LouisianaLonghorn
Wild Turkey Master's Keep Revival
Bourbon — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed
October 23, 2020 (edited May 23, 2021)
I didn't do this one justice after my last review. Maybe it's the COVID fatigue. Or maybe I was just more interested in drinking it than writing about it at the time. Either way, it's a magnificent unicorn of a whiskey that deserves to have nice things said about it, and I wish to do right by it on the bottle kill (yes, it went fast...)
Wild Turkey, particularly well aged Turkey (which is most of it besides the 81 proof entry level) has a certain "dusty" quality to it. It's most likely just corn influence, somewhat reminiscent of Canadian whiskey, but unlike many (not all) Canadian whiskies, it doesn't suck, it's magnificent. This bottle, being 12-15 years old, has that quality in spades. It's everything you love about Rare Breed or Russel's Reserve Single Barrel (dealer's choice. They're both great) amplified and refined. NOW, take all that and envelop it in a blanket of luscious sherry goodness. The casks sourced for this expression were 20+ year old sherry casks, not this "sherry seasoned" bullshit we see from Highland Park or Macallan that only held sherry for 3 or 4 years. It shows. Quality matters. This is like...older Glendronach or Tamdhu quality sherry casks. So all to say, the nose is well-aged awesome dusty Turkey enveloped in a sherry blanket. It's the best of the bourbon and scotch worlds.
When you sip it, my God is it good. You get the same as the nose, which in my book is the mark of a good whiskey, when the nose and the palate line up. Sometimes a funky surprise is ok, but this is just magnificent. The taste has all the caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, chai spice, and baking spices of bourbon, enveloped by the best of sherry flavors like dates, raisins, nuttiness, and a warming sensation that combined with the "Kentucky Hug", leaves this dram with a most satisfying finish. This is serious stuff.
Now, I know this was the 2018 special release and may be absent from most store shelves. In order to properly enjoy this, you probably have to be a Wild Turkey fan AND a fan of sherry bombs. If not, you may be in for disappointment (in which case may I redirect your to the equally excellent Masters Keep option from 2020, the Bottled in Bond), but if you enjoy both of those types of drams, keep searching for this one. I'm going out hunting for another bottle. It's that good. SRP for this should be between $130 and $150. Worth. Every. Cent. One of the best whiskies I've tried of any category. If you liked Legent or the Belle Meade Sherry Cask, this is better. Hands down. It's older, more refined, more flavorful, and has a deeper, more satisfying finish. Put it in your belly, and if you're lucky enough to still find this in the wild, buy on sight without hesitation. Cheers friends!
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Awesome review / comments. This one was sitting up high at a smaller store near my old house for years and after swinging by today I finally decided to take it home. Only Masters Keep I’ve had is the Cornerstone so far, and really looking forward to having this one next. As a sherry Scotch fan also, This is a bottle worth buying at the higher end of your price range.
Neck pour and this is obviously fantastic. I will take some time with this and in the name of research will purchase another bottle of Belle Meade Sherry Cask and run them
Nice find @Ctrexman - congrats!
@Ctrexman congrats and enjoy your prize!
@WhiskeyLonghorn 3 bottles left at Total wine sunset valley..........well 2 now
It amazes me how little love these Master's Keep releases get. I think they've all been really good. The only one that's had any hype at all was this year's 17yr BiB. Hard to tell if that was a one-off due to the age statement, or if future MK releases are going to be hard to find. I never got a bottle of the very first MK 17yr, but I've liked all the others enough to buy backups. I actually saw a bottle of Revival on the shelf at Total Wine recently, crazy that these are still out there.
@ContemplativeFox and it was very much worth the hunt! Only bottle I’ve “hunted” for. Can’t say I want to make a habit out of it, but it was satisfying once I did find it.
@WhiskeyLonghorn because I failed at typing in my last comment :(
YeahI never saw that here @PBMichiganWolverine . Even @WhiskeyLonghornhad to go all over town to find it IIRC :(
@ContemplativeFox their 2020 release sold out so quickly——the 17yr BiB one. A 17 yr BIB is just something you don’t see often, if at all
The Cornerstone is finally out of stock here @PBMichiganWolverine, but it lingered much longer than past releases here too. It seems people weren't too keen on shelling out $175+ for a 9(?) YO rye.
That's really strange @WhiskeyLonghorn. I would have thought that undersupply and distribution problems would result in concentrations in more populated areas (which I'm assuming you're in).
@WhiskeyLonghorn I’ve not seen here in NJ as well. Their rye from 2019 is still hanging around though.
I regret not buying cases of this one, it was on shelves here forever and fully accessable, but sadly the bourbon boom just keeps getting worse and these eventually sold out too. But yeah these were 100x easier to get than ECBP here. Maybe 1,000x easier.
@ContemplativeFox I’ve never seen a Stagg Jr. or an ER, much less an ECBP in all the store in all the corners of Texas I’ve visited. It might be because it’s such a huge state they can’t make enough to evenly distribute to all corners of the state.
That's really odd, @WhiskeyLonghorn The spirits industry is clearly really bad at supply chains because EC BP is usually not too difficult to find up here and Sazerac and ER are frequently on the shelves, but other things like WT MK haven't been available since the Cornerstone ran out last year.
@ContemplativeFox we get a lot here in Texas, but we don’t get quite everything. One of the reasons I got into Turkey in the first place is that we can find it here. Hardly any Buffalo trace products besides entry level and bottom shelf dwellers. Same for a lot of Heaven Hill stuff. I did a search this morning, and there’s still bottles of Revival and Cornerstone scatters about the area.
Is it common for rate bottles to just linger on shelves in your area @WhiskeyLonghorn ? I haven't seen one in at least 18 months.
@Ctrexman last I checked there were a few bottles left at the Sunset Valley Total Wine.
@Scott_E @Ctrexman WT has been putting out some great stuff lately. Also, a good sherry bomb is to die for :) I really wish that - even if this had to be a limited release - WT would put out a sherry-finished regular release. For the time being, it seems like Joseph Magnus and Belle Meade are the only games in town for sherry finished bourbon (well, maybe Rabbit Hole too).
Im a WT fan......Im a fan of sherry bombs....I must find this, great review
Totally understand and can relate about more interested in drinking than writing. This sounds great and have really come to appreciate WT. Need to get this one. Nice review.
Still so glad you managed to find this one! And an excellent review! You nailed it on WT's dusty (in a good way) quality and deftly avoided a showdown between RR and WT RB fan :)