I was speaking with Jim Rutledge, Four Roses’s Master Distiller, yesterday and asked him if he has anything new coming out this fall. And, of course, he does.  Ever since the new owners let the Four Roses tiger out of the cage a few years back, they have been releasing some wonderful whiskeys.

The new whiskey will be part of their new Mariage Collection. Here’s the explanation, straight from Jim himself:

We will release a limited edition Small Batch this month. We will do this annually and this year it is called Mariage – 2008 collection. (Mariage is the French spelling of marriage, and is most often seen in the beverage alcohol business describing the marriage of various wines.) This year we will use two of our ten recipes – one 10 years old and the other 13 years age. Next year we may use two recipes again, or four, or five…. Every year it will be a totally different flavor Bourbon – via formula design. With ten distinctive recipes and combining them in different combinations, different percentages and varying ages we have an infinite number of product flavors we can use for Mariage. I’m really excited about this idea, because over the years we can show the versatility in Bourbon products/flavors that only we can do – Uniquely Four Roses.

So, there you have it. He’s sending me a review sample. When I get it, I’ll let you know what I think.