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If you’ve never met Four Roses Al Young, you’re missing out on a great conversation with one of the most underrated and beloved people in bourbon.

The long time brand ambassador and Bourbon Hall of Famer celebrates 50 years with Four Roses. To commemorate this, the distillery is honoring him with a special 2017 Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Small Batch Bourbon.

It’s slated for a June release with an MSRP of $150.
According to a press release, the includes 5 percent of a 23-year-old of OBSV recipe, 25 percent 15-year-old OBSK , 50 percent 13-year-old OESV and 20 percent 12-year-old OBSF.

Young, who wrote the book on Four Roses, became Distillery Manager in 1990 and Four Roses Brand Ambassador in 2007. While many brand ambassadors are just sales people, Young stood out, because he could distill, talk history and tell you anything you wanted to know about life.

Young was inducted into the Whisky Magazine Hall of Fame in 2015 and is also a member of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.

“After he’s spent half a century handcrafting our product and guiding the Four Roses brand, Al’s 50th Anniversary Bourbon had to be as memorable as the man himself,” said Master Distiller Brent Elliott in a press release. “He wanted to utilize an older Bourbon, if possible. We tried different quantities of the 23-year-old and the chosen 5 percent was just the right amount. It mingled with the other recipes perfectly for an incredible flavor.”

The bottle is a retro bottle shape and label, modeled after the bottle design from 1967, the year Young started, the company said.

Some 10,000 bottles will be distributed nationally. It debuts June 10, 2017 at Whisky Live Louisville.