My first whiskey review was a little bit over 1 year ago and I was reviewing the bourbon that was sort of the inflection point on my journey from mostly drinking scotch and craft beer to primarily drinking bourbon. That bourbon was a Four Roses Private Select from Oak Liquor Cabinet here in Austin so to commemorate 1 year to date of posting photos and rambling reviews of bourbon on Reddit, Instagram and a hastily thrown together website I’ll be reviewing my favorite Four Roses Private Select so far the Moonshine 2nd Edition 12 year old OBSV.
In honor of those early reviews I’ll be doing tasting notes both neat and on a rock.
Four Roses Private Select Moonshine Bar and Grill 2nd Edition
Age: 12 years
Abv: 105 proof
Price: $85
Recipe:
O - Distilled at Four Roses in Lawrenceburg, KY
B - 65-30-5 mash bill
S - Straight Whiskey
V - Delicate Fruit
Barrel: Warehouse GE, Barrel #343H, Barreled on March 15th 2007
Neat
Nose: Rich spices and red cherry notes backed by subtler oak and vanilla.
Taste: Sweet and fruity up front with spice and oak further along. The fruit notes extend beyond just they cherry and the sweetness includes vanilla and caramel. Excellent, viscous mouthfeel.
Finish: A very long, warm finish with baking spice, rich oak and lingering fruit and caramel sweetness.
On a Rock
Nose: Much softer with the ice, delicate fruit and warm spices backed by a clearer vanilla note.
Taste: All sweet fruit and caramel with just hints of oak and spice. The mouthfeel is just as good if not better with the rock
Finish: Still decently long despite the ice with a balance of rye spice and sweet caramel.
Conclusion
This is my favorite Four Roses pick and it held up in the review and in a mini blind vs a 9 year 7 month Liquor Barn pick, a 7 year 4 month state of South Carolina pick and a mini bottle of the regular SiB. This pick doesn’t really deviate from the core Four Rose Single Barrel flavor profile so much as it enhances it. It’s richer, sweeter, smoother, slightly higher proof, more viscous, longer in the finish and more complex all at the same time compared to regular 100 proofer. I’m super glad I brought home two of these bottles and that it’s available at Moonshine if I get thirsty before I crack the bottle.
I’m still a big fan of Four Roses in general and the Private Selects in specific even with the price hike. I am currently working on tracking down a bottle of each recipe and am holding strong at 8/10 with the OESO and OBSK eluding me. I’ll be opening my backup of this then for the epic all 10 recipe taste off with some fellow ABHers!
Also somewhat amusingly this barrel was barreled a few months before I started drinking. I’m not sure why I found that funny but it made me chuckle.
TL;DR: Great pick, glad I got to bring 2 home, still worth it after the price increase
3 Stars - Excellent whiskey: I would be willing to hunt down a bottle
I picked today for this post because it the anniversary of my first post on Instagram which came about a month after atxbouron which was in turn about a month behind getting started reviewing here on Reddit. I’ve had a great time talking about bourbon with all you folks and hope to keep it up for the foreseeable future. I like to think my tasting palate, photography and writing have improved noticeably over the last year and I definitely credit doing these reviews for that.