Review: Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon 2025 Edition

Brent Elliott and Four Roses are back with the latest in the long-running Limited Edition Small Batch series, the highly anticipated annual drop of cask strength bourbon that typically features four batches of whiskeys, none ever any younger than 10 years of age.

For 2025, Elliott says he’s leaning into the “V” yeast character of Four Roses, a hallmark of Four Roses Single Barrel, with three “V” recipe bourbons in the mix. The total breakdown is 13 year old OBSV (35%), 13 year old OBSK (17%), 13 year old OESV (38%), and 19 year old OESV (10%).

As has been the norm for years, Elliott led a group of whiskey writer nerds through a tasting of the bourbon over Zoom. Here are some of my thoughts.

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon 2025 Edition Review

Elliott hinted in his comments that this was a return to a classic style of Four Roses Single Barrel, which makes sense given that 83% of the blend is OBSV and OESV. The nose is far more restrained than the effusively sweet 2024 release, quite austere and wood-heavy, with overtones of tannic red wine layered with char. Time in glass does not coax out much more aroma, and the nose remains dense and tight, dusted with spice, pepper, dried tea leaves, and eventually a touch of menthol.

Again, the palate reveals a stark contrast to the 2024 Limited Edition Small Batch. Dry and a bit dusty, this comes across as a very well-aged whiskey, though in the grand scheme of LE Small Batch releases, it’s not particularly over the top, age-wise. The good news is that airtime (and water) does help to open up the palate in ways that the nose never does, and eventually we are met with notes of cinnamon swirled into brown butter, vanilla custard, and a little orange peel. That said, it’s never far from a gritty little whiskey that somehow feels small and constrained, with a gravelly quality that claws at the back of the throat, rubbing those dried tea leaves into it and leaving behind an earthy, peppery experience.

The whiskey is improved immensely by a healthy dosing of water (more than a splash) which allows a bit more fruit and vanilla to emerge while tempering and sweetening the black tea quality at the core of the experience. That’s a good thing, but there’s more left unsaid here. It’s not the best Four Roses Limited Edition to date, but they can’t all be, after all.

109 proof. 16,800 bottles produced. Releases September 3, 2005.

B+ / $249 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

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