Two bottles, Four Roses

To celebrate its 120th anniversary, Four Roses distillery released two limited-edition bourbons this year, both bottled at barrel strength. The most recent, Mariage (right), wowed us this past November at Whiskyfest, so we got hold of a bottle to investigate further. (It's a good life.) We also grabbed the earlier 120th Anniversary Single Barrel, a complex 12-year-old that simply roars—it's the sort of whiskey you'd imagine a gunslinger sucking back before a duel. In other words, it's man whiskey—bourbon that should come with a leather recliner and a Faulkner novel. On the third sip, the fire cools to a cozy ember (though of course by the third sip you're drunk, son). The understated Mariage, by contrast, is a soft, caramel blend of two barrels (a 13-year and a 10-year). The stuff is well north of 100-proof, but—next to its single-barrel sibling—seems rather domesticated, not unlike its namesake. Still, there's time for both in any guy's life. And with only approximately 3,000 bottles of each of these well-crafted whiskies in circulation, that time is now.
About $80 for both the Mariage amd the 120th Anniversary Single Barrel, fourroses.us