Four Roses Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a brand with a story behind it. The only problem is that no one’s really sure what that story is. Between confusion over where the name came from, and the presence of another whisky marketed under the same brand name, it’s been difficult to untangle the many threads over the years. According to Linda & John Lipman (www.ellenjaye.com), the brand originated in the 1860s, and was probably named for founder Rufus Rose, his brother Origen, and their sons.Whatever the origin of the name, the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg is a whiskey hunter’s dream, and also a part of state history. Built in 1910, it was later added to the National Register of Historic Places. For more than forty years, the Four Roses Kentucky Straight Bourbon was only sold in Europe and Asia. That was the result of being bought by Seagram’s corporation, which used the name to sell blended whisky in America after purchasing it in 1943 (that’s that other brand we were talking about). Today, you can buy authentic Four Roses in almost every state, and special order it where it’s not available. It’s still much more easily found in Japan, though, where it’s the country’s most popular bourbon.Four Roses is unique for being the only bourbon distillery to combine “5 proprietary yeast strains with two separate mashbills to produce 10 distinct Bourbon Recipes.” Different combinations of these ten make up the company’s different regular bourbons. The limited release recipes come from either a single barrel or a very select few recipes.

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