Wild Turkey before 1971

[Joeluka]

All the talk about independent bottlers lately made me think about pre-1971 Wild Turkey. Austin Nichols simply bought bulk bourbon and then bottled it themselves. It was in 1971 that they bought the Lawerenceburg, KY distillery and started distilling for themselves. I guess that means that they didn't start bottling THEIR own bourbon until the late seventies, they had to wait 8 years for their make to be ready.

Does anybody know who WT bought their bulk bourbon from??? I have had WT 8yo 101 from 1964 & 1966 bottles and it is some of my favorite whiskey ever. I sometimes get "wheat-ed bourbon" flavors out of the bottles and I wondered where this great bourbon came from??

Anybody have any idea's?????

[Jazzhead]

I have a bottle of Wild Turkey Rye, 101 proof, with a tax stamp and no UPC code, that I'd estimate dates from the mid to late seventies. The label states that the whiskey was distilled in the State of Maryland, but provides no other information.

[cowdery]

All the talk about independent bottlers lately made me think about pre-1971 Wild Turkey. Austin Nichols simply bought bulk bourbon and then bottled it themselves. It was in 1971 that they bought the Lawerenceburg, KY distillery and started distilling for themselves. I guess that means that they didn't start bottling THEIR own bourbon until the late seventies, they had to wait 8 years for their make to be ready.

Does anybody know who WT bought their bulk bourbon from??? I have had WT 8yo 101 from 1964 & 1966 bottles and it is some of my favorite whiskey ever. I sometimes get "wheat-ed bourbon" flavors out of the bottles and I wondered where this great bourbon came from??

Anybody have any idea's?????

They bought most of it from the distillery they eventually bought, at least in the waning years of that relationship. This is a very old pattern in the industry, a broker winds up owning the distillery it buys from. There have been many examples of this. George Dickel is another.