Review by: The Muskox

First things first – if you’re only familiar with American whiskies, you may be asking yourself “how did a Wild Turkey end up in a bottle like this?”. The answer is “independent bottlers”, which seem to be relatively unknown in the bourbon world. Indie bottlers are essentially the scotch equivalent of non-distilling producers, except they usually clearly state the source of their product and they bottle casks from a variety of distilleries rather than just one. The biggest American indie bottler of scotch is Single Cask Nation, who’ve apparently dabbled in bourbon with bottlings such as this one.

This went out as an online lottery back in 2019. I entered and won, then ended up selling it at cost to my good friend, who at the time was much more into bourbon than I was. Since then, he’s come over to the scotch side. I was pretty sure he’d end up trading this bottle for a rare and tasty scotch, but when we got together a few days ago, he brought this bottle and insisted that we crack it open.

This is a single-barrel barrel-strength Wild Turkey, which I understand is actually rather uncommon.

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Distillery: Wild Turkey.

Bottler: Single Cask Nation.

Style/Region: Straight Bourbon / Kentucky.

ABV: 57.05%.

Age: Distilled December 2009, bottled March 2019 at 9 years old. Matured in cask #18-428, which was located on the 4th floor of rickhouse Camp Nelson A.

Cask type: New charred oak barrels.

Price: $101 in 2019.

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Nose: Rich. Lots of dark cherries. Orange zest and brown sugar. There’s an earthy and musty character here, and an old-oak character than I haven’t really encountered in bourbon before. Sweet and spicy ginger beer. Slightly nutty.

Palate: Medium-thick texture. Cherries carry right through. Arrives with clementines and big baking spice, developing earthy, nutty, and rich deep oak.

Finish: Rich and lingering. Cherry turnover, browned butter, zesty plums.

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Conclusion: This is good! Very enjoyable to drink. I love the richness in both texture and flavour. There’s oak, but it’s earthy and musty. As primarily a scotch drinker, that’s a much more appealing wood character to me than your usual tannic and spicy oak bomb.

Final Score: 88.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.