Megawatt wine, beer, and spirits producer E&J Gallo Winery announced today that it completed its acquisition of Four Roses Bourbon from Japan beverage conglomerate Kirin Holdings. Neither party disclosed the terms of the transaction.
The completion comes roughly two months after Gallo agreed to acquire the premium bourbon brand for up to $775 million dollars. Kirin began shopping Four Roses around for $1 billion in October. UBS Investment Bank and Jefferies advised Kirin and Gallo, respectively, to finalize the sale.
Under the new ownership, Four Roses’s first significant release will be a 100-proof bourbon, says Gallo’s chief commercial officer Britt West. The high-proof rollout will begin in April or May.
Data from Shanken News Daily’s Impact Databank ranks Four Roses eighth in sales by volume among worldwide bourbons. The brand is just the second American whiskey to join Gallo’s portfolio, following the producer’s Horse Soldier Bourbon purchase in 2022. The release claims Gallo’s absorption of the premier bourbon brand will bolster its footprint in markets across Europe and Japan.
Gallo consistently ranks as the biggest wine supplier in the U.S., but its expanding investment in American whiskey underlines the category’s growing appeal in international markets. Despite setbacks in key markets due to ongoing trade disputes, American whiskey was by far the most exported U.S. spirit type in 2025 with burgeoning interest in new markets like Brazil and Australia.
Upon the sale’s initial announcement, Four Roses devotees and whiskey fans alike wondered whether the brand — which is known for its acute reach to bourbon aficionados — would expand its scope to include more novelty finishes to reach newcomers. “I think actually they have been held back on the innovation front,” West says of Kirin’s more conservative approach to innovation.
West looks forward to working with master distiller Brent Elliott, who he says is equipped with ideas for inventive products that could potentially widen the brand’s reach.
“There’s also more that we can do on the consumer side because not every bourbon consumer wants to have to understand the complexities of five yeast strains and two mash bills,” West says. “There are awareness tactics I think we can do. There are trial tactics for people who’ve never tried Four Roses that I think we can do.”
Gallo’s absorption of Four Roses marks the first time in 83 years the American whiskey brand is under U.S. ownership, according to the release. The original owner, Frankfort Distilling Company, sold Four Roses to Seagram in 1943, who later passed it to Kirin in 2002. Kirin cited its plans to invest in assets with higher growth potential as the reason for the sale in the February announcement.
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