BourbonEnthusiast.com

The label says:

Wild Turkey Sherry Signature is born from a process that begins with a select batch of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. It's initally matured for 10 years in heavily charred, white oak barrels stored in the Kentucky hills. It then undergoes a second maturation in Spanish sherry casks where a sweet, mellow flavor is extracted from the wood. In the final stage, Oloroso Sherry is added to ensure a perfectly balanced flavor resulting in a rich, full taste that can only come from the Wild Turkey.

I got a bottle of this from the San Francisco airport duty free shop. It was $35. I've now had a couple drinks from the bottle. It's not much good. Rather than adding an appealing sweetness, the sherry casks and sherry itself seem to have added a winey, tannic dryness. This stuff is a waste of good 10 year old Turkey!

I asked Jimmy Russell about the Sherry Signature stuff (it was the very last set of boxed cases on the shelf on our tour). Being the world-class Wild Turkey ambassador that he is, he wouldn't come out and say that he didn't like it, but the basic gist of what he *did* say was "that stuff goes to other countries."

When I read the Oloroso sherry description I immediately thought of Macallan...which I personally believe is a contamination of fine malt, so along the same lines I thought to myself "it's probably a contamination of good Wild Turkey as well!"

I saw a pallet of it during the tour of WT....Jimmy Russel said it was being test marketed in a few locations for the overseas market. It was the "brainchild" of some VP of marketing. They were pouring some of it at various locations during the festival. Haven't heard a good comment yet.

Randy

I was so hoping to eventually try this product just because of its uniqueness but wow, seems there really is no good thing to be said about it.

Still, having a bottle just because it isn't sold here would be really nice! If anyone ever gets an extra sealed one you know who to pm...

I started reading your post, thinking, "Sounds tasty." Glad to know it just prolly ain't so. Leave the sherry stuff with the Scotch, I say.

Even tho it may not be the best, it's still a prize for a collection...

Chris wrote:Even tho it may not be the best, it's still a prize for a collection...

I'm a drinker, not a collector, but I must admit, it looks good next to my Freedom and 12yo.

Curmudgeon wrote:

Chris wrote:Even tho it may not be the best, it's still a prize for a collection...

I'm a drinker, not a collector, but I must admit, it looks good next to my Freedom and 12yo.

You're not winning any points by rubbing it in you know.

OneCubeOnly wrote:When I read the Oloroso sherry description I immediately thought of Macallan...which I personally believe is a contamination of fine malt, so along the same lines I thought to myself "it's probably a contamination of good Wild Turkey as well!"

Spot on! Heavily sherried single malts are not what single malts are about, period, and there is no reason, at all, to mess up fine bourbon with sherry. The last thing bourbon needs is borrowing from the single malt playbook. Wood finishes, in particular, are a bad idea for all types of whisk(e)y. YMMV, Ed V.

Why stop at sherry or cognac? Why not bourbon flavored with lemon-lime, or raspberries. Anything to cover up that awful whiskey taste. Hmmm.... maybe if we distilled it to even higher proof and kept it away from those stinky wood barrels, we could dilute it down to eighty proof and have something the young'uns would really like. Let's call it something with an "old world" ring to it. Maybe something Russion or Polish-sounding.

Nahh... that's dumb. It would never sell.