Ever pay money for an expensive bourbon only to find out that it’s…not bad? I mean one that is fine, but for the price you were kind of expecting…better? The it’s a decent bourbon, but not for it’s price range sort of thing?
I honestly hope you haven’t. Unfortunately, I have. Numerous times. And I’ve shared them with you. Numerous times. And it saddens me to say that tonight I’m going to be doing it again.
Wild Turkey Diamond Anniversary is a bourbon that I think people were excited about trying before it came out. It was an Wild Turkey expression made up of 13 and 16 year old bourbons. It was put out honor a legend’s 60th anniversary in the business. Everything was set up for this to be a special release.
Then it came out. The reviews were nice, but less than stellar with most of them being something along the lines of what I described above. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to be purchasing it. The MSRP was out of my price range and though I love almost everything Wild Turkey has put out, I had to pass.
Then my wife got auction fever. We were at the Oscar Getz Museum Master Distillers Auction during BourbonFest 2015 when this bottle came up for bid. It came with a set of four nice tumblers. No one was bidding on it and she felt bad. She ended up getting the bottle and the tumblers for $140. A little below MSRP once you toss in the price of four glasses. We figured that it was for charity and any bottle that wasn’t sold wouldn’t help the museum. So she waited until it fell below MSRP and pounced. She was the only bidder.
Wild Turkey Diamond Anniversary
Purchase Info: $140 at BourbonFest Master Distillers Auction (with 4 glasses included), Bardstown, KY
Details: 45.5% ABV. A blend of 13 and 16 year old whiskeys.
Nose: Kind of flat on the nose with sweet fruit and oak.
Mouth: Sweet. Brown sugar, oak and baking spice.
Finish: Lingering oak and caramel flavors. Slight heat and spiciness.
Thoughts: This is a whiskey that either fits your palate or doesn’t. I find it flat and uninspiring while my wife really likes it. Neither of us are looking to buy a second bottle though, not even when Total Wine put it on sale for $89.
To be honest, if I’m going to spend a lot on Wild Turkey, I’d go with Master’s Keep. I actually picked up a second bottle of that when I saw it for $130 (I also saw it all over the place for around $150). If I’m not trying to spend a lot, I like the Rare Breed better than the Diamond and it is less than one third the price. Both of them tend to be more energetic in the mouth than Diamond, which is something I like about Wild Turkey normally.
Diamond is not a bad bourbon. It’s actually quite good. It’s just not $90 to $130 good. For the price and the pedigree, I expected a lot more.
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