The phoenix is a mythological bird that rises from the dead, like the story of Four Roses Bourbon at age 135.
To arise, a phoenix must die, of course, but Four Roses didn’t just die. It was murdered.
Four Roses was born in 1888, in Atlanta. Paul Jones moved the business to Kentucky a few years later and Four Roses became an international success as a Kentucky straight bourbon. After the founding family sold it to Seagram Company Ltd. in the 1940s, Four Roses was converted into an American blended whiskey.
A Canadian distiller, Seagram made blends in Canada and thought that was what we should drink down here too. For Seagram owner Sam Bronfman, it was an article of faith. “Distilling is a science. Blending is an art,” is probably his most famous quote.
Seagram made blends in different grades, based on the ratio of straight whiskey to nearly-neutral grain whiskey, very much as Scottish merchant blenders had done since the early 19th century. Under American rules, they could use even cheaper neutral spirit instead of grain whiskey in their U.S.-made blends, but Seagram didn’t—at least not at first. Instead of neutral spirit, Seagram used grain spirit.
As defined by federal regulations, grain spirits are grain-neutral spirits that have spent time in wood. The usual practice at Seagram was three months in used barrels. In the Seagram portfolio, Four Roses was an A-blend, that is, a high-grade blend containing a higher-than-average percentage of straight whiskey, and grain spirits instead of neutral spirits.
But that was only for the American market. Seagram was an international company. In addition to Canadian and European distribution, Seagram products were sold in Japan and other Asian markets. Wherever Seagram needed a bourbon, it usually chose Four Roses. Internationally, Four Roses was always Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, never a blend.
As time went on, competitive pressure forced Seagram and other producers to cheapen their American blended whiskey products by reducing the straight whiskey component and replacing grain spirit with unaged neutral spirit, i.e., vodka. Eventually, and across the industry, the straight whiskey in American blends descended to the legal minimum, a mere 20%. The rest of the world doesn’t even recognize them as whiskey.
Four Roses was never a priority for Seagram. It was more interested in products that had the Seagram name on the label. Even among regular blended whiskey drinkers, Four Roses was considered rot-gut. By the close of the 20th century, it was distributed in only a few states. Seagram spent nothing to support it. But thanks to the work of the legendary distiller Jim Rutledge, a Seagram employee who nurtured Four Roses during its leanest years, the flame was kept alightl
Seagram agreed to be sold in 2000 in a joint acquisition deal with Diageo and Pernod Ricard. Its longtime importer and partner in Japan, Kirin, acquired Four Roses in 2002. That same year, Kirin jettisoned the blend and officially reintroduced Four Roses in the United States as a premium-quality straight bourbon—the same product that whiskey drinkers in Japan had enjoyed for decades. Initially, Kirin was worried about the blend’s bad reputation, but by then its star had fallen so far that most younger consumers had never heard of it. To them, Four Roses was a new brand.
A small-scale reintroduction had begun in Kentucky and southern Indiana, while Seagram was still in charge. Local management urged the company to allow it, “so at least our employees can buy and drink the product they make,” said a manager at the time. The official reintroduction in 2002 was limited to Kentucky because a large percentage of the whiskey distilled at Four Roses was committed for other uses. Some of it went into a small, relatively new bourbon called Bulleit that Diageo had acquired in the Seagram deal. Most of it went into the Seagram blended whiskeys that Diageo now owns, like Seagram’s 7. Those obligations limited how fast Four Roses could expand distribution.
Kirin led with the standard Four Roses expression, known popularly as “yellow label.” Soon Four Roses Single Barrel and Four Roses Small Batch, both top-shelf expressions, were added. Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Colorado, and California got distribution in 2007. New states rolled out as barrel inventories rose to where they could support another market. By the end of the decade, Four Roses was in all 50 states.
Four Roses is the only American whiskey distillery that makes 10 different bourbon recipes and makes them all the time, so its warehouses contain 10 different whiskeys at every possible age from newborn to double-digits. The possibilities are endless.
While the single barrel expression is, by definition, one recipe, small batch is always a mixture of two or more recipes, and the standard expression contains all 10. Limited editions soon entered the picture. The Four Roses 2012 Limited Edition Small Batch was named Whisky Advocate’s American Whiskey of the Year. It is still hailed by enthusiasts and bottles still in distribution can fetch more than $1,000.
The production contract with Diageo ended in 2014 and was not renewed. Since then, the Four Roses distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky has doubled its capacity.
Four Roses distills its whiskey in Lawrenceburg, then tankers the distillate 50 miles west to Coxs Creek, where it is barreled, aged, and bottled. The maturation warehouses at Coxs Creek are unusual because they are single-story, sometimes called low houses or flat houses. Although they take up more real estate, single-story warehouses encourage even aging without barrel rotation.
Four Roses is celebrating its 135th anniversary with a new website, new packaging design for the whole line, and the rare release of a tasting set featuring all 10 Four Roses proprietary bourbon recipes. “While the look of our brand is being refreshed, our unwavering commitment to producing the highest-quality bourbons made from our 10 signature recipes remains the same,” says master distiller Brent Elliott. “It’s been a true honor watching the brand grow over the past 18 years that I’ve been with Four Roses and I look forward to this next chapter.”
The new Four Roses labels feature Elliott’s signature for the first time.
Today, Four Roses Bourbon is bigger than ever. So, if the flowers get old, they should consider the fiery phoenix.
