Wild Turkey has long been my personal measuring stick for bourbon. The standard 101-proof release is one of my favorite bourbons on the market, and it has been for years. It’s also extremely reasonably priced. In fact, it’s so reasonably priced that it has won the BourbonGuy.com Brackets competition nearly every time it’s been entered. The only exception was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when I decided to pit it against higher-proof (and higher-cost) options since I couldn’t leave the house for a couple of months.
As I said, I use it as a measuring stick. When I’m unsure whether to buy a given expensive whiskey, I ask myself, “Is it worth five bottles of Wild Turkey?” The answer is usually no. Of course, that logic doesn’t always apply when impulse buying—like when I received a marketing email from Wild Turkey announcing a preorder for this 8-year-old edition. I knew immediately I’d be buying it.
But why? Is an 8-year-old version worth twice the price of the standard 101, which typically starts at around six years of age? Probably not. This is one of those rare instances where I bought something not for what was in the bottle but for what was on it.
Jimmy Russell has worked at Wild Turkey for 70 years. Let that sink in—70 years with the same company, through changes in ownership and shifts in the market. I’ve never held a job for more than ten years—unless you count the unpaid job of writing for this site (then it’s twelve and a half). Over all those decades, Jimmy has just been there, making and promoting bourbon. Sure, he may not be as involved in the day-to-day operations now, but he’s earned that. He’s an icon of the whiskey industry, and it will be a very sad day when he is no longer with us.
So yes, I bought this bottle to honor a man I deeply admire. And I bought a second one to open and toast him on the unfortunate but inevitable day of his passing. Is it “worth it”? In this case, for me, worth goes beyond the contents of the bottle. But let’s see how it tastes.
Wild Turkey Jimmy Russell’s 70th Anniversary 8 Year Old
Purchase info: $66.72 (including shipping and tax) for a 750 mL bottle from the Wild Turkey site, fulfilled through ReserveBar.com. The suggested retail price is $50.
Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.45
Details: 50.5 % ABV. 8 years old
Nose: Nutmeg, caramel, oak, and vanilla.
Mouth: Caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and oak.
Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Rich notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and oak.
Thoughts: Folks, you know I love Wild Turkey. And having had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy Russell on a couple of occasions, I can tell you he’s a gem of a man, full of wonderful stories. So I knew I needed to buy this bourbon, even though I suspected—based on the specs—that it would likely be “just” a very good bottle of Wild Turkey. Well, I was right.
Tasting this side-by-side with the standard 101 reveals that the 70th Anniversary Edition is a bit more refined and slightly sweeter. That’s about it. If you are fortunate enough to get a bottle, you now own a subtly better version of Wild Turkey, which is a fantastic thing. If you didn’t, console yourself with the fact that the standard Wild Turkey 101 is still really damn good—and even the special edition only subtly improved on it.
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