Wild Turkey's New Bourbon Is Inspired by Its Most Coveted Vintage Bottles

Wild Turkey launched the Gold Foil Edition as the debut release of the Austin Nichols Archives Collection, a limited-edition annual series commemorating coveted vintage bottles from Wild Turkey’s history. The 16-year-old, 120-proof bourbon is an homage to older bottlings known for gold foil lining, rather than a direct replica. Associate Master Blender Bruce Russell created the release to honor his grandfather, Master Distiller Jimmy Russell, by reimagining classic flavors through a modern approach. The vintage bourbons were beloved because bourbon was out of favor, allowing older barrels to be blended into standard bottlings for added depth and “mature oak funk.” The new release is non-chill-filtered, longer-aged, higher-proof, and made from barrels sourced from Camp Nelson F, D, and E rickhouses.

"Launched on Tuesday, the Gold Foil Edition is the debut release from the Kentucky distillery's new Austin Nichols Archives Collection. This limited-edition annual series commemorates "the most coveted vintage bottles in Wild Turkey's storied history." The larger collection is named after the wholesale grocer-turned-liquor distributor that helped create the Wild Turkey brand in the 1940s."

"Now, these are not actual dusty bottles from the 1980s or '90s; consider this 16-year-old, 120-proof release more of an homage to those whiskeys, which were known by fans as "Cheesy Gold Foil" (due to the gold foil lining that adorned those older bottles)."

"What made those vintage bourbons so beloved? Because bourbon was out of favor at the time, inventory wasn't an issue. So Jimmy Russell often blended older barrels into standard bottlings, creating whiskey with more depth and character - and a characteristic that older whiskey fans called "mature oak funk"."

"While not a replica, the new Gold Foil release does feature a longer aging process and a higher proof than the typical Wild Turkey release. The non-chill-filtered bourbon was crafted from barrels sourced from Wild Turkey's Camp Nelson F, D and E rickhouses - and considering how seriously the distillery takes its rickhouse barrel locations (their Russell's Reserve line has bourbon dedicated to whiskey extracted from specific warehouses), this is an appreciated detail for dedicated Wild Turkey fans."

Read at InsideHook