Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition 2025 | Review

It’s one of the most anticipated bourbon drops of the year, but is it really that good?

In this review, Matt and Jason open the Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition 2025 and put it to the test. From the first nose to the final sip, we break down flavor, complexity, and whether it’s worth the chase (and the price tag).
Is this year’s Small Batch LE another masterpiece… or just a collector’s flex?

#FourRoses #BourbonReview #ArsenicCulture

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Transcript

0:00

I'm gonna tell you what they get. So raspberry preserves. I'm not picking out a specific fruit. Another one, cream covered strawberry. Okay. They're just making shit up now. Welcome back to Arsenic culture. I'm Jason I'm Matt. and we are not doing a quick shot, even though I wanna say that, but we are here today. For bourbon review, we have the 2025 Edition, four Roses, small batch limited edition. is a beautiful bottle. I cannot believe you were specifically able to personally obtain that bottle. How did you do well, you know what, this is my, it's in my possession, so that's like nine tenths of law. count? Yeah. give a shout out to our buddy Anthony, uh, from the Mashup podcast. Him and Kenny and Steven over there, but they did a review recently on this, had a guest on their show. I don't think they all loved it. I didn't listen to the whole episode. I wanted to not listen to it all until we did ours. like Four Roses? I love four Roses. I had my wild Turkey shirt on, but I like four roses. yeah, I've heard that So yeah, we're going, we're gonna try this. But now I'll, I will say, so from my experience, the four roses, I think the older stuff's a little better. So the last small batch limited edition I have enjoyed a lot was from 2019. Right. So the last probably four that I've tried, they've not loved. So this one here is released in September of 25. So this year it's the 18th time they've done it. So 18th edition proof, 109 proof. Okay. And Okay. And in age it's a blend of 13 and 19-year-old bourbons. Okay. Is that proof a little bit lower for a release like this, or is that lower for a small batch, like any kinda limited edition, I would think. But four rows is honestly a lot of their barrel strength stuff, which I love. It's low proof. So you're not gonna go above, like, you're not gonna go above probably one 30 on anything? I'd say the majority of them are between like 103 to 115. Okay. Somewhere in there. So this, this falls in the wheelhouse. Now, you know, in Four Roses they do different recipes, right? So the main thing you remember is the second letter. So B is gonna be the high rise dude give. Okay. So give me that.'cause I know we've talked about a hundred times, but I'm not, I'm not the big for rises guy. You are. So give me like the, the quick rundown, the layman's rundown of the cliff notes of like the letters So I need my cheat sheet to give you the real rundown, but I'm gonna give you the, the, the interesting, so the first letter on any recipe, ps o, that's the old apprentice distillery. That's where they're at. In Lawrenceburg it means nothing, essentially. So if theoretically, if they were open another distillery, they might be like a P not be, could be p, could be, or warehouse X. Yeah. Don't give my Four O's to do their own warehouse X, right? Yeah. So second letter is gonna be one of two things. So A, B or an E. B is the high R mash bill E is the low R mash bill. Okay, now the last one. So S is gonna be, what does it stand for? It stands for straight whiskey. So you got four letters. Your first and your third really, really don't matter. They're just there. They're just there. You can just have a second and a fourth letter. You just need a second and a fourth. But. So the ones we're looking at here, it's a, the third, sorry, the fourth letter is gonna be the yeast strain itself. So they have different ones. They got a Q an O, A V and a K. I find it surprising that they have so many yeast strains when it seems like a lot of, uh, distilleries usually kind of hone in on one. Sure. Turkey. Got Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I feel like that is, it's almost like a standardization to their process. It's like, 'cause the yeast does a lot of work and to have that many yeast strains, I mean, that's kudos to them to, to venture out like that. But that could, in inter enter, that could introduce a lot of, not volatility into your product, Tons of variables. A lot of of variables. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So again, so we're looking at this and you could do, you could do combinations. So you can have the B high R mash bill, and you can combine that with the a v, you know, like that yeast strain or the E, whatever it is. I would venture to say most people pay attention to the mash bill. Yes. And, um, probably want to say they pay attention to the T strain, but they probably don't well, what they do on their, their neck tag. So if you get a four ohs, uh, single barrel barrel strength, they have a neck tag on it that tells you what the meanings are. So it also gives you tasty notes, right? It might be bright floral, it could be earthy, different, different tasting notes for that. So this one though, it's a blend of 13-year-old O-B-S-V-O-E-S-V and OBSK. Okay. have a 19-year-old OESV. Okay. Okay. That mean a lot to you. It does. Now So 50, know what warehouse it, I know a distillery comes from, and I know it's straight whiskey. so 55% of this total blend is the high R mashville. 45% is Lowry. So what are you thinking on the news? Um, it is, it's, it is spicy. It is, I think it has a high spice quotient. It's got, it's got a little bit of heat for me, like at 109 proof. I wouldn't expect that. feel odd. It's also my second pour whiskey of the day, so This might be my third. So doesn't count. have you had this one No. First time trying it. Thanks Anthony, wherever you Yeah, ma'am. So do you get any tasty notes from it? I'm I'm gonna need subsequent sips. Um, because I was expecting a lot more up front. And um, it's not dry, but it is a little plain. It's a little dry, It's a little dry too. Yeah. First sip too. We'll go. We'll go back and revisit. So on the nose there's some, there's some nose nosy notes they have. So do you get I actually enjoy the nose. I get a little bit of spice and I get a little bit of Okay. Okay. I don't know that I'd pick any of these. I'd. I'd pick two of 'em out. Vanilla and leather. Okay. I could pick on everything, but you get mixed berry compote. No, what the fuck, like a jam kind of thing? No, that's, I guess. that's a little deep. Yeah. and a lot oatmeal cookie crumble. Mm. No. Maybe, maybe I don't know. I feel like you probably get down anything though, So like I, I might go towards like the cinnamon you would get in an oatmeal cookie, could see cinnamon. Yeah. Yeah. I think even that light, like the, the spice I'm getting is, is more, is more of a culinary spice. Um, Just overall, yeah, but I am getting, I'm getting some sort of like, almost like a biscuity kind of sweetness on there. Maybe it's an oatmeal cookie they're talking about a they could be. Yeah, exactly. Exactly taste wise, you getting any different tasting notes? I'm a little bit more the second time. Um, it coats my palate. It's full, it's a full coat. It gets, it gets, you know, the front, the mid, the back. The front to me is a little bit dry, but weirdly enough it's like juicy in the middle, like it's kind of making my mouth water a little bit. Yeah, Yeah. Do finish is a little dry for me, but it's long. It's actually getting better as it's going So I'm getting that dry finish too, and it's almost a little thin, which is not helping with the dryness at all. Um, a finish still going for me though, like it's still going. see, I was, I was really hoping for a little more depth with this one. Um, I wouldn't go as far as saying it's bad, but it's like the notes that I'm picking out are the generic notes right now. You know, I'm getting a tiny bit of, of vanilla on there. Tiny bit of sweetness. Um, as far as bourbons go on the generic definition, it's a bourbon. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? It's a real odd combination for me. I get dry and juicy mid palette, which is really weird to my palette. I'm not sure I'm there with I'm not, I'm not even getting the juicy, like I'm getting a little bit of that like kind of heat tingle on there too at 1 0 9, like, you know, that's over a hundred, but that's nothing like, remember when we drank that, that Russell 15, um, the last time and that was, that was so smooth. And that was one what, 28 or we, I don't remember on that. We had the, we had the 13 actually, and then we or the Russell Russell 13. Russell's 13. And then the, the masters keep Beacon, right? I should have the notes so I could tell you what they But that thing they're like one 18. One I thought. Okay. I thought it was one 20 plus. probably wrong. I could be. Of course. It's on my like eighth page of notes here. just flipped through your novel. Oh, there it is. Uh, 118 proof on the Beacon, Russell's thirteen's 123.8. you go. Both of them drank under right. But that Russell's was super smoothing. Granted. Well see. Okay. You had that one open for a long time. We discussed that. This one has probably been open at least a week. Two weeks. Two Oh, okay. So this is okay. it's had time. Yeah. So, yeah. alright, well let's talk a little bit more about tasting. So I'm gonna tell you what they get, so. Raspberry preserves. I'm not picking out a specific fruit. I got juiciness, but I don't know that I'd even call it They're really going that fruit angle and like, again, like with the, with some of the other aspects, I could, prob I can get a twinge of, of something like sweet kind of like, uh, jammy in there. But honestly it's not enough to warrant a tasting note in my opinion. You know what I mean? Another one, cream covered strawberry. Okay. They're just making shit up now. I mean, that's really, that is super specific. That is really specific. Last one, one, vanilla bean ice cream. Yeah, so like I, but that goes back to, you know, vanilla. Yeah. Yeah. I could kind of get that. I could, I could kind of get that. Other ones are just baking spice, which you both agree. It's there. baking brown probably the most prominent. Yep, yep. Those are the most prominent ones. Yeah. I could see I, again, I get juicy. I don't know that I get fruity either way. So it's getting a lot of mixed reviews, I think. I don't think it's in anybody's like best of the year right now that I've seen, but it's getting some people loving it, some people not loving it. So it's all, it's kind of all over the place. ask you this, how much was that you this, how much was that? That's what I was getting ready to go to. I'm glad, I'm glad you Yeah. Perfect segue. one is, wasn't I right down two 50? goy, This is, this is $30 more than last year. Probably the last one I got to buy for retail was about one 60. So it's what, How many years ago was that one? probably 2018. Oh, oh, okay. 2019. I got somewhere around there. So five, six years ago it went up $9. So secondary three 50. Not a ton of difference on there. And then bottle I don't of these think they made? I I feel like three 50 is a pretty big jump from two 50. Well, not for the, not for the rarity, yeah. But I, for percentage wise, I mean that's, you know, that's like another third, you but not for secondary, secondary big. But if you look at the Wild Turkey though, we looked at the masters keep, I think we both agree that's better. Well God, that was like heads and shoulders better. That was but their cost, I think it was like three and a quarter Mssrp ish. Right? Four and a quarter secondary. So still about a hundred Exactly. And the thing is with that one, like as much as I hate how expensive bourbon has gotten, I know it's coming down. Um, secondary's coming secondary's coming down. Well, I think primary is gonna follow suit, hopefully, but, um, I think that one, like the, the, that wild Turkey beacon was borderline justifiable for that price as fucking, as expensive as it was. You Yeah. You thought about me and Jordan said yes. Drew's no, but I get it. Yeah. eh, this one I might, I, if I paid secondary for this one, I think I'd be pissed. Yeah, I think I would actually be angry if I paid retail on it. I think I'd still be like, eh, it would be something that I would bring and maybe the parties let other people try. That's a, that's $125 bottle Okay, so for a limited edition bottle, how many, how many bottles do you think they made to this? Take a guess. 2000? thousand eight hundred fifty Oh God. Okay. That's real So it's not too limited. But here's the problem. You'll never see this in the wild. Or if you do, you'll see a store that's a museum that has it for $900 and you're like, I can buy it on the secondary page. It doesn't exist. 4, 3 50 or under. So let's talk one more thing. So small batch barrel, or sorry, single barrel, barrel strength. Four roses, which I love. Those are different recipes. Single barrels, they used to be about $65. Yeah, I they've crept up to like the cheapest. You'll see one before tax is 90, most of 'em running 1, 100, 1 10 plus. So it shows you how much they've actually imp increased that cost over Yeah, and that's, I mean, I feel like that's across the board with bourbon in general. I feel like I, I had this discussion with somebody other day. I think bourbon retail is about two years behind bourbon secondary, so you see bourbon secondaries coming down. You see bourbon retail still still up. It's not, it's, it's getting ready to come down, but it's Right. There's either, we, we had talked about this years ago, not too many years ago, but probably three or four years ago, we had a discussion on one of our episodes. About the secondary market, about how prices were so inflated because retail was, uh, the retail prices were like so reasonable. And then we had a discussion. I remember this, I can't remember exactly what direction everybody lent, but it was something to the degree of retail needs to raise their prices to come and, uh, parody with secondary. Otherwise, secondary's just gonna keep going on. Uh, retailers are gonna lose money, distillers are gonna lose money, and the secondary's just gonna go outta control, and it's gonna become more, uh, profitable and bigger than the actual primary retail market. But yeah, secondary's coming down and like you said, and now retail's like, oh yeah, we need to come up. And it's like, well, parity's gonna lap, they're gonna, they're gonna swap and then all of a sudden they're gonna start losing money. money. I think though, when you talk to like bourbon nerds for that perspective myself, I'd include in that. I'd include in that. But we did it to ourselves. Yeah. We a hundred percent did it to ourselves. So. We made the secondary market. And with these big companies or any company, you're a business, you're tired of seeing me or whoever's selling it or whatever, making a profit off your product and not doing anything with it. So hell, if they're selling it for 500, let's raise the price from a hundred to kind of catch up. I wonder if, yeah, I wonder if there were a few key players that tried that and some of the other key players were watching to see what happened. Um, I think of like, will it and like their prices Number and you saw what happened with them, now they've kind of, they've fallen that's what I'm saying. And I wonder if people like Four Roses and maybe Buffalo Trace were just watching just to see, 'cause Willow wasn't huge, but like they had a big They had that niche right there. Like it was, it was the, it was the beer nerd. It was the, the shoe collectors. Everybody's like this weird and, and rare characters doing it now. That's what they've kind of taken over the torch from Millett. They just had a big event in Nashville not too long ago. Like you got a custom pair of shoes. A custom like bag to carry your bourbon in and like glasses, maybe a hat. I'm like, what? They like bottle openers, cut to wax, like do you, what do you think of that? What do you think of that? Uh, I, I don't enjoy it. I think, I think what I would enjoy, like where would I ever wear a custom pair of bourbon shoes? I think it to a bourbon I think it depends on the shoes. So if they're, if they're Air Force One or right, but if they're clean air force ones, you know what I mean? And they maybe just have like a brown stitching or something like that, that they're not. They're, they're not clean. They're, they're, yeah. I figured they're not, I figured that, but I'm just saying like, there's an example, there's a hypothetical example to where that might work. Um, the problem that you're running into is exactly what you're saying is that it's not about the product anymore, it's about the marketing and the branding, and all of a sudden you're selling a name, not a bourbon, and it's like, do you want us or do you want the juice? And that's a fair question to ask honestly, because a lot of people are in it for the hype. And um, just like you said, that's like kind of what will it was chasing sure. No, they were, they were a hundred percent. I don't think anybody denied that, but No. So I think, I think we just saw that. So let's talk about value or like what we're thinking. Would you buy this? I think we already answered at two 50, uh, retail. Okay. I'd, I'd be, man, I don't know that I could either. And I love four O's. It's like, after having it, even, it's good. I I might go two on it, right? Like, I think, I think for me you said I think one 50 sell one 50. It's a 1 25 for me. I don't think go I don't think I go above See, like at towards the end it actually got a little warm hole in my hand and, and some of like the, the brown sugar notes were a little more pronounced and I love that, you know, it's good. It's still not deep enough, it's still not complex enough for me to warrant $250, like It didn't secondary at three 50. Neither one of us would buy there. So, um, let's talk about rating. Let's talk about a, what we do. Yeah, let's talk about never say die bourbon, which is always a good pour. And it's definitely not $250. I don't know. Is it not? No. No not very much. Not. Uh, but these are our sponsors. These guys are great. You need to check 'em out at a liquor store near you. Uh, aged at sea. Temporarily. Temporarily, partially as they're shipped out to England. Then they come back. Um. could they make the whole sea of bourbon and then just, you know, And they actually, the sea is the bourbon and they just dip into it and Makes total sense to me. A little salty, It's a little salty. Yeah. But anyways, what were you they also sponsored our water glasses. know. Yeah, yeah. Right on So we gotta rate this one. So we're going from a zero to five scale 0.25 increments. What are you thinking? You know, I gotta factor in value. I always factor in value. That's part of it. I can't, I can't go just blanket based on taste. Um, so that's kind of, if it's kind of like two strikes against it, um, it's not a bad product, it's just not a good product for how much it is. Um, so. If I was offered this, I would drink it in a heartbeat and be like, thank you. This is Oh, I'd revisit it. Yeah, for sure. would definitely, um, but I'm not seeking this out again. I'm gonna go 3, 2, 5. Okay. I, I like four roses, so my bias is there. Um, I didn't love this one. I'm gonna go 3, 7, 5. That's low for me, for four roses. Sure, sure. Yeah. Um, I've, I've had single barrel barrel strands. Just one thread, one single barrel barrel that I like better. Yeah. And especially the gold necks, the older ones. That's kind of hard to say out loud. It's, it's, I actually impressed I got through that one, but. Um, I have some single barrel picks at home, um, that are, that I like better than this one. And the 20 19, 20 17, 20 14. They beat the hell outta this one. So there you go. Thanks for tuning in wherever you are. If you locked us, uh, keep watching and then lock and subscribe and all the social medias. Especially on YouTube, and we just hit thousand hit a thousand. We'll give ourselves a hand. I thought for sure. We dropped back down to like nine. Nine, but it didn't happen. We stayed a Let's keep going back and forth. Yeah, so I think we can actually go live on YouTube now with a bigger audience. So thank you all very much.