Last Night's Tipple

The last stop on this week's Tour of Wild Turkey is the plain-old flagship 101 proof Bourbon bottling, again. My experience with this whiskey last night was similar to the one I had on Saturday night but better. This time, the whiskey exhibited more the butterscotch aromas that I like in Wild Turkey products and less of the new whiskey, cotton candy smell. It was also not as rough. The difference? Well, aside from the unreliability of the taster, last night I had the ceiling fan going where I did not on Sunday night. More air, different flavors and aromas. I would do well to have the ceiling fan going in the future.

Last Night's Tipple

Continuing with this week's Wild Turkey theme, I had another pour of Wild Turkey Rare Breed last night. You will recall that Rare Breed is Wild Turkey's "barrel-proof" bottling, meaning that it is presented as Bourbon that has been bottled straight out of the barrel without any water dilution. Whereas most barrel-proof Bourbons are extremely potent (Booker's is over 125 proof; George T. Stagg is typically over 140 proof), this one is a relatively gentle 108.4 proof, and it is made up of 6 year old, 8 year old, and 12 year old Bourbons. It's true that Wild Turkey enters the barrels at a significantly lower proof than is standard among other Bourbon distillers, but I have my doubts that 108.4 proof (preprinted on the neck band) represents the precise alcoholic strength that the dump making up the batch exits the barrels at.

Regardless, this has consistently been one of my favorite Bourbons because it piles on the unctuous dessert-like flavors and aromas that I like so much. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite so enjoyable this time around. Even after a significant airing, it still smelled woody, and the taste was a bit harsh and unpleasant. Toward the end of the glass, it began to exhibit some buttered popcorn and some butterscotch, like I was accustomed to; but overall, this glass was a bit of a disappointment. Why? I'm not sure, but there are a few possible explanations. First, it could be that nothing whatever has changed in the whiskey or the manner in which I consumed it; that it was my mood and the vagarities of my palate that accounted for the difference in experience. Second, it could be that the manner in which I consumed it differed from the norm and that this difference accounted for the difference in experience. My ceiling fan is typically going while I pour and consume whiskey. Last night, it wasn't. I could certainly believe that that contributed to the quantity and quality of the air the glass got and consequently to the way the whiskey smelled and tasted. Third, it could be that the whiskey is getting oxidized. Yes, oxidized. The bottle has been open for well over a year, and it is getting pretty empty. Spirits don't fall apart from exposure to oxygen the way that most beer and wine do, but eventually they too will oxidize. It could be that that is what's happening with this bottle. Not to worry, though. I'll finish it up soon enough and buy a brand-new one.

Last Night's Tipple

In case you haven't noticed, I'm on something of a Wild Turkey kick recently. Given that this is the week of Thanksgiving, that seems appropriate. Last night, it was another pour of the original 101 proof version of Russell's Reserve. To be honest, it really didn't do a whole lot for me this time. Too much orange, too much wood, not enough cinnamon and caramel. I wonder if ten years is simply too much age for Wild Turkey -- the other expressions that I have tried and enjoyed have been (mostly) younger than that. (Rare Breed does contain some 12 year old juice, but it also contains 6 year old and 8 year old, meaning that the aggregate is likely younger than 10 years old.) It could also be, of course, that this bottle is simply not to my liking or that I was simply not in the mood to enjoy it last night.

Last Night's Tipple

I write about Van Winkle whiskeys quite a bit, and they deserve to be written about. They've very good. If you look at what I buy and what I drink, you'll find that I buy a lot of Wild Turkey; and for good reason: they make some excellent whiskey, too. But until yesterday, I had never tried the flagship product, the standard 101 proof bottling.

What is now the Wild Turkey Distillery traces its heritage back to the Ripy family, which first distilled whiskey in Anderson County, Kentucky, in 1869. After the repeal of Prohibition, the Ripys revived their distillery. Some of their whiskey was bottled under the label of the Austin Nichols Company, a food and beverage distributer. In 1940, the president of the company, Thomas McCarthy, took some Ripy whiskey that he selected from the warehouse with him on a wild turkey hunt in South Carolina. His fellow hunters liked it so much that they requested him to bring more of that "wild turkey" Bourbon with him the next year. The Wild Turkey brand was introduced in 1942, and the Austin Nichols Company bought the distillery from the Ripys in 1970. Austin Nichols later became part of the Pernod Ricard wine and spirits empire, and Wild Turkey remains an important part of that empire. I would wager that it is the most widely-known of all Bourbon brands after Jim Beam.

In many ways, Wild Turkey was the one of the original modern premium Bourbons; and a premium Bourbon it remains. Whiskey enthusiasts complain incessantly that Jack Daniel's isn't what it used to be and that Jim Beam is watered-down crap. They don't complain about Wild Turkey. It is now what it has always been: big, bold, and unapologetic. Wild Turkey's mashbill is rye-heavy, and they use a #4 char (the heaviest char available) on the barrels that they age their Bourbon in. It's distinctive and delicious in the other bottlings that I have tried. It's younger and wilder, but still delicious in the standard 101 proof bottling. It's very much a young whiskey -- I can't really describe what that means other than to say that there it has fresh, sweet aroma, tastes a bit grainy, and is slightly rough. But it is very tasty. With some time in the glass, it betrays the same cinnamon bread pudding aromas and flavors that I associate with the other Wild Turkey bottlings that I have tried. I like it.

Last Night's Tipple

Wild Turkey has lots and lots of bottlings. There are the 80 proof and 101 proof Bourbons, the straight rye, Russell's Reserve Bourbon, Russell's Reserve Rye, Rare Breed Bourbon (the barrel-proof offering), and Kentucky Spirit (the single-barrel offering), to say nothing of the one-off bottlings like American Spirit or Tribute. And that's just in the United States. Overseas, one can also get the 101 proof 8 year, the 101 proof 12 year, the 86.8 proof, and Freedom (another barrel-proof offering of age combinations slightly different from Rare Breed). Every variation that I have tried has been good, which of course just makes me want to try more variations. I had been wanting to try Kentucky Spirit for a while, and so I bought a bottle on Friday evening. Mine states on the neck band that it was bottled on May 8, 2007 from barrel number 69 in warehouse E on rick number 13. I have no idea whether anything other than the date of bottling means anything, but there it is. It is bottled at 101 proof, just like WT's most famous and popular bottling. Other things about the packaging, though, are very different. The standard 101 proof bottling comes in an unassuming bottle-shaped bottle, closed with a simple, unassuming, plastic-topped cork. Kentucky Spirit comes in a fancy, flask-shaped bottle with stylized ridges suggesting a fanned-out turkey's tail and is closed with a fancy, carved-wood-topped cork. (I have read that the original Kentucky Spirit bottles actually had corks topped with a pewter turkey figuring). And Kentucky Spirit is expensive, too: more than twice as expensive as a bottle of the standard 101, which itself has a price similar to other premium Bourbons like Maker's Mark.

Is it worth it? Well, that's a question of value that every consumer must consider for himself, but I can say that it is delicious. It has the same spicy sweetness that I have experienced with other WT bottlings (like cinnamon bread pudding, at least to me), although it is distinct from the others. It seems a bit subtler and refined than Rare Breed, which has been my favorite Turkey. After trying Kentucky Spirit, I can't really say whether I prefer it to Rare Breed or the other way around. I imagine that that would depend on mood. And, fortunately, I don't have to choose one or the other: both are plentiful. As a single-barrel offering, one would think that there will be noticeable variation from bottle to bottle. I will be interested to see if that's the case.

Last Night's Tipple

Another pour of the old-style Wild Turkey Russell's Reserve Bourbon last night. You will recall that in its original configuration, Russell's Reserve, conceived as a tribute for Jimmy Russell, master distiller at Wild Turkey, was 101 proof in an ugly, painted bottle. It's currently bottled at 90 proof and in a much more attractive bottle, but lots of people don't like the reduced proof and are nostalgic for the original. Well, I lucked into the original a few weeks ago. I don't know if it's the increased proof or the Austin Nichols people selecting a different flavor profile, but the 101 proof version is certainly racier and, well, wilder than the 90 proof version. It's not my favorite Bourbon, but it is very good.

Last Night's Tipple

The past few years have seen something of a revival of rye whiskey, but the rye whiskey currently being bottled is different from the rye whiskey of the early part of the 20th Century. The old rye mostly came from Pennsylvania and Maryland while modern rye comes from Kentucky, of course, but there's another substantial difference between the two. Old-style rye had a very high proportion of rye in the mashbill (I believe that I have read somewhere between 70% and 80%), while modern rye tends to have the smallest proportion that distilleries can use and still call the resulting whiskey straight rye (51%). The remainder is corn (probably between 35% and 38%) and malted barley. I have never had any old-time rye, but reason indicates that modern rye would be much more Bourbon-like than the ryes of yore. Which is not to say that modern rye is indistinguishable from modern Bourbon. It is very much its own beast, and one can smell the difference from a mile away.

The reference rye for me is Wild Turkey. This is not to say that it is the best rye whiskey on the market, just that the characteristics that I associate with rye are present in Wild Turkey and that if someone doesn't like Wild Turkey, he doesn't like rye whiskey. Anyway, as I wrote yesterday about Russell's Reserve Rye, it's interesting to compare Wild Turkey to Russell's Reserve. I can tell that they're siblings, but they are very different. Russell's Reserve is refined and smooth; Wild Turkey is brash and exuberant. I like them both.

Last Night's Tipple

At this point, it's really not a good idea for me to go to the liquor store with the intent of just browsing and picking up something interesting. I'm running out of space to store bottles of whisk(e)y. I suppose that I could drink more and so go through bottles faster, but this doesn't seem like a particularly healthy alternative. So I've started to try to impose more buying discipline; to wit, I try to go to the liquor store looking for something in particular. If it's there, I buy it. If it isn't, then I buy nothing. Of course, it doesn't always work out that way, but the flesh is weak. Anyway, I went to Spec's on Saturday looking for the long-awaited Russell's Reserve Rye or one of the members of the recently-released 2007 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. Alas, there was no BTAC; but there was some Russell's Reserve Rye.

You will recall that Russell's Reserve Bourbon started out as something of tribute to Jimmy Russell, Wild Turkey's long-time master distiller. The marketing folks got a hold of it, gussied up the packaging, and morphed it into a sort of secondary label for Wild Turkey, one whose primary audience is composed of yuppies who might otherwise consume Maker's Mark. Whatever -- the Bourbon is good, so who cares about the brand image? I would prefer it if it were still at 101 proof, but I'll still buy it. Noticing the rye revival and the success of such premium rye bottlings as Baby Sazerac and Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye, Austin Nichols apparently decided to expand the Russell's Reserve brand by introducing Russell's Reserve Rye. Like Russell's Reserve Bourbon, it's bottled at 90 proof, although it is only 6 years old (just like Baby Sazerac) where the Bourbon is 10 years old. It's priced at a bit under $25 a fifth, also just like Baby Sazerac. Guess which rye Austin Nichols envisioned this one primarily competing with?

The regular Wild Turkey rye bottling is racy and spicy. It screams out, "I am a rye whiskey," and only after sitting in the glass for a while do I notice the vanilla and caramel notes that aging in (heavily-toasted) charred oak barrels produce. Those notes are much more evident in Russell's Reserve Rye, probably because it's aged two years more than the standard bottling. At the same time, there is no doubt that it's a rye, and, furthermore, that it's a Wild Turkey rye. I can't really describe it, but Wild Turkey Rye is distinctive in a way that no other whiskey I've had is distinctive. Russell's Reserve Rye shares that distinction. Very good whiskey, and a very good value.

(Yes, I know that the picture above is of the Russell's Reserve Bourbon, not the rye. I couldn't find a picture of the rye, but the packaging looks almost identical to the Bourbon.)

Last Night's Tipple

The hook for Wild Turkey Rare Breed is that it's a barrel-proof bottling, meaning that it is not diluted with distilled water between the barrel and the bottle. The stated proof on the bottle is 108.2; and given the fact that Wild Turkey enters the barrel at a lower proof than most other Bourbons, it's plausible that it might exit the barrel after 6, 8, or 12 years (Rare Breed is a mixture of Bourbons of those ages) close to 108.2. What's not plausible is that the proof is printed on the neck band. Austin Nichols wouldn't do that unless they had a whole lot of bottles with the same proof. It's simply not the case that the distillery dumped a barrel of 6 year old, a barrel of 8 year old, and a barrel of 12 year old, blended them together, and bottled the result. They probably dumped hundreds of barrels of each age to do the blend, at which point printing up the labels with the proof statement might have made sense. Of course, I shouldn't be too critical: it's not as if WT claims that this is a small-batch whiskey.

In any event, I like this Bourbon. A lot. You would think that a Bourbon that's 54.1% alcohol would take your head off. This one doesn't. It's smooth, robust, and full-flavored. The distinguishing characteristic of it, as far as I'm concerned, is that it has strong butter overtones. Not butterscotch; butter. It's actually very pleasant. It's a bit like butter pecan ice cream, melted, in a glass. With a hell of a lot of alcohol added.

Last Night's Tipple

Rye whiskey is an acquired taste. Well, all spirits are an acquired taste to some extent, at least for normal people; but rye whiskey is even more so. It's sharp and tends toward the harsh, and it doesn't have as much of the vanilla/caramel payoff that Bourbon does. When I first started buying whiskey, I bought rye. I crave novelty; and whatever else it is, rye whiskey is novel. I can't say that I enjoyed it very much. I choked down a bottle of Wild Turkey rye over a period of a few months and decided that it was vile and not worth the money or effort. It took a bad memory, an impressionable mind, and more reading about the virtues of rye for me to be willing to try it again. This time, I bought Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye, and I loved it. I tried WT again, and I loved that, too. Same with Sazerac, Jim Beam rye, and Old Overholt. It's all great stuff, although each is unique.

Another pour of the WT rye last night, and it remains as pleasantly powerful and piquant as it has always been. Among all of the rye whiskeys available in Houston, this offers probably the best balance of quality and value.

Last Night's Tipple

I was in Spec's on Friday, and I noticed a single bottle of Wild Turkey Russell's Reserve 101 proof. You may recall that I have previously written about Russell's Reserve, but in its new packaging and its lower proof. About two or three years ago, Austin Nichols decided to reposition Russell's Reserve as a more upscale brand, appealing to boutique Bourbon-swilling yuppies. Accordingly, they hired a graphics designer to improve the label, put the whiskey in a more attractive bottle, and began using a wood-topped cord instead of a plastic-topped one. Oh, yeah: they also consulted their marketing research and discovered that boutique Bourbon-swilling yuppies liked their Bourbon with the proof in the nineties instead of over 100. Accordingly, the proof was dropped to 90. I don't know why Spec's had a singleton bottle of the old configuration laying around, but they did; and I snapped it up. It's not exactly a dusty, but it's as close as I've ever come to finding one.

I know that it will shock you, but it tastes a lot like the 90 proof version. Amazingly enough, two Bourbons of the same age from the same distillery sometimes taste alike. It other words, there's a lot of that vanilla creme brulee dessert Bourbon goodness that I like about the WT products that I've tried. The difference is that the 101 proof version has a decent amount of orange in both the aroma and the palate, as if someone included some orange zest in that vanilla creme brulee. I like it. But you probably already could have guessed that.

Last Night's Tipple

I have previously mentioned that Austin Nichols is coming out with a new rye whiskey, Russel's Reserve Rye. Jimmy Russel is the distiller emeritus of the Austin Nichols Distillery, producer of Wild Turkey Bourbon and rye. The Russel's Reserve is intended to compete with Buffalo Trace's Sazerac Rye and is a couple of years older, 5.5% less alcohol, and supposedly smoother than Wild Turkey Rye. The release date for it was supposedly the middle of September, and I have been regularly visiting the liquor store looking for it. Alas, it hasn't reached Houston yet. Last night, I was forced to settle for Wild Turkey Rye instead of the Russel's Reserve. I have written about Wild Turkey Rye before, and there's nothing new to report: it's racy and spicy and full of character. It's the kind of whiskey I imagine that men (and women) in the old west would have drunk, only good.

Rye has been making something of a comeback recently -- one reads about it all the time in specialty whiskey magazines, trendy bars are emphasizing it more (not that I go to trendy bars -- I just see mention of them in the newspaper from time to time), and, most importantly, there have been lots more rye bottlings available recently, of which Russel's Reserve is the most recent. But it's necessary to put this rye revival in perspective. Heaven Hill, which produces Pikesville and Rittenhouse ryes, used to distill all they needed for a year in half a day. With the rye revival, they now have to spend a whole day distilling it. The situation is similar at Austin Nichols: the number of days per year spent producing rye whiskey can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Just so long as they make it, though.

In Today's Whiskey News

Noted Bourbon authority Chuck Cowdery, publisher of The Bourbon Country Reader and author of Bourbon, Straight: The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey, reports that Wild Turkey will release a Russel's Reserve Rye in September:

It is being bottled as we speak and will be on store shelves in late September. It is a U.S. release. It’s a six-year-old straight rye that will retail for about $24.00. An official press release should go out this week.

Recall that Jimmy Russel is Wild Turkey's master distiller and that Russel's Reserve Bourbon is a 10 year old whiskey selected by him. I imagine that the rye is the same sort of deal and that it's intended to compete with Sazerac Junior. Given that I like everything from Wild Turkey that I have tried and that I really like straight rye, I am very much looking forward to this.

Last Night's Tipple

Last night was the last of my bottle of Wild Turkey straight rye. There is nothing new to report about the taste experience other than to say that I will buy it again. Aside from the respect that it deserves for being one of the three generally-available rye whiskey options (along with Jim Beam rye and Old Overholt) during rye's wilderness years, it is a high-quality product.


A lot of single malt Scotch mavens talk disparagingly about American whiskey. In order to be real whisky (always without an "e"), they say, it has to be all-malt. Grain "whiskies" have no character or interest, and whatever flavor they have comes from the barrels they are aged in. (Please bear in mind that this is a bit of a caricature of what most maltheads think of grain whiskeys; but even if it is a caricature, it contains a good deal of accuracy.) Leave aside the fact that even though American whiskey and Scotch grain whisky might have some similarities in production, they are very different: Scotch grain tends to be distilled out to almost 190 proof where American straight whiskey is distilled to a maximum of 160 proof, and all American straight whiskey undergoes a secondary distillation in a pot-still-like contraption called a doubler where Scotch grain is only distilled once in a column still. Just consider Wild Turkey rye: it is hardly characterless, and anyone who doesn't get slapped around by the flavor and aroma of rye has no sensory perception. It's completely different from Wild Turkey Bourbon, or any other Bourbon, for that matter; and it would be silly to argue that the mashbill doesn't have a profound influence on the finished spirit.

Last Night's Tipple

Last night, I finished my bottle of Russel's Reserve. There's not a whole lot new to report about the Bourbon: it was good, of course. I got more of the sweet, dessert-type notes than of the big, spicy-type notes last night, but there was nothing there that I haven't written about before.

Russel's Reserve started life as a 101 proof bottling, which made a lot of sense given that it is a Wild Turkey product and Wild Turkey is known for its 101 proof whiskeys. Three of four years ago, it was shifted to 90 proof. At the same time, the packaging was upgraded -- the original bottling was a tall bottle with the label painted on, and it looked a bit cheap; whereas this one has a thick glass bottom, which gives it some heft, and a nicely-designed, paper label, which makes it look more expensive. In any event, why would Wild Turkey have dropped the proof by 10%?

The period from the late '70s until the early '90s was very hard for producers of American whiskey. They overproduced at a time where the market was abandoning Bourbon. The result was a glut of whiskey: every distiller had huge numbers of aging barrels that they couldn't sell for a decent price. Ever wonder why we started to see lots of super-aged Bourbons hit the market in the mid to late '90s? It's because distillers had large stocks of old whiskey that they hadn't been able to sell previously. Well, the glut is over. There aren't huge stocks of extra-aged whiskeys anymore. Bourbon sales are picking up. Wild Turkey faced more demand for Russel's Reserve than they had stocks of good, 10 year old whiskey, so they were faced with a decision if they wanted to increase sales: they could cut the proof of the whiskey, or they could cut the age. They chose to cut the proof (and thereby also reduced the excise taxes paid per bottle sold). Other Bourbon distillers have made the other choice. Russel's Reserve is still very good whiskey.

Last Night's Tipple

The key to enjoying high-proof spirits, at least for me, is letting them sit in the glass for a while after pouring. Alcohol is volatile, and the act of pouring stirs it up. If you drink it immediately, you'll burn your nasal passages on the volatilized alcohol. If you let it sit in the glass for a while, the alcohol vapor sitting over the liquor will dissipate somewhat, making for a more pleasant drinking experience. I did not use this approach last night while drinking Wild Turkey Rare Breed, and I paid for it. I drank it too soon after pouring it, and it burned my nose and wasn't particularly pleasant. The last few sips were much better and showed the quality that previous tastings of this demonstrated. As I have written before, it's a big Bourbon with a decent rye kick, and I noticed the rye more last night than I have before. It would be interesting to compare this to the single-barrel Kentucky Spirit bottling, which I imagine I will replace this bottle with when it's dead.

Last Night's Tipple

I have nothing much new to add to my previous writeup of Wild Turkey Russell's Reserve other than to say that I am rethinking my opinion expressed therein about lowering the proof of this Bourbon from 101 to 90 not being a bad thing. The fact of the matter is that Bourbon does not come out of the barrel at 90 or 101 proof, meaning that it has to be watered down to reach that level. What I like most about Bourbon are the vanilla, caramel, and butterscotch aromas and flavors that come from the barrel; and it stands to reason that adding water to what comes out of the barrel reduces the concentration of those things. It is true that the reduced alcohol tends less to deaden one's taste buds, but perhaps the trade-off isn't worth it. Maybe if I had a bottle of the 101 proof RR, I could compare and arrive at a definitive conclusion; but, alas, I can't.

Last Night's Tipple

I know, I know, I've had this one before, but it's not feasible for me to try something new every day. One of the reasons that I like American whiskeys (at least good American whiskeys) so much is they are constantly evolving in the glass. Take a whiff and a sip, and you'll form one impression. Put the glass down, come back to it in a minute or two, and try it again. It's likely that you'll get something else. Not only that, but these two things are both likely to be very pleasant. Such is the case with Wild Turkey Rye (and with every other Wild Turkey product that I've tried). There's this rye graininess at first, which evolves into a fruity, cinnamony character and later on to smooth vanilla. The thing about it is that this isn't an old whiskey, either: it's probably five or six years old, if that. It's young and vibrant and full of everything that I like about American whiskey. I imagine that it would make a heck of a Manhattan, too, but I'm too lazy to make one.

Last Night's Tipple

In recent years, a plethora of barrel proof spirits (ie, spirits that purport to be bottled straight from the barrel without being diluted with water first) have come onto the market. I'm not exactly sure what accounts for this phenomenon, although it probably has at least something to do with an opportunity to sell what is essentially a novelty product to the collector population and with the knowledge that some segments of the liquor-buying population view high-proof spirits as tests of manliness that they're going to pass, by God. Barrel proof spirits are (somewhat) appealing to me mostly because of the lack of dilution. Let's face it: most of the flavor in Bourbon or any other wood-aged spirit comes from the barrel. In Bourbon's case, it's the barrel that imparts the vanilla, butterscotch, creme brulee, and bread pudding aromas that I like so much. Not diluting the liquor before it goes into the bottle means that the finished product will have more of that vanilla-y goodness that I love. I'm not crazy about the added alcohol, but it's a trade-off that I'm willing to make.

Wild Turkey Rare Breed is one of the original barrel proof Bourbons on the market, and it's more than a little bit unusual in that it's only 108.4 proof. That sounds high, but consider that Bourbon by law can go into the barrel at up to 125 proof, and it typically gets higher in alcohol with age (the reverse of what happens when Scotch ages). One of Buffalo Trace's barrel proof offerings, George T. Stagg, typically comes in at proofs in the high 130s or low 140s. Booker's, Jim Beam's barrel proof offering, is around 125 proof. That Wild Turkey Rare Breed is only 108.4 illustrates one of the things that makes WT unusual in the Bourbon world: they distill their whiskey to a lower proof than anybody else in the business on the theory that the additional congeners that this process leaves behind in the finished spirit enhance the flavor and character of their whiskey. Whatever the reason, this Bourbon is a very good one. It's typical Wild Turkey in that its body is huge, that it has quite a rye kick, and that it tends to slap the drinker around a little bit. It's older than regular old Wild Turkey, though, and more polished. There are some pipe tobacco and some cinnamon bread pudding aromas, and some yeasty brioche on the palate. All-in-all, a very enjoyable tipple.

On Bourbon, Rye, and Wild Turkey

In response to Sara's comment about the Wild Turkey Rye tasting note below, I thought that I would pontificate for a while.

In order for a spirit to be called "straight Bourbon" in the United states, it must be made from a mash consisting of at least 51% corn, be distilled to not more than 160 proof, be aged in charred new oak barrels for not less than 2 years (not less than 4 years unless the age is stated on the label), go into those barrels at not more than 125 proof, and be bottled at not less than 80 proof (Regan and Regan, The Book of Bourbon, p. 212). Straight rye whiskey must meet similar requirements, with the exception that the mash that it is made from must be not less than 51% rye. I'm not sure if it must be aged in charred new oak barrels, but all producers of rye whiskey in the United States except Fritz Maytag at Anchor Distilling Company, who does not label his whiskey as straight rye, do age it in exactly the same manner as they do Bourbon.

So, for both Bourbon and rye, we have 51% of the mash spoken for. What about the other 49%? That's made up of what are called small grains (small because their overall percentage in the mash is low, not because the grains are actually physically small when compared to others). For Bourbon, the small grains are malted barley, wheat, and rye. The last two could technically appear in the same mashbill, but with the exception of Woodford Reserve Four Grains Bourbon, all distillers either use one or the other. For rye, the small grains are malted barley and corn. Different distillers will chose different mashbills depending on the characteristics that they want in the finished Bourbon. If they want it sweet and mellow, they might choose to use wheat instead of rye. If they want it spicy and full-bodied, they would use a big rye component. Wild Turkey likes big and spicy Bourbons, so their mashbill is high in rye, higher than most other distilleries use. Whereas most of the now-closed Pennsylvania and Maryland distillers of rye whiskey used very high percentages of rye, most of the Kentucky rye distillers use rye percentages only slightly over the legal minimum. What this means is that mashbill for the Wild Turkey Bourbons is likely relatively similar to the mashbill for Wild Turkey rye.

But is that why Russel's Reserve and WT rye had very similar noses? Probably not. From what I have read, of the five factors that contribute to the final characteristics of a whiskey (mashbill, yeast used in fermentation, method of distillation, properties of the aging barrels, and the length and manner of aging), the last two are by far the most important. And guess what? Both WT Bourbons and WT ryes are aged in the same type of barrels with the same degree of char and in the same locations. It shouldn't be a surprise that they smell similarly.