Four Roses Distillery was built in 1910 in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, as the Old Prentice Distillery, in the Spanish Mission style.1,2,3 Seagram bought it in 1946, and in 1994 it became Four Roses Distillery.2,3,4 Kirin Holdings bought it in 2002, and E. & J. Gallo Winery took it over in 2026.5,6,7
Paul Jones Jr. trademarked the Four Roses name in 1888, the company says, and claimed sales back to the 1860s.1,8 Named after Louisville newspaper editor George Prentice, it was built for the Brown family, Four Roses says; the National Register record credits the Hawkins firm.1,2,3 It closed in 1917 as Prohibition began, and was refurbished in 1933 to make Old Joe whiskey.3 National Distillers Products Company bought it in 1941.3 In 1942 a five-story distillery tower was added to meet higher demand during World War II.3
Seagram bought Frankfort Distilleries, owner of the Four Roses brand, in 1943 for $42 million.1,2,4 It bought the Old Prentice plant in 1946, one of five Seagram distilleries in Kentucky; each of Four Roses' five yeast strains came from one of them.2,3 The plant supplied bourbon for Seagram's blended whiskies, and its National Register record says the unaged spirit went by truck to an Indiana plant for blending.2,3,5 Seagram stopped selling Four Roses straight bourbon in the US and sold it in Europe and Asia instead.2,3,5 Four Roses' Lotus Warehouses at Cox's Creek were completed in December 1960.9 Each of the 21 warehouses is one story high to keep temperatures even from top rack to bottom, and they still age its bourbon.9 Ova O. Haney became plant manager in 1983 and sought to restore the building, which Seagram had neglected for years.10 Seagram restored its outside from the original blueprints and added grain silos and a mill building.10 In 1987 the main building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.1,8,10
By the end of 1994, Jim Rutledge had persuaded Seagram to sell the 80-proof Four Roses bourbon in Kentucky in limited amounts; Rutledge has also dated this to 1996.4,11 Rutledge replaced Ova Haney as master distiller in 1995; one Four Roses page dates the change to November 1994.1,5,11 Kirin Holdings bought the brand and plant in February 2002, dropped the US blended whiskey and began selling the straight bourbon across the US.4,5,6
Brent Elliott, who had worked beside Rutledge for 10 years, became master distiller in August 2015.1,5 A $55 million expansion begun in 2015 and finished in April 2019 gave the plant the ability to double production capacity.1,12,13 The plant had a single beer still and a single doubler, a pot-shaped still for the second distillation; the expansion added a second of each and more fermenters.12,13,14 Kirin Holdings sold the business to E. & J. Gallo Winery on 1 April 2026, and Gallo kept the existing team led by Elliott.7,15
Bottles in Peated distilled at Four Roses Distillery, by release year.
| Year distilled | Bottles |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 2 |
| 2009 | 2 |
| 2010 | 1 |
| 2011 | 2 |
| 2012 | 2 |
| 2013 | 3 |
| 2014 | 2 |
| 2015 | 1 |
| 2016 | 2 |
| 2017 | 2 |
| 2018 | 2 |
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2022 | 1 |
| 2023 | 1 |
| 2024 | 3 |
| 2025 | 3 |
| 2026 | 3 |
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Its mash uses limestone-rich water from the spring-fed Salt River.8,14 Fermentation lasts at least three days and turns the mash into distiller's beer, a sour fermented mash of about 8% alcohol.14 Two mash bills, or grain recipes, one 60% corn and 35% rye and one 75% corn and 20% rye, and five yeast strains make ten bourbon recipes.14 In the column still, rising steam turns the beer to vapour, and a condenser turns it back into spirit of about 132 proof.14 After the doubler, in this two-step distillation, the spirit comes out at about 138-140 proof.14
