Four Roses PlumpJack Single Barrel Pick OESQ | 57.4% ABV | 9 years 11 months
For this quarter’s selection, we teamed up with one of our favorite historic distilleries, Four Roses, to bring you a unique single barrel pick you can only find here at PlumpJack. Four Roses is of course known for its 10 recipes composed of one of their 5 proprietary yeast strains and two mashbill recipes; each recipe serves to highlight a different expression of Bourbon, from delicate and floral to rich and spicy. We chose to share with you a recipe that’s a bit different than our normal whiskey profile: it leans lighter in body and in character, with a floral nose. The result is a gorgeous spirit that drinks easily despite packing a not insignificant ABV.
Cheers,
Brendon Pineda, Spirits, Beer and Wine Enthusiast
About the Distillery:
It’s fitting that one of the most historic distilleries in the country supposedly began with a truly romantic story. Legend goes that Paul Jones, Jr., the Founder of Four Roses, proposed to his future wife; she was not quick to give an answer. Rather, she told him he would know if she would be his wife if he saw her wearing a corsage of roses. When he saw her at the local ball wearing a corsage of four roses, he knew she was his. Jones created his whiskey distillery in 1884 out of Louisville, Kentucky’s “Whiskey Row,” and named it after this memory. The distillery went on to weather some of the most trying times of the American 20th century -- it was one of only six distilleries legally permitted to make “medicinal whiskey” during prohibition, and thus one of the few whiskey brands to survive the dry decade.
Four Roses was purchased by Seagram in 1943, and was one of the highest selling bourbons in the United States. Regardless, Seagram chose to shift production away from straight bourbon to blended whiskey, selling straight bourbon exclusively to Europe and Asia. When Master Distiller Jim Rutledge joined the company in 1995, he dreamed of bringing Four Roses bourbon back to the United States. He would have to wait until 2002, when new ownership by Japanese brewing conglomerate The Kirin Brewery brought a renewed interest in bourbon; Kirin knew they had a huge market for straight bourbon in Japan, and trusted that the original recipes would be just as popular to an American consumer increasingly interested in straight bourbon. Rutledge remained the Master Distiller until 2015, when his protégé Brent Elliott took the helm.
About the Distilling Techniques:
This bottle is made with the higher-corn recipe of Four Roses’ two mashbills, and a yeast strain that typically produces a more floral whiskey. Unlike most distilleries, Four Roses houses all their barrels on one floor, to eliminate temperature variance between the barrels.
Tasting Notes:
Aroma:
- jasmine tea
- black tea
- black pepper
- subtle mint notes
- butterscotch hard candy
- peanut brittle
Taste:
- oak spice/slightly tannic
- floral
- dusty
- subtle butterscotch sweetness
- subtle black pepper
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