Staring at a bottle of Wild Turkey Generations, and considering its $450 price tag, it’s a little hard to know what to say. It was just a month ago, that I wrote the following about the second release in Wild Turkey’s Single Rickhouse series:
When it comes to novelty in the bourbon world, there’s always going to be a price tag that comes along with it. A big price tag. The Russell’s Reserve Single Rickhouse series is proof of that, being an outlier in the Wild Turkey/Russell’s lineup that is at least partially defined on a daily basis by offering some of the best pure value on the whiskey shelf–look no further than the heroic work done every day by Wild Turkey 101, Russell’s Reserve 10 or Rare Breed. But the last few years have also seen the company–or at least its Campari ownership–seemingly waking up to the soaring MSRPs it can charge in this era of bourbon limited release hype, and that has meant big jumps for the likes of the Master’s Keep annual releases, or Russell’s Reserve 13 Year, which somehow debuted at an MSRP of only $70 in 2021. Suffice to say, those days are now long gone just a few years later.
In that moment, I was writing about the difficulty of rationalizing the $300 cost of the Single Rickhouse Camp Nelson F, which turned out to be a fantastic bourbon. I didn’t even know that a month later, I’d be sampling another WT release that was a further 50% more expensive. In the moment, I wouldn’t have even thought that was possible! And yet here we are.
Suffice to say, if WT’s Campari ownership wanted whiskey geeks to sit up and take notice of their premiumization efforts, they’ve done exactly that with these last few releases. There’s no way you can sugarcoat a number like $450. There’s almost no way to rationalize it by discussing what is in the bottle, either. Back in 2020, the 17-year-old, cask strength Master’s Keep release of Wild Turkey Bottled in Bond had a sticker price of $175. Today, a significantly younger bourbon blend is $450. Times have clearly changed.
And it’s a shame, because Wild Turkey Generations–beyond being delicious–has one of the coolest stories that the company has ever used as the basis for a limited edition release. What we have in this bottle is a significant moment in the history of the company, the lighting of a new “Russell” torch as the third generation of Wild Turkey blenders steps to the plate to take on his share of the family legacy. Generations is the first bottle in company history to be blended as a collaboration between not just father-and-son Master Distiller duo Jimmy and Eddie Russell, but also Eddie’s son Bruce, now an Associate Blender in the company. One imagines that this is more or less the first concrete, public step in the process that could lead Bruce Russell to become the next Wild Turkey Master Distiller a few decades from now. But this profoundly important aspect of Wild Turkey Generations is all too likely to be overshadowed by discussion of its soaring MSRP, easily the highest in company history. Is this the highest they can possibly go? Or will we be talking about another, $600 bottle in a couple months? Granted, at least this isn’t Buffalo Trace’s upcoming $10,000 release of Eagle Rare 25 Year.
But now let’s turn our gaze to what is actually in this bottle. This is a blend of 9-, 12-, 14-, and 15-year-old bourbon presented at cask strength: Notably, the final strength of 60.4% ABV (120.8) is actually the highest ever in a Wild Turkey-branded release, thanks to the company’s lower barrel entry proof. Each bourbon was chosen for inclusion by a different Russell, or as the company puts it:
Bruce, like his grandfather Jimmy, prefers bold bourbon flavors, which come through in the 12-year bourbon he selected for the blend. Eddie has a penchant for a softer honeyed, vanilla-laden flavor that typically comes from older bourbons, such as his 15-year-old selection and the 14-year-old whiskey he and Bruce picked together. Jimmy stayed true to his palate, as he has for decades, by selecting a nine-year-old bourbon consistent with the classic Wild Turkey profile. While each of the Russells have slightly different tastes and preferences, they share the highest standards of quality for workmanship. The meticulously blended final bourbon seamlessly merges whiskies from the distillery’s finest barrels, capturing the heart and spirit of the Russell family.
So there you have it. Three palates, three profiles, one singular bottle that encompasses the past, present and future of Wild Turkey. A bottle that absolutely has to be among the best things that WT has ever produced, in order to justify its price point. So with that said, let’s get to tasting.
On the nose, Wild Turkey Generations initially strikes me as being defined by three elements: Fruity, Savory, Roasty. The fruitiness is bright and alluring, more bright in fact than you would likely expect for an older blend, with black cherry and tart blackberry, bramble fruit and currant. This is followed by sweet, charred oak and espresso, along with nutty cacao nibs and vanilla. The savory elements come forward in tobacco and rye spice, before a brown sugar sweetness creeps in to make things seem more rich. It’s a wonderful combination of elements.
On the palate, we’re first presented with an immediate, big burst of sweetness and spice. I’m getting loads of dark brown sugar and notable cola spice, along with nutmeg, vanilla bean, and molasses. High-cacao dark chocolate provides a slightly bitter edge that doesn’t go too far, as does the slightly drying astringency of burnt wood sugars and creme brulee. The fruitiness again shows up in the form of black cherry and blackberry jam, while the spice transitions into hints of allspice. Heat is integrated nicely, giving Generations a sturdy backbone of heft behind it. Across the board, things are dialed in quite nicely, especially highlighting fruit, spice and sweetness.
All in all, this is a lovely bourbon experience, a well-conceived blend that does indeed highlight the preferences of several different generations of Russells. With that said, is even this level of quality adequate when the MSRPs continue their stratospheric climb? Would you rather have one bottle of Generations, or three bottles of the last Russell’s Reserve 13 batch for the same price? Or 8 to 9 bottles of Rare Breed, for that matter? To all but the most affluent bourbon collectors, I can’t help but think that this release–and any subsequent releases in this mold–are going to be frustratingly out of reach. The saving grace, of course, is that Wild Turkey’s everyday bourbon values haven’t gone anywhere. The company still offers some of the very best bang for your buck on the whiskey shelf. As long as that never changes, our passion for Wild Turkey is unlikely to ever waver.
Distillery: Wild Turkey
City: Lawrenceburg, KY
Style: Blend of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskeys
ABV: 60.4% (120.8 proof)
Availability: Limited, 750 ml bottles, $450 MSRP
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident brown liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.