Enter Now: Four Roses 135th Anniversary Small Batch Raffle

News

By RC Staff

23 August 2023

Four Roses 135th Anniversary Small Batch 2023

Earlier today, Four Roses Bourbon surprised the whiskey world with an announcement that the 2023 iteration of their Limited Edition Small Batch release (an annual tradition for the past 16 years) would include a rare 25 year old bourbon in the blend.

As reported by Whiskey Raiders, it is extremely rare for bourbon to be aged that long, and furthermore this inclusion likely marks the oldest whiskey ever used in a Four Roses bourbon blend. This, matched with stellar initial ratings for the bottle, and the fact that only 15,060 have been produced, signals that this release will fly off the shelves.

Four Roses 135th Anniversary Small Batch 2023 Raffle

Bottles will be available to the general public for MSRP ($199.99) via a raffle hosted on Four Roses’ website. The raffle runs from August 22nd to the 28th.

Winners are to be contacted via email on September 7th, and will have to purchase their bottle in person at the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, KY, between September 15th and October 15th during operating hours.

You can enter the raffle here.

How Much Will Four Roses 135th Anniversary Resell For?

While it’s hard to speculate on where prices will fall for the bourbon before it has released, there’s a good chance that these bottles will be changing hands for at least 2-3x MSRP on the aftermarket in the short term, and potentially far more in the long term.

Comparing 135th Anniversary To The 125th Anniversary

There hasn’t exactly been a release from Four Roses quite like the 135th Anniversary Small Batch before — however, 10 years ago, in 2013, Four Roses released a different small batch bottle for their 125th birthday that we can look at to get at least a little guidance.

This bottle was a blend of OBSV (18yrs), OBSK (13yrs), and OESK (13yrs). It was limited to 12,468 — so around 2,500 bottles less than the 135th Anniversary Small Batch 2023.

It retailed for $85 when it came out, and today costs an average of $1,775 — a 2,000% increase over MSRP. While these two bourbons are completely different releases coming out at completely different times, one could actually argue that by merit of blend composition and critical reviews that the 2023 release is a better bourbon overall.

So, does that mean that the price of the 135th Anniversary Small Batch will follow suit?

We’ll check back on that in 2033.