Following the end of the American Civil War, the Ripy Brothers returned to their native state of Kentucky and opened a distillery on the slopes of a hill in Lawrenceburg. The distillery operated continuously for nearly fifty years until the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the sale of alcohol in the United States, was ratified.

Following the end of Prohibition, the Ripy Brothers Distillery was reopened, and a distillery executive named Thomas McCarthy took samples of maturing whiskey from the distillery on a turkey-hunting trip with a group of friends. The following year, his friends asked him to bring “some of that wild turkey whiskey” on their next hunting trip, and the distillery was renamed Wild Turkey.Since 1954, Wild Turkey Distillery has been operating under the tutelage of Master Distiller Jimmy Russell. “I’ve never been drunk,” says Russell, who is a genuine bourbon aristocrat and a living legend in the business, “but I love my work. People tell me, ‘I hate to get up and go to work,’” he says. “I go seven days a week. You know, on Saturdays and Sundays I may go out there and sit around for an hour or so.”

Jimmy Russell has kept many of the details about his new Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey secret, although the whiskey is rumored to be six years old and has a comparatively low rye content for a straight rye whiskey.

That said, Jimmy and Eddie have revealed that the barrels selected for Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey were selected from the “center cut” of Wild Turkey’s warehouse because these levels (levels 3-5) are exposed to the least temperature variation and therefore offer the highest consistency of flavor. The whiskey is non-chill filtered and will only be available in limited quantities.

Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey has a fruity aroma of bananas, vanilla, almonds, mint, and apple crisp, which leads to a palate filled with rhubarb, cinnamon spice, worn leather, and oak. The finish is velvety and long-lasting, with pronounced notes of chocolate, coconut, and thick custard.

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