Four Roses Bin-Q Single Barrel: Whisk(e)y Wednesday presented by Lock & Key

Four Roses Bin-Q Single Barrel

Four Roses, one of the distilleries that we will absolutely be visiting on our trip to Kentucky in July, is an expert at the single barrel bourbons. This particular single barrel is available to bring home only at Bin-Q in Baton Rouge, but Lock & Key has some available to taste ($14 for a pour). It is a barrel strength elixir that certainly impressed our judges.

On the nose it is big, bold, and sweet. The intense Big Red aroma shows the whiskey's strength at over 120 proof. It smell like a hot toddy without even having to add any cinnamon or sugar. On the tongue it'll put hair on your chest. Oak, white pepper, and cream all come to play on the merry-go-round of flavors. The full bodied whiskey packs a spicy punch and warms the lips before it continues to the tongue and all the way down to your belly. The long and bold finish highlights a solid bourbon that has plenty going on yet remains balanced the whole time. The price tag also helps. The value is pretty darn good for the quality of this bourbon, plus you get the novelty of knowing where every drop of this barrel of Four Roses ended up.

Four Roses Bin-Q Single Barrel
Average Score: 83.33

Whisk(e)y Wednesday is a blog post series on Bite and Booze sponsored by the Lock & Key Whiskey Bar. Lock & Key has one of Baton Rouge's best selections of bourbon, Scotch, Irish, and other whisk(e)ys available for on premise consumption. This WW feature was scored by Jay Ducote from Bite and Booze, Arthur Lauck from Lock & Key, and Jeremy Spikes. Using our own proprietary scoring system, whiskeys are marked for Nose, Taste, Finish, Balance and Complexity, and "Bang for the Buck" which should encompass the whiskey's overall value. Marks are then added and averaged, leaving us with a final score out of a 100 point scale. Our scale should be looked at on the full range of 0-100 rather than an academic range where 70 is passing and anything less is failing. A 50 should be considered a very mediocre whisk(e)y (though not undrinkable, you'd let somebody buy you one) while anything below 20 is absolute horse piss, anything above 80 is rather extraordinary, and anything above 90 is world class.