I wasn’t sure that I could contribute much on a straight review of any of these Limited Edition Bourbons, especially when one of these competitors was named the Whiskey of the Year last year (the second year in a row that Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch snagged that honor), so I decided to throw them all into the same ring.  But doing that still makes my head spin.  How can I possibly rank these against each other?  Would the acclaim of last year’s 125^th Anniversary Small Batch put subconscious pressure on me to rank it highest?  Or maybe I’ll be expecting too much and score that expression too harshly?  Plus, these are all stellar and they’re all bottles that you’d better buy if you luck into an opportunity, but I have to find some way to critique them, right?

Jim Rutledge – who has been the Master Distiller at Four Roses since 1995 but is pushing 50 years of experience since he goes back to the Seagram’s days where he started in Research & Development in Louisville, before moving with Seagram’s to New York and finally to Lawrenceburg, Kentucky – is pretty much a genius.  Jim is the mastermind who finally got the rotgut off the shelves and real Four Roses available again in the U.S., although it took years of his efforts and the demise of Seagram’s before it was a reality.  Plus, Jim is gracious with his time, meticulous with his art, and proud (without arrogance) of the brand he has built.

Now we’re a dozen years into the return, ten years into Four Roses Single Barrel (OBSV), and eight years into the Limited Editions, so just under the wire before 2015, let’s review 2013 and 2014:

Four Roses 2014 Limited Edition Single Barrel – Bottle No. 2,206

Age:  11 Years

Recipe:  OESF

ABV:  54.5% (109 proof)

Cost:  $99.99

Total bottles:  7,122

The color of many Four Roses Bourbons is remarkably consistent, and the dark amber with an orange/reddish shimmer of this Limited Edition is no exception.  The nose is big, with dark fruits, cinnamon, vanilla and mint.  The 2014 Single Barrel doesn’t hold back on flavors.  It has the classic flavors of toffee and caramel with fresh orange zest followed by creamy vanilla, pear and cherry pie, leading to a bit of dark chocolate, leather and mint.  There’s a lot going on.  For the finish, the 2014 Single Barrel brings oak, cherries and fresh mint.  This is a true gem to savor and drink neat.

I had my doubts about the OESF recipe.  The lower rye content combined with the “herbal essence” yeast seemed to me like it was bound to underwhelm.  I was about as wrong as I’ve ever been about Bourbon.  Still, out of curiosity, I compared this 2014 Single Barrel to a private barrel of OESF, which was 10 years and 8 months old, and 56.6% ABV.  While the color is essentially the same, the private barrel has more floral and herbal notes both on the nose and in the taste, the fruit is not as rich, and the finish is not as long as the Limited Edition.  Overall it’s comparable, just not in the same league.  It was also a good lesson about Jim Rutledge being able to pick out the honey barrels; you just can’t match that.

Four Roses 2013 Limited Edition Single Barrel – Bottle No. 2,725

Age:  13 Years

Recipe:  OBSK

ABV:  57.7% (115.4 proof)

Cost:  $79.99

Total bottles:  6,559

I remember really anticipating this Limited Edition Single Barrel because of the combination of the “B” mash bill (higher rye) combined with the “K” yeast strain (slight spice) because I thought it would be a true powerhouse, and word has it that OBSK is one of Jim’s favorites.

Color-wise, there’s nothing significant; it’s the darker amber expected from a 13 year-old Bourbon, with a slight orange/reddish hue.  The nose is restrained but complex.  It has caramel, honey, citrus zest layered in with toasted almonds and mint.  The taste starts with sweet flavors of butterscotch and honey, pear, and banana, along with the richness of dark chocolate and dark fruits, balanced with the powerful spice that I expected to find.  The finish finally brings a little more oak into the picture, along with maple syrup, for a sweeter finish than I expected.  Overall, this was not the pure spicy beast that I expected, and instead it was full of flavors and incredibly well balanced.

Between the two – based on my expectation of the respective recipes – I thought that I would prefer the 2013 LE Single Barrel, but I actually preferred the 2014 LE Single Barrel.  Normally though, I think I will default to the OBSK.

Four Roses 2014 Limited Edition Small Batch – Bottle No. 9,224

Recipes:  OBSK (9 years); OBSV (13 years); OESV (12 years); and OBSF (11 years)

ABV:  55.9% (111.8 proof)

Cost:  $110.00 (gift shop price)

Total bottles:  12,516

After two years of winning “American Whiskey of the Year,” the 2014 Limited Edition Small Batch heaped pressure on Jim Rutledge, and he answered, while not with a “three-peat,” with an excellent Bourbon.  With a deep amber color, without approaching brown, it looks pretty standard.  The nose has caramel, pears and vanilla, noticeable citrus, and never getting drowned out by the scent of alcohol.  The taste follows up with more of the traditional caramel and vanilla, but more prominently features pear and honey for the sweetness, balanced with rye spice, pepper, clove and oak, and then some mint.  The finish is punchier and more oaky than 2013 and is medium length with great warmth.

Four Roses 2013 Limited Edition Small Batch – Bottle No. 516

Recipes:  OBSV (18 years), OBSK (13 years), OESK (13 years)

ABV:  51.6% (103.2 proof)

Cost:  $85.00

Total bottles:  12,468

I’ve tasted the 2013 Limited Edition Small Batch blind, and while I scored it very high, I didn’t score it stratospheric, as might be expected.  So in this non-blind comparison, I tried to be especially cautious about not getting swept up in the wave of accolades heaped on this award-winning whiskey, or the magic that is contained in the 18-year OBSV.

The color is standard amber, with good legs in the glass.  The nose is pretty remarkable, though.  It starts with tea, ripe pear, plum, caramel and vanilla, and also has hints of fresh sweet cherries.  The taste follows up in a huge way with the traditional caramel and vanilla, but adds the richness of dark berries and cocoa balanced with rye spice, pepper, leather and oak.  Both the nose and the taste hid the proof, or maybe that’s because this is the lowest proof of the four.  The long finish keeps the same balance has lingering warmth that slowly fades.  It had the longest finish of the four.

As good as the 2014 LE Small Batch is, the 2013 LE Small batch outshines it in every way.  The bar is so high for the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, and the 2013 LE is the standard-bearer.

The small batch winner was a no-brainer and the single barrel winner surprised me because I initially focused too much on the respective recipes.  Between these two winners, my ultimate favorite was really difficult to call, in part because they’re so similar.  The color is basically identical, the noses are similar (but I liked the 2014 slightly more), they have similar taste profiles (but the 2014 is a more robust), and the 2013 has the best finish.  I might pick one or the other on any given day depending upon mood.  Both the 2013 LE Small Batch and the 2014 LE Single Barrel are as close as I’ve considered to an outright “5” on my five-point scale.  But at post time, with the chilly December weather, it’s the 2014 single barrel for me.

A normal single barrel probably shouldn’t ever prevail over a fine-tuned small batch.  Except for a true “honey barrel,” a single barrel will almost always have a raw element that can’t be hidden, whereas with the small batch Jim can complement the strengths of certain barrels and mask minor deficiencies in others.  Still – at least over this month’s comparison tastings – I slightly preferred the robust punch of the 2014 Limited Edition Single Barrel over the lighter, perfectly balanced, flavors of the champion.

Liquor Barn’s Private Barrel OESF:  3.5

1 – Wouldn’t even accept a free drink of it.

2 – Would gladly drink it if someone else was buying.

3 – Glad to include this in my bar.

4 – Excellent bourbon.  Worth the price and I’m sure to always have it in my bar.

5 – Wow.  I’ll search high and low to get another bottle of this.

Lost Prophet is Diageo’s fourth Orphan Barrel brand, a 22 year-old Bourbon distilled at the George T. Stagg Distillery (now Buffalo Trace) and moved for storage to Stitzel-Weller in Louisville, although I cannot find a definitive answer to the question of when or why these barrels were sold to Stitzel-Weller or its subsequent owners, who continued to age Bourbon after distilling ceased there.

However, I think the reason can be put together from the status of the Bourbon industry at the time.  According to the Buffalo Trace timeline (link here), in 1991 employment at the distillery had dwindled to 50 people and the distillery was in danger of closing.  That’s when Lost Prophet was distilled.  As a reminder, lean times had struck the Bourbon industry, but the resurgence was practically around the corner for any distillery that could outlast the downturn.  The George T. Stagg Distillery had been known by several names before Prohibition, and some of my posts about Col. E. H. Taylor, Jr. have tracked its progression.

The distillery was bought in 1920 by Col. Albert B. Blanton where it served as a concentration warehouse and bottling facility for “medicinal” whiskey, and also continued to distill medicinal whiskey.  Schenley bought the distillery in 1933 and developed the Ancient Age brand with Col. Blanton still in charge of the distillery.

Ancient Age Distilling Co. bought the distillery in late December 1982, and in 1992 the Ancient Age brands, using what is now known as the Buffalo Trace mash bill #2, were sold to Takara Shuzo Co. of Japan, while the distillery itself was sold to Sazerac.  Sazerac developed other brands, eventually including its namesake Buffalo Trace, using a lower-rye mash bill, now known as mash bill #1, while continuing to use mash bill #2 for Blanton’s, Elmer T. Lee, Ancient Age, and others under an agreement with Takara Shuzo.  Given the timing of the distillation, it is not surprising that the Lost Prophet mash bill is similar to what is popularly believed to be the current mash bill #2.

So now through corporate mergers, Diageo has come to own Bourbon distilled at George T. Stagg in the last years before that floundering distillery was saved by the Sazerac turn-around.  Has it been worth the wait?

Dark amber to old copper.  Much darker than our comparison Barterhouse.

Some oak, but not overpowering.  Dark fruit, honey sweetness, corn, and clove.

This is a full, creamy Bourbon, with a prominent butterscotch flavor, along with rich fruit, vanilla, nuttiness, and a bit of leather.  Like the nose, there’s some oak, but it’s nowhere near overpowering.

Nice finish with similar sweet flavors and smokiness.

I’ll have to revisit this since it’s risky to review based on a single tasting, and I’ll hold my normal scoring until then.  I’ll also have to compare Lost Prophet one day to the other Orphan Barrel editions, but more interestingly, maybe to Elijah Craig 23.  In the meantime, from the samples provided, Lost Prophet strikes me as the best Orphan Barrel thus far, although the price dampens my enthusiasm.  Still, this one will be worth shelling out the expected retail price, and I’ll start hunting after the release later this week and next week.

Despite my relative disappointment with some recent high-priced Bourbon, my resounding praise of Elijah Craig 12-Year Barrel Proof and this year’s Parker’s Heritage Collection (“Original Wheat”) drew me back into the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience to purchase the latest $250.00 extremely limited edition Bourbon from Heaven Hill:  William Heavenhill 15-year Cask Strength.  Like last spring’s Select Stock, this bottle is only available at the gift shop in Bardstown, but a few bottles found their way to Louisville.  Unlike the wheated, Cognac-finished, Select Stock, William Heavenhill uses Heaven Hill’s standard Bourbon mash bill (75% corn; 13% rye; 12% malted barley), and there’s no fancy finishing.

What sets William Heavenhill apart from Elijah Craig 12-year Barrel Proof (aside from three additional years of aging) is that William Heavenhill was aged in barrels larger than traditional 53-gallon size.  After some inquiries, Heaven Hill gave me exclusive additional information:  they used nine out of thirteen custom-built 65-gallon barrels for this edition of William Heavenhill.  Parker Beam found these custom-made barrels – that were actually built for a different customer – and he was intrigued.  I was also told that the nine selected barrels only produced about 350 bottles, which seems low even for 15 years and cask strength, at least at average evaporation rates, but apparently three of the barrels in particular were extremely low.

Regardless, the real question is probably whether William Heavenhill is materially different when compared to a $55.00 Elijah Craig Barrel Proof?  I certainly wondered, so I opened an Elijah Craig 12-year Barrel Proof from the spring of 2014, which weighed in at a conveniently similar 134.8 proof.  Let’s see if there’s a $200 difference.

Bourbon:        William Heavenhill Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Distillery:        Heaven Hill (distilled in Louisville and aged in Bardstown)

Age:                15 years (in 65-gallon barrels, stored upright)

Proof:             135.6 proof

Cost:               $249.99

Dark brown; some of the darkest that I’ve seen.  It’s even darker than Elijah Craig 12-year Barrel Proof, which used to be the darkest Bourbon in my collection.

The nose is similar to Elijah Craig 12-year Barrel Proof, but it has more oak, and more earthy and leather tones too.  It has a nice balance of oak and spice along with caramel and cinnamon apple.  There isn’t as much burn on the nose as might be expected from the high proof, and it has noticeably less burn than the slightly lower proofed Elijah Craig (to be fair, this particular batch of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof has the hottest nose out of all of them to date).

The high proof is evident immediately, but it’s not distracting.  A little air calmed it down too, but it still has a robust blast of complex flavors.  It has the oak and leather from the nose, with an overall dry taste, but much more complexity than I expected.  The taste has fewer similarities compared to Elijah Craig 12 Barrel Proof than with the nose, but it’s clearly still related.  William Heavenhill is creamier than the Elijah Craig and definitely drier, but despite having slightly higher proof, it’s less hot on the tongue.  William Heavenhill also has a unique dry tang of black tea.  This is a remarkable Bourbon.

The finish was really long, and definitely longer than my comparison Elijah Craig, with the same spice, oak and black tea flavors carrying through from the taste.

With such a limited release and with such a premium price, I would have appreciated more attention to detail on the bottle.  The thick gold wax seal adds a nice touch, although the thickness and density of the wax made the strip really difficult to pull.  The simplicity of the bottle itself makes it attractive, but hand-labeling the warehouse information and bottle number would have been a nice gesture for anyone dropping this kind of cash.

Regardless, I pay more attention to what’s inside the bottle than its appearances, and inside it is exceptional.  It’s considerably better than my last $250 Heaven Hill purchase (the wheated, Cognac-finished Select Stock).  Unlike that Select Stock, which I didn’t recommend drinking neat, William Heavenhill’s heat doesn’t absolutely require taming.  Instead, much like Elijah Craig Barrel Proof and Parker’s Heritage Collection 8^th Ed. Original Wheat, this is a beast that can be enjoyed neat, and then you’d better cut the proof.  Adding differing amounts of water or ice gives a creamier, somewhat sweeter, taste, without sacrificing the finish.

While I really enjoyed William Heavenhill and would love to have a constant supply, I can’t say that it’s worth $200 more than Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, even though I think that this William Heavenhill is much better than my comparison Elijah Craig Barrel Proof.  On the other hand, this edition of William Heavenhill is unique, so I hope you get a chance to try it.  If I didn’t consider value, or if this were priced in the range of the suggested retail prices for many of this fall’s limited edition releases, William Heavenhill would have easily scored a 4.5, and maybe higher.  But I do account for value, so I had to adjust the score to a 3.5.

Thanks to sharp eyes and good fortune of a friend in Savannah, I just learned that Heaven Hill bottled one of its other 65-gallon barrels of the same mash bill 15-year Bourbon (bottled at 131 proof) as a private barrel under the Select Stock label.  This barrel was selected for Bourbon Bar in Atlanta, where the menu indicates a price of $40.00 per pour.  That leaves three more 65-gallon barrels unaccounted for; let the hunt begin.

1 – Wouldn’t even accept a free drink of it.

2 – Would gladly drink it if someone else was buying.

3 – Glad to include this in my bar.

4 – Excellent bourbon.  Worth the price and I’m sure to always have it in my bar.

5 – Wow.  I’ll search high and low to get another bottle of this.

I was inspired to review these after attending a Smooth Ambler tasting in September with John Foster, Director of Sales and Distiller at Smooth Ambler in Maxwelton, West Virginia.  He was a breath of fresh air in the often secretive and sometimes deceitful world of sourced whiskey, or, as Smooth Ambler calls it, “merchant bottling.”  John took us through a tasting of Smooth Ambler Yearling, a 1.5 year old wheated Bourbon, a 7 year old high-rye Bourbon sourced from MGP, a 10 year old low-rye Bourbon sourced from MGP, a 7 year old rye whiskey sourced from MGP, along with vodka, gin and a barrel-aged gin.  To top off all of those, John pulled out a sample bottle of the highly-anticipated “Contradiction,” a blend of 73% of 9 year old MGP high-rye bourbon with 27% of Smooth Ambler’s 2.5 year old wheated Bourbon.

Smooth Ambler started with the goal of distilling and selling vodka and gin while waiting for its Bourbon to age.  Realities of business, however, led Smooth Ambler to also become a non-distiller producer (“NDP”) for some of its current product line.  So unlike many NDPs who don’t distill a drop, Smooth Ambler is busy both distilling and aging its own product, as well as sourcing Bourbon from MGP in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.  Many small craft distillers simultaneously sell sourced and produced spirits, but Smooth Ambler is different because of its scale, perhaps only being topped by Willett among brands that both distill and source (Willett just got there in the reverse direction).

Smooth Ambler is also honest about the contents and provenance of its Bourbon.  Smooth Ambler freely discloses and distinguishes between what they distill and what they source.  There are no secrets about the mash bills and there’s no pretending that they found their pre-Prohibition family recipe.

I had picked up bottles of the 7-year and 10-year this past summer in Michigan (which by their batch numbers and bottling dates appear to have sat on the shelf for a year), but I hadn’t opened either one yet.  I enjoyed the tasting so much that I picked up the eight-year Single Barrel that night, and I decided that it was high time to put them to the test.  I like the proof of these three options, I like that they’re not chill-filtered, and I like that they’re in a sweet spot for aging.  With all of these things done right, let’s just hope that the Bourbon passes muster.

Here are the three, ordered by proof:

Distillery:  Sourced from MGP; Batch 30 bottled 5-29-2013

Mash Bill:  60% corn; 36% rye; 4% malted barley (MGP high-rye recipe)

Age:  7 years

Proof:  99

Cost:  $41.99

The color is deep copper trending toward light brown.  The nose is strong on rye and black pepper spice, but is balanced with caramel, slight oak, and a little mint.  The nose has great subtle flavors and is really pleasant.  Caramel and vanilla sweetness are the first tastes, but that quickly transitions to nice blast of rye, tea and pepper.  Right away you can tell that this is a remarkable Bourbon.  The medium-length finish is very warm, dry and lingering.

Distillery:  Sourced from MGP; Batch 4 bottled 6-10-2013

Mash Bill:  75% corn; 21% rye; 4% malted barley (MGP low-rye recipe)

Age:  10 years

Proof:  100

Cost:  $56.99

Interestingly, the color isn’t any different than the 7-year, which I expected given the extra time and lack of chill filtering for either.  The most noticeable differences in the nose include clear oak and corn sweetness replacing the rye spice, but it also had nuanced scents of clove, pear, honey and an old empty tobacco barn.  My first taste seemed a little hotter than 100 proof, but the heat mellowed to warmth with a little air.  The taste also has buttered corn sweetness, cocoa, roasted nuts and caramel.  I had hoped for a longer finish, but it has nice warmth and ends with a little mint.

Distillery:  Sourced from MGP; Barrel 904 bottled 9-16-2014

Mash Bill:  60% corn; 36% rye; 4% malted barley (MGP high-rye recipe)

Age:  8 years

Proof:  119.8 (barrel proof)

Cost:  $47.99

The color is essentially the same as the other two, which again puzzled me since no water was added to this one to reduce the proof for bottling.  I literally put all three in front of a light and the differences are miniscule, if there’s any difference at all.  The nose is very similar to the 7-year, although the higher proof is absolutely noticeable, and it adds scents of leather and maple syrup to the rye and black pepper spice.  The taste is partly an amped-up version of the 7-year, but it’s mostly different because of the higher proof burn.  There’s also less of a “pop” of the rye spice, and more of an even spread of the spice.  The 8-year had a similar finish too, and while the burn from the higher proof lasted longer, the flavors didn’t necessarily last as long.

 

While my clear favorite was the 7-year, go out and buy any of these.  If you prefer more oak flavors coupled with more sweetness, then the 10-year will be your choice.  But if you prefer the spice and dryness that comes with MGP’s high-rye Bourbon mash bill, you’ll prefer the 7-year or the 8-year.  There’s also less oak flavor in those two than I expected, but I didn’t miss it.

1 – Wouldn’t even accept a free drink of it.

2 – Would gladly drink it if someone else was buying.

3 – Glad to include this in my bar.

4 – Excellent bourbon.  Worth the price and I’m sure to always have it in my bar.