Four Roses Cox's Creek

[bourbonv]

Yesterday the Mellow Moments club had an event at the warehouse facilities for Four Roses in Bullitt County. The event started at 1:30 and ran until 7:00. I knew that traffic on I65 due to construction was probably going to bad and left early. I arrived at about 1:00 because traffic was not as bad as I thought it would be, but I guess JD made up for this because he and Kirsten got caught by traffic from a visit to Indiana by Pres. Bush and then the construction traffic!

Upon arrival the guard at the gate pointed out where you needed to go. The site is about 300 acres of land with each warehouse being about an acre in size. Four Roses also keep about 80 head of cattle on the site so they never have to mow grass! Besides the warehouses there are about 3 or for lakes and we are told the fishing is great.

After entering the gate I drove about 1/4 of a mile back to where the event was to take place. There is an office building and gift shop next to one of the small lakes. They had a tent set up filled with tables and chairs. As people started to arrive, they set out food that included shrimp, cheese and vegetable trys, salsa and chips, and an open bar. Jim Rutledge came in and welcomed everyone at about 1:45. Unfortunatly, he had to leave shortly thereafter to go do a tasting at a liquor store. He left us in fine hands with the site manager Mike and his crew. We ate and drank for another 30 minutes or so then we went on a hay ride.

They had two tractors and wagons with hay bales on the wagons. The group split into two and we went off to tour the facility. Our group started in the warehouses with Gary being our guide. We went to warehouse "J" and sampled from a barrel of whiskey slated to go into the single barrel product. They warehouse at Four Roses are single story warehouses. There are six ricks high and 45 bays deep. The two things that I learned here that I suspected, but did not know for sure are that Four roses has a lower barrel proof than other distillers at 120 proof and that because of the single story warehouse, there product tends to lose proof while aging. They don't have the extremes of temperature and that is the other thing that I learned - they worked hard to eleminate high temperature from there aging process. Dickel has single story warehouses but they did not disgn them to stay the same temperature top and bottom so there are some hot times in the warehouses at Dickel and it does tend to rise in proof. Four Roses spent money to change the roofs on their warehouses because there was a 15 degree rise from top to bottom and that was too much. They have achieved a difference of only 8 degrees. Their philosophy seems to be the opposite of the distillers with heated warehouses. The whiskey was very fruity and with loads of caramel at barreol proof. It would have been more fun for one of us to pick barrel to taste, but I am not going to complain. At least we knew we were going to get good whiskey when they picked the barrel - one of us might have picked a 6 month old barrel with whiskey that would be sure to dissappoint.

From the warehouse we went to the bottling house. MOst of the whiskey dumped at Four Roses has been shipped bulk to the overseas market and bottled in the country of sale. This means they only have a very small bottling opperation on site. We started in Gary's office and had a chance to sample from the white dog, standard bottles for Four Roses, Crown Royal and Henry McKenna. The Henry McKenna sample was at 119.1 proof. This is the proof they ship at because bottling is done overseas. I found this whiskey very tasty at the high, barrel proof. Lots of fuit, spice and caramel with very little alcohol burn. I would hate to cut it down to bottling proof!

We then went to the cistern room where barrels are filled 4 at a time and right next to this operation is the dump room where barrels can be dumped 18 at a time. There is also a single barrel dump trough as well. Four Roses believes in deep chill filtering. After filtering through paper filters, then the whiskey is chilled to 10 degrees for 17 hours before bottling. The bottling operation is a pretty standard single barrel bottling operation. From there we left and went back to the tent to eat.

Back at the tent the Four Roses crew had fixed a big cast iron pot of chili with cheese, onions, crackers and bread. For desert they had a bourbon cake, pecan pie and apple pie. They also had built a bonfire outside of the tent where you could roaste marshmellows or hot dogs. The staff and their families then pulled out guitars, sat down on they hay bales surrounding the fire and began a country music sing along type concert that was excellent - and i am not a big fan of country music. There was food and bourbon a plenty and the good time was still going on when I left a little after 7:00.

[scratchline]

That sounds absolutely fantastic, Mike. Particularly that barrel proof McKenna. I think I need to fill out the Mellow Moments app. immediately.

-Mike

[bourbonv]

Mike,
The Mellow Moments club is a top notched organization. Yomiko Roller, whom I assume runs the club and organizes all of the events since she sends all of the emails, does an excellent job. The events are always well organized, entertaining yet very informative. I would say apply today.

[Brewer]

Mike,

That sounds like a great day/event. Thanks for the info regarding their warehousing philosophy, mainly their attempt to maintain a consistent temperature. A very different approach from the other distilleries, and obviously, it works very well for them. I'm not sure that I was aware that they used single story warehouses before this post.

[bourbonv]

Bob,
That is what I liked about the event. People had a chance to learn from employees other than the Master Distiller. Master Distillers are great but employees in other fields also have a lot of great information to share - information that I am sure the Master distiller knows, but gets lost in the wealth of information they are trying to convey. Sometimes it is really informative to talk to the warehouse manager or the bottling line chief.

[Mike]

Nice description, Mike. Since I am too far away (and don't know all the right people as you do) it is good to have some insight into these events through you. Thanks!

[bourbonv]

Mike,
Join the Mellow Moments Club at Four Roses and they will keep you up to date on their events. This is the first official event I have attended. Many of the others were held during the week while I was at work. I do believe that if this is an example of what they do, I will make an effort to attend more of the events, even taking off work when I can.

[Bourbon Joe]

Mike,
I can't begin to explain how wonderful Mellow Moments events are. During festival week Fricky and I attended a Mellow Moments unveiling of the Small Batch at a private luncheon. It was first class all the way and we even got to taste their Super Premium (Platinum). The entire Four Roses staff are super people "who listen" to bourbon lovers.
Joe

[brendaj]

Hey all,
Sorry to be so long posting these. Gayle shot them, I missed this event. And seeing Gayle's photos after reading Mike's description makes me really, really sorry...

[brendaj]

Geez they did a great job...

[brendaj]

You gotta love the huge cast iron kettle...

[bourbonv]

Brenda,
Thanks for posting the photographs. Maybe Gayle will send some from the Heaven Hill weekend as well. I am sorry, but you missed out on two great events.

[bourbonv]

Today I received a birthday card from Four Roses signed by Jim, Yomiko and Julie. I really like the way they are running this club!

[daisy3d]

How do you become part of the club?

-Phil & Jen

[bourbonv]

Go to the Four Roses website. If you are not from Kentucky, you may have to apply again and tell them you really want to join even if you can not come to the events all of the time. They are trying to keep Mellow Moments to a small group that will be active members. I know they have taken out of state members, but they usually have to plead their case. I think this is good myself, it keeps the people away who are simply after free stuff and attracts the more serious bourbon fan.