I just reviewed four new bourbons over the past couple days. Here’s the first one.
Wild Turkey “Tradition”, 14 year old, 50.5%, $100
Richly textured—almost chewy—with toffee, molasses, nougat, date, candy corn, ripe clementine and raisin, peppered with dusty grain, cocoa powder, moss, Play-Doh, subtle mint and herbs. Not as crisp or clean on the palate as the Wild Turkey American Spirit 15 year old, released a couple years ago (which I rated a 94), but it is very good and (dare I say?) rather therapeutic in nature. It makes for a nice digestif. This is a different style of Wild Turkey. There’s a good deal of wood influence. I suspect that some will like this a lot, but others might not warm up to it as much. It took me a few encounters before I embraced it.
Advanced Malt Advocate Magazine Rating: 89
Any motivation for the odd packaging? It seems a bit strange, but perhaps they just need some way to differentiate from their other offerings.
Luke, and it comes in this wood box too (which I didn’t show).
$100 for something you (I trust you John) rate a 89? I think I’ll pass. Besides, I just picked up another bottle of the WLW and George T. Stagg this afternoon (a discount liquor store in my neighborhood got a bottle of each as their allotment of the 2009 BT Antique Collection) – joins my 3 WLW’s and 3 Stagg’s I previously picked up. Much better investments. I think I’ll just wait for this year’s Pappy’s to come out.
BTW John, have/will you try a Colorado Whisky I’ve been hearing about?
One hundred dollars is expensive, but those of us who love all things Wild Turkey, I will probably give it a shot.
It is a different tasting Turkey. Not all will fancy this one.
JWC, I assume you are referring to Stranahan’s? I’ve had some that I really liked and there were other releases I was indifferent about. They have many experiments going on (which they call “snowflakes”, because no two are alike).
John,
Greetings. Just introduced to your blog via the WSJ piece. Glad to have you as a current and future source of whiskey information.
Question: What happened to Wild Turkey’s aging process and inventory after the warehouse fire eight or ten years back? I always enjoyed the taste of the 101 proof which was remarkably smooth. Sometime after the fire “Aged 8 years” disappeared from the label. More importantly, the whiskey acquired a “bite” that I didn’t enjoy. I tried to get some information from the Wild Turkey distillery but was sent a pre-programmed, marketing e-mail that told me nothing. I’ve since changed my brand and now really enjoy Evan Williams as my number one bourbon.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Kind regards,
David Hornick
Leavenworth, Kansas
Hi David,
I’m not sure about the “bite” you are referring to. Yes, I am aware of the loss of the 8 year old age statement. It’s always sad when that happens. But as far as I know, they’re still making the whiskey the same way. (But you can’t go wrong with Evan Williams too!)