Review #810 - Four Roses OESO Single Barrel

For years, the only recipe used in the widely-available 100 proof single barrel bourbon from Four Roses was their OBSV ["rye spice, apricot, pear, cinnamon, and toasted oak"] recipe. Then, in late 2024, the brand announced that they would release 3 other recipes in this format each year going forward, rotating through the 9 recipes which had not previously been available. The first batch arrived in early 2025: OBSF, OESK, and this OESO recipe that we're looking at today.

Four Roses suggests that bourbon made using the OESO recipe should exhibit flavors such as "rich red fruit, vanilla, brown sugar, and delicate oak." Indeed, we often get more of a cherry or dark fruit focus on the 'O' yeast strain bourbons, which is one of the main reasons they're typically our personal favorites from the brand.

This version of the single barrel doesn't carry an age statement on the bottle, but the distillery does explain on their website that these barrels are 7 to 9 years old at the time of bottling; our bottle came from a barrel which was matured in warehouse RN.

Four Roses OESO Single Barrel

USA - Bourbon

Price: USD 50 (2026)

Age Statement: 7 Years

Strength: 50% ABV

Details: OESO recipe, warehouse RN, barrel 49-4J

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 1 month; bottles at 80%, 70%, and 50% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes

Nose: Dark and dry oak, a bit of sweet dark plum, and then leather; light, tart cherries combine with vanilla and some icing sugar as well. Both sweet and spicy, and we get hints of corn spirit and blackberry in the background. Time brings hints of almond or walnut, as well as cherry cough medicine.

Palate: The mouthfeel has a medium viscosity. Brown sugar, vanilla, and a wave of leathery oak hit us up front, followed by wood spice, sharp orange peel, and lemon-lime soda. There's a decent amount of oversweet cherry and strawberry candy, along with hints of stone fruit. In the background, there's a subtle hint of tobacco leaf... it's quite bright at times, with buttercream icing, too.

Finish: Oak continues to build in intensity, but it doesn't taste too old overall. Star anise, brown sugar, caramel, vanilla - lots of baking flavors now, as the fruit profile takes a back seat. It mellows out, and we get plum skins in the aftertaste.

Final Note: This is a pretty good bourbon; it's been a few years since we've had the standard OBSV version of the single barrel bourbon from Four Roses, but we remember it fondly. Like that bottle, this new OESO version is a good value pick due to its reasonable price around $50.

This bourbon was slightly unbalanced at times - it seemed to either be too sweet in the palate, or a bit too spicy or oaky in the finish. Overall, though, it's a solid example of the flavor profile that this recipe is supposed to give us: nice cherry flavor and other red fruit notes, along with sweet baking spices.

We think this is a solid buy, and we're definitely curious to try more of the single barrel recipes as they become widely available in this 100 proof form.

Our Rating: 6.9 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 7.42

About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.