750ml bottle - ~$32
- Purchased at Chattanooga Wine & Spirits
Background
I’ve probably written about this spirit before…after all, at one time I would have proclaimed it my favorite Bourbon. The search for “what’s hot, what’s new” though has taken me far afield from this wonderful whiskey made by the Wild Turkey folks up in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Then I visited a new wine and spirits shop with a customer from the cigar shop; I helped him pick out a couple things and one of my suggestions was Russell’s Reserve…I almost missed it because they have changed the packaging so much. Here’s the basic backstory on this Bourbon…
A while back, the small batch whiskey craze was heating up. Every manufacturer needed to have something. Wild Turkey’s Master Distiller, Jimmy Russell, hand-selected certain barrels to age longer…a total of 10 years…before mixing and barreling. The practice is continued today by his son, Eddie Russell, the current Master Distiller at Turkey. The basic mash bill for RR is the same as regular Wild Turkey; the difference is that the master distiller tastes from the barrels and selects certain ones for additional aging.
Notes
The new packaging is mostly more simple and straight-forward. It’s easy to read with the dark red and black type on cream background. The new Russell’s Reserve logo with the bare tree branches and roots showing prominently is cool. The overall shape of the bottle hasn’t changed, I don’t think. As I recall it was the first bottle I bought that used this shape…but since then many have done the same, including the Kalifornia Bourbon and Chattanooga Whiskey products.
I poured a healthy dram of whiskey into my Corsair Distillery tulip-type tasting glass, which is still my favorite glass to try these out in. Holding the glass near my chin, the overall aroma from it was of pleasant honey sweetness and wood. Getting the glass up to my lips, the aroma of honey intensified, but the wood went away and was replaced by a marked vanilla note. Then when I put the glass right up under my nose I got a strong and intense vanilla aroma, along with notes of bread, oak, honey, and corn. Good experiment…see how the aroma changes and develops as you get closer to your nose.
The first sip flowed smoothly across my lips, transmitting a very pleasing sweetness immediately, that was followed a few second later by a spicy tingle from the alcohol content of the whiskey. Loads of vanilla, a touch of flowers, and a mix of oak and honey, along with a bready finish.
Russell’s Reserve is a medium-plus bodied Bourbon. As with most Bourbons it will naturally pair with just about any cigar, although your best luck will come by avoiding cigars on the mildest end of the spectrum and focusing on ones that are medium, medium-to-full, or full-bodied. Try it with a Tatuaje Black Label, a Sobremesa, or a Crowned Heads Tennessee Waltz.
