Four Roses - Small Batch

I'm new to whisky but I'm a total novice in bourbons. This is my first tasting and review of this spirit. Four roses is a blended whisky built on four different whiskies. As an avid fan of everything Scotch this is a bit of a flavor enigma. You can forget all those clean crisp tastes that made you fall in love with scottish whisky. This is bursting with flavours though a bit dense and heavy.

On the nose you instantly pick up on the sweet fresh oak. Bourbon is by law aged a minimum of 2 years in newly made american oak casks. Heavy floral notes and minty camphor brings you out and about in a botanical garden of scents. Tastewise it's still very confusing for an average scotch drinker. Heavy notes of roses, lilies and jasmine, very heavy sweetness with a touch of pistachio nut. The finish is sweet and rounded with vanilla and maple syrup most prominent.

Another strange thing about this spirit is that with added water you only get added bitterness and maybe some sour notes of oak, so it basically doesn't improve the spirit in any significant way which I find strange since usually added water brings forth more depth to the flavours, in any case with scotch that is.

Four Roses Small Batch is a good spirit witout a doubt, and a nice change from scotch from time to time but it leaves a lot more to be desired in terms of harmony and texture of the different flavours.

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