There's something about old-school Wild Turkey from from the past. It hits different. It's raw, it's loud, it's honest. When I talk to the people I look up to in this industry - the Master Distillers, the Bourbon Hall of Famers, the folks whose names are on the bottles - they all say the same thing: there's just something special about those whiskeys. To me, it's the gold standard.

Bruce Russell, Wild Turkey's Associate Master Blender

Wild Turkey is amongst the most beloved Bourbons America has to offer, with a serious cult following that has over the years made its pecking order countlessly and ceaselessly - everyone's got their favourites and grails. The 1994 Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit Pewter Top, the Wild Turkey Kentucky Legend Donut, the 1974 Wild Turkey 101, the 1981 Wild Turkey 101, Wild Turkey 101 1995 Split Label, Wild Turkey Generations, heck, even the flagship Wild Turkey Rare Breed is often ranked as the most loved of the range - yet, but one has always stood out, and that is the Wild Turkey Cheesy Gold Foil (or sometimes abbreviated as CGF). Absolutely no Wild Turkey fan would contest that the CGF is amongst the best and greatest that the distillery has had to offer.

The 12 Year Old 101 Proof Bourbon was released towards the late 1980's and early 1990's and comes with a great story to boot - whilst many have since forgotten, the 1980's was an incredibly difficult time for the Bourbon scene, with business hitting rock bottom, with demand cratering and a glut starting to take serious shape. Distilleries had begun to shutter and bottles would gather dust sitting on supermarket shelves. It was then that resident Master Blender and all round Bourbon legend Jimmy Russell had decided that something had to change - he would debut a new Wild Turkey 101, one that shone through the aisles with its shimmery golden label, and inside every bottle he would secretly marry some of Wild Turkey's oldest stocks of Bourbon - it's even been rumoured to contain 20 year old Bourbons! Customers who continued to support the Wild Turkey distillery through those tough times would thus be heavily rewarded with amongst the greatest of all Bourbons! 

This came to be known as the Wild Turkey Cheesy Gold Foil, of course for its gleaming appearance!

Three generations of Russell's: Bruce Russell, Jimmy Russell and Eddie Russell.

It was a time of great refresh and no doubt other changes were afoot at the distillery as it sought to up the ante and produce even better Bourbons which Russell believed would be the way to tide out the lows - things like lower barrel entry proof (the Bourbons would enter its barrels at a lower alcoholic proof), the removal of chill filtration, the use of cypress fermentation tanks as well as non-reverse osmosis filtered water. Well, whatever it was, it worked and Wild Turkey is today greater than ever, having passed through the hands of three generations of Russell's, from Jimmy and on to Eddie and soon, Bruce.

And so fittingly enough, Bruce Russell seems to have caused great stir in the Bourbon community with what appears to be an homage to his grandfather's legendary Wild Turkey Cheesy Gold Foil - this time with his own Gold Foil Edition.

Labelled as being an ode to the original Gold Foil release, the new Wild Turkey Gold Foil Edition is a 16 Year Old Bourbon that comes in at 120 Proof, released un the Austin Nichols Archives.

Will this be Bruce Russell's claim to fame? Time will tell, but one thing is for certain, this new Wild Turkey Gold Foil Edition is going to be a hot one!

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team