Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Decades Bourbon Whiskey

As Wild Turkey releases the highly anticipated Master’s Keep Decades today, we first brought you the story when we interviewed Bruce Russell at WhiskeyFest NYC in November 2016 in the interview above from our BourbonBlog.com Periscope channel,
As the 3rd generation Russell explains, it is a blend of Kentucky Straight Bourbons  aged 10 to 20 years, bottled 104 proof ( 52% alc. /vol.).

The blend includes Bourbons at every age including 11, 12, 13 all the way up to 20 years of age. Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Decades will retail for $150 for a limited time.

Wild Turkey tells BourbonBlog.com are is now being released as they share  story of how this release was born below.

Decades will be available nationally and at the Wild Turkey Visitor Center in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.

How Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Decades Was Born..

Following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, Wild Turkey Master Distiller Eddie Russell decided to dabble in the family business a few miles from his boyhood home at the Wild Turkey Distillery. That was back in 1981, and the new college grad wasn’t quite sure the distilling business was for him.

Flash forward more than three decades and the student has become the master, celebrating his 35th anniversary and releasing some of the finest whiskies the Bluegrass State has to offer. To mark the occasion, Eddie is releasing Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Decades, the second limited-edition Bourbon in the Master’s Keep series.

“For Master’s Keep Decades, I went all out and used some of the rarest and most precious barrels in our stocks,” Eddie Russell tells BourbonBlog.com. “The final product is a whiskey with the finesse and deep character of older Bourbon, anchored by the bold, balanced, and vibrant backbone of younger bourbon. I have to say, this is a whiskey I truly love and I’ll be holding a few bottles back for my personal collection.”

Thus, on June 5, 1981, Eddie Russell, started working at Wild Turkey the same way Jimmy did doing every menial job in the distillery before being promoted to supervise the rickhouses where the barrels aged. As he got further along in his career, his father, Master Distiller Jimmy Russell, began to pass down the knowledge he had learned from his own mentors, while instilling in Eddie the values of integrity, craftsmanship and never compromising on quality.
In 2015, Eddie earned the illustrious title of Master Distiller and joined his father at the distillery’s helm. Today, the two Russells work side by side as the industry’s only active father and son master distiller duo, boasting almost 100 years of combined experience.

Eddie continues to influence the ever-expanding whiskey industry and bring new products to market, including Wild Turkey Bourbon (formerly known as Wild Turkey Bourbon 81), Wild Turkey Diamond Anniversary, Wild Turkey Master’s Keep and now, Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Decades.

“When Eddie started working at the distillery, I didn’t make it easy for him. I didn’t want people to think I was giving him special treatment, so I made him do a lot of hard, thankless work to earn everyone’s respect,” recalled Master Distiller Jimmy Russell. “Watching him step into his own, earn the admiration of his peers and create some of the best whiskies I’ve ever tasted has been the most fulfilling experience a father could ask for.”