Table Of Contents
The Details
| Rating | 95 |
| Style |
Bourbon American Whiskey Whiskey |
| Produced In |
Kentucky United States |
| ABV | 54.5% |
| Availability | Limited |
| Price | $249.00 |
| Reviewed By | |
| Reviewed | 2025-09-23 |
Four Roses 2025 Limited Edition Small Batch Review
Among Kentucky distillers, Four Roses has some of the most latitude when it comes to recipes and flavor. The distillery boasts 10 historic recipes — featuring two mash bills and five yeast strains — and recently began producing an additional two mash bills. That means that, within the next six to eight years, the brand will soon have 20 different recipes to blend from.
That wide swath of liquid streams lends itself to blending, which Four Roses does most regularly with bottlings like its classic 80-proofer, Four Roses Small Batch, and Four Roses Small Batch Select. (Not that we’d forget about the distillery’s well-regarded single barrel offerings.) But at the top of the flavor ladder is Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, or “Four Roses LE” for short. Apart from specific single barrels, the yearly offering is generally the brand’s most limited bottling — and its most highly regarded.
The blend shifts from year to year and is helmed by Master Distiller Brent Elliott. The 2025 version features the following recipes, ages, and proportions:
- 38 percent is a 13-year-old OBSV (V yeast, high rye mashbill)
- 17 percent is a 13-year-old OBSK (K yeast, high rye mashbill)
- 35 percent is a 13-year-old OESV (V yeast, lower rye mashbill)
- 10 percent is a 19-year-old OESV (V yeast, lower rye mashbill)
Around 16,854 bottles of the 2025 Four Roses LE will be distributed.
In aggregate, that’s just slightly younger than some previous versions, but here the proof is always in the taste rather than the spreadsheet. Let’s see how the latest Four Roses LE tastes!
Four Roses 2025 Limited Edition Small Batch: Stats and Availability
This year’s Four Roses LE carries a suggested retail price of $249, up from $220 last year. It’s certainly considered a hallmark bottle, and as such, expect to see prices hover significantly above $250 on some retail shelves. That said, with a generally softening premium bourbon market, I’m seeing less severe markups for allocated bottles than the 2021-2023 era, so it might not be crazy to hunt for this one at MSRP.
Four Roses 2025 Limited Edition Small Batch Review
As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.
Nose
The nose is big, bold, and vibrant, conveying a classically spicy Four Roses profile with plenty of nuance sitting right below the surface. A combo of fresh, stewed, and dried orchard fruits kicks things off: think apricot, dark plum, and red apple. Cherry candy is up next, though secondary to those other fruits. Scents quickly turn to spice, with hefty doses of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
There’s plenty of wood here, too, and Brent Elliott once again shows how a little (10 percent) very old bourbon can go a long way on the nose. Overall, the nose evokes the character of that 19 year old component without allowing the bourbon to become an oaky hodgepodge. Eventually, leather and tobacco-forward astringency settle in as the nose transitions away from sweet and fruity.
Here’s a notable twist: An element of crème de menthe develops after a few minutes in the glass. It’s a nice nod to the herbal nature of rye, coupled with some continuing and underlying sweetness that shifts focus back from the most tannic notes. Not a bad curveball at all, and it bookends a nice narrative given the early apricot and spice medley.
Taste
First sips bring a progression in flavor similar to the nose. We start with fruit (more apricot, plenty of apple, and a notable pop of peach cobbler) followed by slowly increasing baking spice (with lots of clove oil for good measure). Oak hits a little earlier here, though, with a lightly drying touch that might get too astringent/woody/tannic in a less well constructed blend. Here, however, that wood influence does a lot to balance out what might otherwise turn either too sweet or too spicy; it’s as if the heavy oak keeps things on a pretty narrow path right down the middle.
Both clove and orange oils build at the midpalate, which shifts almost entirely away from orchard fruit. Other spices evolve from cinnamon to ground pink peppercorns. There’s a little root beer and some cream soda as well, but dialed way back on the perceived sweetness. Overall, it’s significantly less floral and (for my money) far more heavily spiced than last year’s edition. That helps showcase the levers Four Roses can pull to modulate flavor, all while still keeping quality high. (At a first taste, it’s tough to say which release I like more.)
The mouthfeel is of medium viscosity, and while it’s not the most captivating of Four Roses LEs I’ve tried, it seems roughly appropriate for the proof; certainly, it doesn’t distract or do the flavors a disservice.
Finish
The finish is long, somewhat oily, and maybe a half-step more tannic than the past few Four Roses LE releases. Pepper is at its strongest here and expands into black and red peppercorns in addition to pink. Fruit is heavily spiced and reduced — think apple butter or spicy apricot jam — alongside lingering sweet mint and lots and lots of oak.
Four Roses 2025 Limited Edition Small Batch Rating
95/100
Recap
Flavors change, and quality remains high. That’s the story of this remarkably consistent, almost-always nuanced offering from Brent Elliott and team. The 2025 Four Roses LE might not be my absolute favorite in the past decade of these releases — that distinction still goes to 2019 — but it’s an absolutely delicious dram and worthy next step in the lineup. For the average bourbon drinker, there’s a whole lot to love here. And for Four Roses superfans, this immediately becomes a must-chase bottle.
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