Kentucky Derby Museum offers exclusive Four Roses Bourbon Limited Edition bottle for Kentucky Derby 138, 2012

In honor of the Urban Bourbon exhibit and the Derby Museum’s ‘year of bourbon’, the Kentucky Derby Museum tells BourbonBlog.com they have commissioned a unique bottle of Four Roses Bourbon from a private barrel. Hand-selected byJ im Rutledge, Master Distiller of Four Roses, along with a group of museum staff members, this premium Single Barrel Bourbon is aged 10 years and 8 months. These commemorative bottles will be hand-numbered in gold ink as a limited edition selection.

The specially selected bottle will feature a unique recipe not available anywhere else in Kentucky.

The Derby Museum has chosen a barrel for its first commemorative bottle released exclusively to the Finish Line Gift Shop inside the museum. Rutledge guided the Kentucky Derby Museum through the barrel selection process in a tasting of seven unique recipes out of ten Four Roses offers.

“This is our OESV recipe and it was a collective decision, among everyone sampling the barrels and took an hour and a half to make the decision because it is very difficult,” Rutledge tells BourbonBlog.com.

He adds, “We all liked the mellowness, we liked the aroma and I think above all we loved, everyone loved the finish of this, the mellowness, it’s smooth, nice long finish, no kick in it. The aftertaste, the bite, it’s a great bourbon. This is special, it’s unique. And what’s in this barrel will never be tasted again.”

With a unique recipe and bottled at barrel proof (118 proof for this barrel), this collector’s edition bottle features two distinct labels- one on each side of the bottle, marking it as a first edition in a planned series of commemorative bottles for the Derby Museum.

“Our OESV E mashbill is a recipe with 75% corn 20% rye grain 5% malted barley and the V yeast generates a very light and delicate fruity flavors and through the aging process it will pick up woody characters and in this respect. Aged 10 years and 8 months, it has a lot of woody characters and the woody characters illustrate the sweet flavors, caramel, vanilla, and maple syrup. The sweet flavors from the natural sugars of the wood.”

This past Saturday, Rutledge sign the bottles at Kentucky Derby Museum on Saturday at the Finish Line Gift Shop of the Kentucky Derby Museum where they can be purchased for $59.99.

Kentucky Derby Museum Louisville, Kentucky during Kentucky Derby 138, photograph by Dan Brown