains coded F, K, O, Q and V. Crossing them gives ten recipes, each written as a four-letter code on the label, such as OBSV or OESK.