Wild Turkey Bourbon 101

There is no better all-around bourbon that can be enjoyed neat, rocks, or cocktail, and go head-to-head with just about any bourbon out there than Wild Turkey 101. I keep coming back to this one over the years because it’s so consistent. While everyone is scouring shelves and secondary markets and arguing online, I’ll be over here sipping a classic. Nose: candy corn and vanilla frosting, just the right amount of barrel oak Taste: citrus and baking spices Finish: Medium, just enough proof to show off what this mash from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky can do. Cheers.

Aroma- decent balance of honey, oak and vanilla. Picking up some orange peel on the back end and a slight apple pie note. Dessert-like. It’s nice for the price point Taste - more sweet notes of honey, vanilla, and caramel. Slight touch of berries and toasted oak. Getting an herbal note coming through as it opens up… For the price, it’s quite a bit of complexity. Overall - the mouth feel is quite thin at the 101 proof. Hot finish. But overall this is really solid for the price point. Above average at $22-$25 ranges. Great for cocktails too. Definitely a great go-to everyday sipper

**add water for best results** Blind taste test - color is a nice medium amber. Aroma is very strong and ethanolic with rye spice. Taste is at first a gentle caramel with a quickly arriving sharp rye spice with some tobacco (?) and herbs at the finish. Upon reveal, the finishing note in question is barley and some of the sweet/nutmeg/dark chocolate notes are there but subtle. All in all a little too much punch and not enough backbone… 2.5 on its own… added a splash of water and a lot of the heat dissipated, giving way to more of the sweeter, maltier flavors. Still only a 2.75 with water added

Soft, sweet, great linger. Classic bourbon profile and amped up flavor compared to most at the $20 level.

Not quite as good as Kentucky Spirit but darn close. Nose it typical vanilla. I get a bit of toffee in this one. Palate is sweeter profile up front. I get some vanilla and sweet corn and some of that toffee flavor that quickly turns red hots cinnamon candy. Mid palate it turns over to charred oak and spice. Finish it medium in length and sweet at first but almost immediately turns to a really nice bold peppery spice. One of my absolute favorite “budget” bourbons.