pkingmartin
Russell's Reserve 13 Year Bourbon (2021 Release)
Bourbon — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed
March 17, 2022 (edited May 23, 2022)
The nose starts with a mix of dusty old leather bound books, cream cheese frosting and orange zest then a sweet powdered sugar dusted chocolate torte and toasted walnuts followed by cinnamon spiced apple streusel and baked cherry pie that transitions to spearmint, cloves and polished antique furniture with high ethanol burn.
The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with a mix of dusty old leather bound books, cream cheese frosting and orange zest then a spicy mocha and almond croissant followed by cinnamon spiced apple streusel and baked cherry pie that transitions to spearmint, cloves and slightly bitter oak spice with high ethanol burn.
The finish is medium length with red hot candy, sautéed caramel apples, cloves, spearmint, dusty leather bound books and polished mahogany.
This manages to bring in those traditional bourbon notes with old oak and a high rye spice that is well balanced but leans towards a mild bitter oak and higher spice than I'd prefer. It's still an incredible bourbon that I'd be happy to drink any day and was a great VFM bottle at $70, but sadly all the flippers have grabbed these up and are pricing it at $600+ today.
Thankfully @soonershrink was kind enough to provide me with a sample to try this one as I'm not trying to feed the flippers anytime soon.
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There's a special place in heaven waiting for anyone who cracks a unicorn and shares it :)
@Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington I would love to see Wild Turkey basically go GoT style like Diageo did to all the flippers with a flood of RR13 released. Alas, that’s likely not going to happen, but I’m extremely thankful for the individuals in this community that crack these unicorns and share with others.
Seems to bank on the Turkey “funk” of old library books but with the sweet and spicy notes of Russel’s - in a perfect world this would become a permeant part of the lineup and the flippers could all rot in hell… I’m not bitter or anything
I don’t understand why this is so outrageously expensive. It’s a really good 13yr old …but there are other just as old as well for a more reasonable price
Those flavors sound awesome! It's depressing how much this gets sold for on secondary though