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2020 Four Roses LE SmB


Jazz June
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It looks like media samples of this year's Four Roses LE SmB have gone out. 19yr OBSK, 12yr OBSV, 16yr OESK, and 12yr OESV is the blend. I didn't see the proof. This sounds awesome to me and very excited to get a hold of it. Unfortunately the hype is probably going to be high on this one. Can Brent challenge Jim's best LE SmB releases?

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17 hours ago, Jazz June said:

It looks like media samples of this year's Four Roses LE SmB have gone out. 19yr OBSK, 12yr OBSV, 16yr OESK, and 12yr OESV is the blend. I didn't see the proof. This sounds awesome to me and very excited to get a hold of it. Unfortunately the hype is probably going to be high on this one. Can Brent challenge Jim's best LE SmB releases?

Personally I would take the 2019 release over at least a couple of Jim’s years. Of course, we’re still only talking about the barrel selection and blending for Brent, as Jim did distill everything going into these bottles still. It’ll take quite a few more years before Brent is putting out LEs that he was responsible for the whole gamut of distilling/aging/barrel selection/blending. 

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41 minutes ago, BottledInBond said:

Personally I would take the 2019 release over at least a couple of Jim’s years. Of course, we’re still only talking about the barrel selection and blending for Brent, as Jim did distill everything going into these bottles still. It’ll take quite a few more years before Brent is putting out LEs that he was responsible for the whole gamut of distilling/aging/barrel selection/blending. 

Fair enough. And yes, the 2019 is really good, but I'm wondering whether 2019 or this year's can challenge the best of the LE SmB releases from Jim's tenure. I don't have enough experience with the releases often regarded as the best to say myself. I'm not sure how much credit for the Al Young 50th goes to Brent (versus Al having done the barrel selection and blend testing), but that is often held up as one of the best Four Roses releases, so that's in the discussion too.

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1 hour ago, Jazz June said:

Fair enough. And yes, the 2019 is really good, but I'm wondering whether 2019 or this year's can challenge the best of the LE SmB releases from Jim's tenure. I don't have enough experience with the releases often regarded as the best to say myself. I'm not sure how much credit for the Al Young 50th goes to Brent (versus Al having done the barrel selection and blend testing), but that is often held up as one of the best Four Roses releases, so that's in the discussion too.

The Al Young 50th certainly was good. For what it’s worth I’ve had a lot of FR LEs, and I’d take the 2019 and the Al Young 50th over anything else Four Roses 2013-current. The 2012 LE small batch was really good, and I’d like to revisit that sometime, although I don’t have any more on hand personally

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15 hours ago, BottledInBond said:

The Al Young 50th certainly was good. For what it’s worth I’ve had a lot of FR LEs, and I’d take the 2019 and the Al Young 50th over anything else Four Roses 2013-current. The 2012 LE small batch was really good, and I’d like to revisit that sometime, although I don’t have any more on hand personally

I have a 2019 that I haven't opened yet, so I can't personally vouch for all of what you said.  But I'll also rank my Al Young 5Oth over my 2013. I've tried the 2012 once but it was at a bar, it was fantastic but not a fair comparison vs exploring bottles at home over several sessions.

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I'm so excited for this one.  K's and V's are always the best.  Expectations are super high on this one.

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Proof is 111.4. From the release sent to mellow moments club members:

Non-chill filtered and bottled at a 111.4 proof, the 2020 Limited Edition Small Batch features four different hand-selected batches aged 12-19 years.  These batches represent four of our distillery's 10 distinct Bourbon recipes - a 12-year-old Bourbon from the OBSV recipe, a 12-year-old OESV, a 16-year-old OESK, and a 19-year-old OBSK.

 

Edited by miller542
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Did they give the percentages of each recipe contained in the batch?

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I received the same info from FR that miller542 posted above. No percentages, but it do sound pretty interesting. ?

 

Biba! Joe 

 

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On 8/25/2020 at 6:56 PM, smokinjoe said:

Did they give the percentages of each recipe contained in the batch?

Joe, I saw elsewhere online (grain of salt and all that) the older components actually account for a large % of the blend. Not the proverbial “thimble” of the old stuff. Supposedly 20% 19 yr OBSK and 25% 16 yr OESK. Here’s the link:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/drink/whiskey/four-roses-limited-edition-2020-review-bourbon-small-batch/

 

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20 hours ago, Old Dusty said:

Joe, I saw elsewhere online (grain of salt and all that) the older components actually account for a large % of the blend. Not the proverbial “thimble” of the old stuff. Supposedly 20% 19 yr OBSK and 25% 16 yr OESK. Here’s the link:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/drink/whiskey/four-roses-limited-edition-2020-review-bourbon-small-batch/

 

I'm not totally disputing the recipe percentages stated from this writer, but is there corroborating info on them somewhere?  

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1 hour ago, smokinjoe said:

I'm not totally disputing the recipe percentages stated from this writer, but is there corroborating info on them somewhere?  

Haven’t seen them from any other source and IIRC the distillery doesn’t typically let loose w that info. So as I said ....grain of salt. 

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2 minutes ago, Old Dusty said:

Haven’t seen them from any other source and IIRC the distillery doesn’t typically let loose w that info. So as I said ....grain of salt. 

I haven’t found any, either.  

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Here's another article (on The Bourbon Review site) that lists the percentages of the various components of the 2020 LE:

 

Four Roses 2020 Limited Edition

 

30% 12-year-old OBSV

25% 12-year-old OESV

25% 16-year-old OESK

20% 19-year-old OBSK

 

111.4 proof.

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Same as the Paste article. So maybe correct?  If so I’m really excited for this release. 

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I had stopped looking for these when the price exceeded 100.00. This 2020 release however was one I was interested in as its our 25th anniversary this year. I cannot go to KY on the pick up dates so MM is out even if I was to be selected. The likelihood of finding any locally at retail is pretty slim but I might make a couple inquiries as it would be cool to open on a future milestone anniversary plus it sounds damn good. I am not getting my hopes up.

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A little history of recipes in the LESmB's (and I included the Al Young in here too, cause it was pretty much another LESmB):


OBSF: 3 times - 2014, Al Young, 2018
OBSK: 9 times - 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, Al Young, 2020
OBSO: never
OBSQ: never
OBSV: 11 times - 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, Al Young, 2018, 2019, 2020
OESF: never
OESK: 11 times - 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
OESO: 2 times - 2009, 2016
OESQ: 1 time - 2011
OESV: 7 times - 2011, 2014, Al Young, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

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4 hours ago, JoeTerp said:

A little history of recipes in the LESmB's (and I included the Al Young in here too, cause it was pretty much another LESmB):


OBSF: 3 times - 2014, Al Young, 2018
OBSK: 9 times - 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, Al Young, 2020
OBSO: never
OBSQ: never
OBSV: 11 times - 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, Al Young, 2018, 2019, 2020
OESF: never
OESK: 11 times - 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
OESO: 2 times - 2009, 2016
OESQ: 1 time - 2011
OESV: 7 times - 2011, 2014, Al Young, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

The K's and the V's - perennial favorites.

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On 9/2/2020 at 12:53 AM, flahute said:

The K's and the V's - perennial favorites.

As a proud member of Team OBSK, it's about time that it's back in the mix here.  Really looking forward to this one.

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After pretty much swearing off Four Roses products after the unceremonious leaving of Jim R., (albeit I did buy and enjoy a bottle of the Al Young special), I am going to Lawrenceburg on 9/23 to buy a bottle of the 2020 SmbLE.  I got an email from 4R saying I had been selected in their "lottery" to be eligible to purchase a bottle.  I didn't remember even signing up, but figured "why not" when given the opportunity.  You have to make a reservation for the time that you want to come by and pick up your bottle.  I don't even know the cost, but unless it is incredibly outrageous, I don't care.  Anyone else going?

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5 minutes ago, Kyjd75 said:

After pretty much swearing off Four Roses products after the unceremonious leaving of Jim R., (albeit I did buy and enjoy a bottle of the Al Young special), I am going to Lawrenceburg on 9/23 to buy a bottle of the 2020 SmbLE.  I got an email from 4R saying I had been selected in their "lottery" to be eligible to purchase a bottle.  I didn't remember even signing up, but figured "why not" when given the opportunity.  You have to make a reservation for the time that you want to come by and pick up your bottle.  I don't even know the cost, but unless it is incredibly outrageous, I don't care.  Anyone else going?

Congrats to you!

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I continue to see the percentages of each recipe referred to by various bloggers, but haven’t seen that info directly from a FR source. The “Paste” article refers to a “media tasting”, so perhaps the info was released there.  

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23 hours ago, Kyjd75 said:

After pretty much swearing off Four Roses products after the unceremonious leaving of Jim R., (albeit I did buy and enjoy a bottle of the Al Young special), I am going to Lawrenceburg on 9/23 to buy a bottle of the 2020 SmbLE.  I got an email from 4R saying I had been selected in their "lottery" to be eligible to purchase a bottle.  I didn't remember even signing up, but figured "why not" when given the opportunity.  You have to make a reservation for the time that you want to come by and pick up your bottle.  I don't even know the cost, but unless it is incredibly outrageous, I don't care.  Anyone else going?

 

I'm glad that SOMEBODY got selected to go to Lawrenceburg to get their bottle - congrats.  Most of the rest of us got "neg'd".   ?

 

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Sorry about the neg'd.  I was as surprised as anyone when I got the email.  Haven't been to 4R in awhile, so it will be interesting to see the place once more.

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