Turkey Royalty: Russell's Reserve 15, Wild Turkey Master's Keep 17 BiB, "Cheesy Gold Foil" 101 12

We're still on Americana until my nose clears up, but I wanted to make this one special. As I've said in the past, if there's one heritage American whiskey producer that I'm ride or die for it's almost certainly Wild Turkey (   • My Ride or Die Spirits Brands   ). Yes the endless parade of limited releases with increasingly silly pricing is starting to get annoying but I still love the grungy, perfumey profile, and the basic 101 is still pretty much the standard for what $25 gets you in the whiskey aisle (   • Wild Turkey Bourbons, Part I: 101 and...   ), and Rare Breed is still absolutely phenomenal (   • Wild Turkey Bourbons, Part II: Rare B...   ). Still, I haven't actually reviewed any Turkey bourbon since a Russell's Reserve pick a year and a half ago (   • 3 American Single Barrels: Russell's ...   ). Let's take the opportunity to change that.

And how. Until today I've never tasted a Wild Turkey older than 10, partly because they get expensive and partly because I'm a little worried about oak creeping in at that age. And now I'm tasting three of them:

Wild Turkey Limited Edition 12 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 101 Proof (Lawrenceburg; bottled mid-'80s to early '90s; 50.5% ABV), 90/100
Wild Turkey Master's Keep 2020 Edition 17 Year Old Bottled in Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (Lawrenceburg; 50% ABV), 88/100
Russell’s Reserve 15 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Limited Release (Lawrenceburg; bottled 2024; 58.6% ABV), 89/100

Let's first agree that none of these are worth the prices being asked on secondary. Yes? Yes. They're probably not even worth the price at retail, to be honest. Okay? Okay.

The Master's Keep 17 is the one I where I was really expecting to be chewing on a board, and that's somehow just not the experience. This is lean, fresh, edgy stuff, with the time in oak mostly manifesting as an intense spiciness on the palate. A terrific batch, it just isn't quite as good as...

The Russell's 15 is the most "modern" of these Turkey's on my palate, driven less by citrus and herbs and spice and more by oodles of rich gooey cherry desserty American oak. It's still Turkey all the way through, but it's also the one that's going to most impress a BTAC kind of crowd. In any other lineup this would be hard to beat.

Except that a very kind soul gave me an ounce of the absolutely legendary "cheesy gold foil" WT 12 from the turn of the '90s, i.e. distillate from the '70s. If bourbon needs a yardstick, this might be it. The form reminds me more of an Armagnac than a bourbon, frankly, with oodles of fruit just barely managing to hold back a tremendous mass of musty wood and tons of little details playing in the corners. Killer. It's not quite so insane that it pushes me deep into the 90s, but it might be the best modern (= post-'60s) American bourbon I've ever tried. If you have a bottle of this, by all means share with friends.

Extra special thanks to my Different Spirits on Patreon (  / differentspirits  ) -

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