THEDAILYWHISKY

Mizunara oak in July. Honey-seasoned barrels in September. Now Four Roses has reached for a wood that is not oak at all.

Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003 is a Kentucky straight bourbon finished in chestnut casks, the third release in the distillery’s limited Experimental Series. Four Roses took its six-year-old OBSK recipe and finished it in 250-litre barrels made from chestnut wood grown in Japan, for between five and eleven weeks. It is bottled at 104 proof (52% ABV) in a 375ml bottle, priced at $55 and released on 20 November 2026 at the Four Roses visitor centres in Lawrenceburg and Cox’s Creek, Kentucky, while supplies last.

Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003 at a glance

Name: Experimental Series No. 003: Chestnut Cask Finish

Style: Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey finished in chestnut casks

Recipe: OBSK (high-rye B mashbill, K yeast)

Age: 6 years

Finishing cask: 250-litre chestnut barrels, wood grown in Japan, mixed toast and char levels

Finish length: 5 to 11 weeks, barrel by barrel

ABV: 52% (104 proof) Bottle size:375ml Price: $55 SRP Release date: 20 November 2026 Where: Four Roses visitor centres, Lawrenceburg and Cox’s Creek, Kentucky

What is Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003?

The Experimental Series is Four Roses‘ limited-edition line for ideas that sit outside its long-established 10-recipe system. For most of its modern history the distillery has built everything from two mashbills and five yeast strains, and until this summer it had never released a cask-finished bourbon.

No. 001 used Japanese Mizunara oak. No. 002 used barrels that had previously held Four Roses’ Bourbon Barrel Aged Honey. No. 003 is the first in the series to step away from oak entirely, and Four Roses has timed it as its holiday release.

According to Four Roses, the project started as a set of trials pairing different wood species with all ten recipes. Chestnut stood out early, and the distillery expanded the experiment from there before settling on OBSK as the base.

Why chestnut, and why OBSK?

Chestnut is a familiar barrel wood in parts of Europe, long used in wine making and, in Italy, in the barrel sets used for traditional balsamic vinegar. It is a very rare sight in whisky. Scotch whisky, for instance, must by law be matured in oak, so a chestnut finish is something you will only find outside Scotland.

Four Roses says the chestnut brought sweeter, rounder flavours, and that it needed a recipe with enough spice and structure to carry them. That is where OBSK comes in.

Four Roses names its recipes with a four-letter code. The second letter tells you the mashbill: B is the higher-rye one, at 60% corn, 35% rye and 5% malted barley. The fourth letter is the yeast, and K is the strain the distillery associates with light spice and a fuller body. Master Distiller Brent Elliott describes the result as a bourbon that feels familiar at its core but brings new flavours to the glass.

OBSK is also the recipe behind No. 001. That makes No. 001 and No. 003 a neat pair: the same six-year-old spirit, the same 104 proof, with Japanese Mizunara oak on one side and Japanese-grown chestnut on the other. For anyone who owns both, that is a genuinely useful side-by-side on what the finishing wood alone does.

How Four Roses finished it: barrel by barrel

The production detail is the most interesting part of this release. Rather than filling a batch of chestnut barrels and dumping them together after a fixed period, Four Roses used barrels with a range of toast and char levels, sampled each one frequently, and emptied every barrel individually once it reached the profile the team wanted.

Finishing times ran from five weeks to eleven. That is short compared with No. 002, which spent three to nine months in its honey-seasoned barrels, and it suggests the chestnut worked quickly. With a wood this unfamiliar to bourbon, pulling each barrel at its own moment rather than on a calendar is the sensible way to keep the Four Roses character in front.

What does Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003 taste like?

We have not tasted No. 003 yet. These are the distillery’s own notes.

Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003 Chestnut: tasting notes (per Four Roses)

Nose: Rich apricot, soft vanilla

Palate: Rounded and creamy; vanilla bean, pear, ripe cherry, sweet toasted wood, a touch of baking spice

Finish: Long and rich; delicate fruit, brown sugar

ABV: 52% (104 proof) | Cask: 250L chestnut finish | Price: $55 / 375ml

Read against the OBSK base, the creamy texture and stone fruit are what Four Roses credits to the chestnut, while the baking spice is the recipe’s rye and K yeast showing through. Four Roses suggests drinking it neat, and pitches it as an after-dinner pour.

How No. 003 compares with No. 001 and No. 002

	No. 001 Mizunara	No. 002 Honey	No. 003 Chestnut
Recipe	OBSK	OESQ + OBSK	OBSK
Age	6 years	6, 7 and 8 years	6 years
Finishing wood	Japanese Mizunara oak	Honey-seasoned bourbon barrels	Chestnut, wood grown in Japan
Finish length	Not disclosed	3 to 9 months	5 to 11 weeks
ABV	52% (104 proof)	52% (104 proof)	52% (104 proof)
Bottle	375ml	375ml	375ml
SRP	$55	$55	$55
Released	30 July 2026	18 September 2026	20 November 2026
Profile (per Four Roses)	Rounded, soft, spiced vanilla	Natural honey, floral, baking spice	Apricot, vanilla bean, pear, cherry, brown sugar

Four Roses has said the first three releases would all explore cask finishes, and that later experiments will move beyond finishing into other techniques. No. 003 therefore closes the opening chapter of the series.

Who is Four Roses?

Four Roses traces its roots to 1888 and distils in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, with its warehousing at Cox’s Creek. Its defining feature is the recipe system: two mashbills combined with five proprietary yeast strains to produce ten distinct bourbons, which are then used on their own in single barrel bottlings or blended for Small Batch and the annual Limited Edition releases.

That system is why the Experimental Series matters. A distillery whose identity rests on controlling flavour through grain and yeast is now testing what a second wood can add, and doing it with the same recipe codes its fans already know.

Price and availability

Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003 goes on sale on 20 November 2026 at the Four Roses visitor centres in Lawrenceburg and Cox’s Creek, Kentucky, at a suggested retail price of $55 for 375ml, while supplies last. Four Roses has not published a bottle count or a per-person limit for No. 003.

There is no announced wider US retail or international release. As with Nos. 001 and 002, readers outside Kentucky will most likely meet this one through friends visiting the distillery, bottle shares or the secondary market, where prices tend to sit well above SRP.

Is it worth seeking out?

At $55 for 375ml, the price works out at roughly the cost of a full 70cl bottle of a premium Four Roses expression, so it is not cheap per millilitre. What you are paying for is a six-year-old OBSK at 104 proof with a finish nobody else in Kentucky is doing.

This is for the Four Roses completist, anyone who already has No. 001 and wants the Mizunara versus chestnut comparison on the same recipe, and drinkers curious about what non-oak wood does to bourbon. If you are planning a Kentucky trip around late November, put the visitor centres on the route. If you only buy one bottle of Four Roses a year and want the classic profile, the Small Batch Select or a single barrel remains the more direct route.

FAQ

What is Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003? Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003 is a limited Kentucky straight bourbon finished in chestnut casks. It is the third release in Four Roses’ Experimental Series, after a Mizunara oak finish and a honey cask finish. It uses the six-year-old OBSK recipe, bottled at 104 proof (52% ABV) in 375ml bottles.

What casks are used for Four Roses Chestnut Cask Finish? Four Roses finished mature OBSK bourbon in 250-litre chestnut barrels made from wood grown in Japan. The barrels had a range of toast and char levels. Each one was sampled regularly and emptied individually when it reached the desired profile, with finishing times between five and eleven weeks.

What does Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003 taste like? According to Four Roses, the nose shows rich apricot and soft vanilla. The palate is rounded and creamy with vanilla bean, pear, ripe cherry, toasted wood and baking spice. The finish is long, with delicate fruit and brown sugar. The Daily Whisky has not yet tasted it.

How much does Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003 cost? The suggested retail price is $55 for a 375ml bottle, the same as Experimental Series No. 001 and No. 002. That is the price at the Kentucky visitor centres. Secondary market prices are usually higher, and Four Roses has not announced pricing for any market outside the United States.

Where can I buy Four Roses Experimental Series No. 003? It goes on sale on 20 November 2026 at the Four Roses visitor centres in Lawrenceburg and Cox’s Creek, Kentucky, while supplies last. No wider US retail or international release has been announced, so buyers outside Kentucky will need to rely on someone visiting the distillery or on the secondary market.

What is the difference between Four Roses Experimental Series No. 001, No. 002 and No. 003? All three are 104 proof, 375ml and $55. No. 001 finishes six-year-old OBSK in Japanese Mizunara oak. No. 002 blends six- to eight-year-old OESQ and OBSK and finishes it in honey-seasoned barrels for three to nine months. No. 003 finishes six-year-old OBSK in chestnut barrels for five to eleven weeks.