Four Roses Is Releasing a Mizunara Cask-Finished Bourbon
Since its revival in the early 2000s, Kentucky distillery Four Roses has been known for making excellent bourbon using 10 different recipes, the result of having two mashbills and five yeast strains at its disposal. And none of that bourbon has been given a cask finish until now with the launch of the new Experimental Series, a Kentucky straight bourbon finished in Japanese mizunara oak barrels. We visited the distillery last spring to sample the whiskey and find out more about why it decided to join the world of cask-finished bourbon at this stage in the game.
Adding secondary maturations into the bourbon lineup is likely going to divide longtime Four Roses fans, delighting some and infuriating others. It begs the question whether the distillery is getting new directives from its new parent company, E&J Gallo Winery, who acquired it from Japanese company Kirin Holdings earlier this year. It also makes one wonder if this is a response to what is inarguably a soft whiskey market at the moment. But according to master distiller Brent Elliott, this cask finishing project started well before either of those things were a reality. “We wanted to do interesting and fun things [like this], but we didn’t have the time or resources,” he said at the distillery last spring. “I was amazed at how excited Gallo was to learn about what we wanted to do. There’s a scale—you have legitimate innovation, and straight-up gimmick. I think we’re doing the former.” And don’t worry, this doesn’t mean a flavored whiskey is next. “Gallo is not like, ‘Peach has been in the news lately,’” he laughed. “That’s not their approach.”
Experimental Series No. 001 is obviously the first of this new Four Roses series, and it’s also a pretty good start to this new secondary maturation program. The bourbon was produced from the distillery’s OBSK recipe, meaning it was made from the “B” high-rye mashbill and “K” yeast strain. It was aged for six years and then finished in mizunara oak barrels sourced from Japan at the distillery in Lawrenceburg, Ky. and bottled at 104 proof. The result is very obviously a mizunara finish, with prominent notes of incense, spice, and dried and fresh fruit on the palate. These complement the bourbon’s core vanilla, maple, and oak notes instead of washing them out.
Experimental Series No. 001 will be available starting July 30 in small 375-ml bottles at the Four Roses Distillery Visitor Center (SRP $55). As mentioned before, this is just the first release in this new series, so we will reveal the details about future editions when we have them to share.
