[4] An alternative account has the brand founded by Rufus Mathewson Rose, speculating it was probably named in honor of himself, his brother Origen, and their two sons.
The Four Roses distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, was built in 1910 with Spanish Mission-style architecture, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Around the end of the 1950s, Seagram discontinued its sale within the United States in order to focus on promoting its core product, blended whiskey – although it introduced other brands of premium straight bourbons in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Benchmark and Eagle Rare.
[7] A staid product in the US, Four Roses Kentucky straight bourbon's focus was shifted to Europe and Asia, which were rapidly growing markets at the time.
In the United States during this period, the Four Roses name was used on a blended whiskey, made mostly of neutral grain spirits and commonly seen as a lower tier brand.
[10] In 1999, Four Roses brand ownership passed from Seagram to Vivendi/Universal, then in 2001 to Pernod Ricard and Diageo before being purchased by The Kirin Brewery in 2002.
The brand's regular bottlings are: The company also produces special limited-production commemorative releases.