Wild Turkey Takes Off
I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life trying to convince nearly anyone around me that Wild Turkey is one of the best whiskies on the market bar none. It’s amazing how many people still walk into our shop and sort of roll their eyes at the suggestion that Wild Turkey dollar for dollar their best bet. Of course, there’s a growing group of absolute diehards who understand why the gorgeous distillery in Tyrone is one of Kentucky’s unsung superstars. For a lot of WT drinkers, it is the consistent over performing its price point and a constant uncompromising focus on flavor or fashion that’s drawn them in. Once you’re in though, people don’t really want to talk about it. It’s like stumbling on some uncharted lagoon or crystal cave. You’ve got something extremely special that you’re honestly excited about, but you're worried sharing it will ruin it completely. So these great lovers of the Kickin’ Chicken aren’t out their promoting the merits of this incredible find, they’re kind of just sipping quietly, a little nod and a winkle all they’ll give to those who might be headed on the right path.
So I sit there telling people about how incredible Wild Turkey 101 is for $20 and most people sort of snicker and buy buffalo trace instead. I have to say part of why Wild Turkey isn’t more appreciated by hoards of newly minted bourbon geeks is that they’re almost too consistent and predictable. While they’ve expanded their selection here and there, they only occasionally produce ultra rare vintage releases that get the collectors going crazy. There’s no yearly release in the BTAC style. There’s no Cask Strength Small Batch with goofy names or a big age statement. There’s just the regular old Wild Turkey line up (which is excellent), an intermittent and often underwhelming line expansion, and the occasional Master’s Keep offering. It’s not a brand designed with the collectors or bourbon nerds in mind, but is instead focused on actual drinkers. The simple fact that their single barrels get cut to 110 proof (albeit for a relatively low cask strength between 116-118) makes it significantly less exciting for collectors, who want to be able to compare barrel proofs, distillation dates and aging regiments. Still there are plenty of people that drink and love Wild Turkey and every time we sell a bottle of Russell’s Single Barrel a new love affair begins. So it doesn’t allure or cache for the uninitiated that Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses or Beam have created with their multiple yearly cask strength limited release products, but what it does have is damned good bourbon every time.
Nonetheless we keep bringing up the fact, much to the dismay of Wild Turkey itself, that they are sitting on stocks from a historic and now demolished distillery, which was notorious for cranking out stellar hooch for decades. This is the same scenario that created the cultural and commercial phenomenon that is Pappy Van Winkle. That special wooden distillery, built sometime around 1935, was known by many names, but since it was acquired outright by Austin, Nichols & Co. in 1971 it’s been called The Wild Turkey Distillery. The distillery where the great Jimmy Russell learned his trade was notoriously haunted, but also cranked out some of the very best juice I’ve ever tasted, period. The very final stocks from this distillery are now coming of age and being bottled under the Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel line that we love so much. But the fact that Wild Turkey has built a gleaming new distillery and demolished their old stalwart is conspicuously missing from the Wild Turkey marketing. Perhaps they’re worried about diminishing the current production facility, although I don’t see how highlighting the importance of these special stocks affects the reputation of the current production facility, which is still producing top tier juice already going into a number of the distillery’s every day offerings. And of course the actual source of these whiskies is irrelevant what counts is how they taste.
So last April, we stepped into Warehouse A with Bruce Russell for another exciting trek through these special stocks. The barrel tasting experience at Wild Turkey is unlike any other and Warehouse A is one of the oldest working rickhouses in Kentucky. Typically, during barrel tasting, the distillery picks out a couple of barrels and leads us into the warehouse. You’ll maybe try three and get to pick one from a pre-selected batch. When you ask about the other groupings of barrels around the warehouse, they’re completely off limits. But at Wild Turkey, we kind of just show up and anything in our sight that’s not already sold is on the table. We probably tasted through 15 barrels that day. Bruce, who is incredibly gracious and knowledgeable, was also very generous with his time. All the barrels we tasted were absolutely delicious, but these three stood out. The entire line up was aged at the Camp Nelson warehouses down toward Four Roses, which Wild Turkey took on after Seagram’s collapsed some 20 years ago.
The three barrels we ended up taking represent everything we love about the Russell barrel program. Each is distinctly different, yet they’re cut from the same stone. They represent some of the final stocks from the Old Ripy/Gould distillery, which was demolished in 2011, but being aged in the Camp Nelson facility seems to have unveiled something rather unique in the bold WT Distillate. Some of last year’s picks, which so many people have come back asking for, also came from that facility. After we made our selections, Bruce offered us a little preview of something – a cask strength single barrel at 11 years old that would be used in the upcoming Master’s Keep offering. This was easily one of the most delicious Kentucky Rye’s I’d ever tasted and while we’re very excited for the Master’s Keep. Hopefully one day, we’ll be able to do Cask Strength single barrels, but to be perfectly honest we’re happy with what we’ve got and convinced that our customer should be breakdown the doors to get them.
This delicious cask of Russell's Reserve is another stunning example of why the Wild Turkey distillery is simply the most underrated distillery in Kentucky. Distilled on December 21st of 2009 at the now demolished wooden distillery that sat below the current facility. This cask spent nine long years on the forth floor of Wild Turkey's Camp Nelson Warehouse A. These warehouses, about an hours drive south from the distillery in Tyrone, are well known for putting out some of the distillery's best casks over the last couple of years. These warehouses were acquired sometime in the last few decades as Wild Turkey's production has expanded. Camp Nelson tends to have a slightly different character than the Tyrone warehouses, but not nearly as different as the stone warehouses in Frankfurt produced. This excellent cask, one of two distilled and aged identically in this years batch, each has an extremely distinct character. Both have a little bit more of honey and less spice compared with the Tyrone stocks. Interestingly, this cask was meant to be released in 2018, but someone reneged on the commitment, so it's spent the last year in Tyrone. We took the opportunity to snatch this top notch barrel. This is one of the most obvious and open Russell's we've ever bottled. The style here is opulent. Expect big sweet and savory wood tones, vanilla bean, pure raw honey and a velvety texture. A perfect example of the heights this special distillery can achieve.
We picked another set of excellent Russell's Reserve barrels with the wonderful Bruce Russell back in April of 2019. Of the 20 casks we tasted that day, we selected three barrels that stood out as being some of the finest we'd ever experienced from the venerable distillery in Tyrone, KY. That's saying a lot considering the incredible casks we've previously sold, but the bourbon world is starting to wake up to WT and especially these old casks which were distilled at the old demolished distillery down the hill from the current facility. Barrel #19-1108 was distilled on the exact same day as the excellent cask 18-439. It was filled into the same Camp Nelson rickhouse A and the same floor as it's sister cask. The only difference in their maturation is cask 18-439 was pulled to Tyrone a year earlier and left there after being selected by someone else, but never bottled. We snatched that up the second we got a snort, but bought this barrel because of it's obvious merits as well. It was only after that we realized they've been distilled on the very same day and aged in similar places. This cask is probably what most traditional Wild Turkey drinkers are looking for. An immediate rush of cola, big cinnamon, dark vanilla bean, burnt citrus peel, hints of licorice, maple syrup, dried herbs and leaves. The palate is surprisingly supple with classic red hots, roasting coffee beans, citrus oil and a sweet caramelized oak. Big, bold and spicy -this is why they call her the Kickin' Chicken.
This barrel is the outlier among this year's selection of Russell's Reserve. Unlike the other two, which were both distilled in December of 2019 and aged in Camp Nelson Warehouse A, this cask was distilled on November 13th of 2019 and spent nine years on the 6 floor of Warehouse F on the Camp Nelson campus. Like cask 439, this one was was bottled on June 29th of 2019. For whatever reason, it shows more of the earthy aromatics than the other casks. Still it remains very balanced, but is neither as sweet as 439 nor a spicy as 1108. Instead, the aromatic profile is very roasty, showing the Turkey's dark meat a bit here. Expect strong aromas of roasted vanilla and coffee bean, forest floor, sweet charred oak, leather and dried herbs. The palate is long and sweetens up enough to keep it from feeling harsh or austere. Some might argue that this is the best cask of the three, but it simply a different side of Turkey that we happen to absolutely adore. We don't see that many casks that show this profile and when we do we snatch them up immediately.