Wild Turkey 101 8 Year vs Wild Turkey 101 NAS

[zillah]

I have a coworker heading overseas and will be hitting duty free coming back. Wild Turkey 101 8 year is available, albeit as a L and for $50. :bigeyes: Probably not worth it...

What's your thoughts on the difference between them?

Edited August 6, 2013 by zillah

[T Comp]

Is the 8 year a little better? I've had a few and I'd say a tiny bit so...but possibly not a detectable difference if tasting blind. Not worth $50 on terms of the difference or that Rare Breed at $35 is better. But hey, is this not our passion, our hobby and one of the little joys in our life...nothing wrong with spending $50 to have a bottle that is a bit unique or at least of having the fun of comparing it to the nas.

[whiskeyobsessive]

I have the #8, and I liked the current NAS better. The actual 8 year is supposed to be better than the #8... $50 sounds pretty high, though (it's $25 ish from japan if you can get a deal on shipping). I'd probably just have the Rare breed or RR. On the other hand, he can probably get some 12y, which sounds pretty interesting, even if reportedly a shadow of the split label.

[p_elliott]

I was going to say where did you get the idea it was going to cost $50? I bought the WT 101 8 yr old in Mexico for $14 a bottle. Got a hat too boot.

Edited August 7, 2013 by p_elliott

[MrAtomic]

Nothing wrong with spending $50 to have a bottle that is a bit unique or at least of having the fun of comparing it to the nas.

I agree. If you can afford it, why not give the 8 year a shot? I haven't had any export 8 year in, 5-6 years, but I certainly remember it as a tasty pour. Again, working from a years-old recollection, it was pretty woody and not all that complex, but much enjoyable (to my taste) than the NAS and more to my liking than current-day RB. And in an era of vanishing age statements, it's always nice to drink a bourbon with a big ol' numeral on the bottle.

[Guest]

I managed to snaffle a bottle of the 8yr today and will do a blind tasting with the NAS soon and post up the results. Might give it a few days after opening as the NAS has already been open a couple weeks.

[Guest]

Well I finally undertook the blind tasting of WT101 8yr and WT101 NAS, and for my own curiosity I also threw the Rare Breed in as a wild card pour.

Tasting was done in three identical brandy snifters with equally measured pours and left covered for 15 minutes (all nicely done by the missus). It had been at least 3-4 weeks since I had tasted any of the selected bourbon and the week leading into it I hadn't had any bourbon at all.

I did take a bunch of tasting notes, but as I write this I cant find them, so I guess I can assume the tasting was somewhat of a success in at least one way.

Overall the verdict for my palate was that the was very little noticeable difference between the two 101s, my personal pick of the three was the 8yr, followed by the RB and finally the NAS.

A few interesting notes on the outcomes:

* I picked only one correctly! After some soul searching stemming from personal embarrassment I can only concluded that A) I am still a novice and my expectations of each whiskey skewed my judgement to some degree;

*Colour was pretty much constant between the three - no noticeable difference (however the light was pretty average)

*On the nose the 8yr had slightly more spice than the rest, however all displayed good hits of tobacco/leather/vanilla

*I confused the NAS and the RB - I expected the RB to be the harshest (from the higher prof) and when I tasted the NAS (slightly harsher and most tannic of all three) I assumed it was the RB. On the flipside when I tasted the RB I though the less tannic and subtle character was coming from a younger whiskey, when infact it was a slightly more rounded whiskey I was tasting.

*I picked the 8yr - I expected the 8yr to be the most subtle and it was the most rounded of the lot - but only very marginally, at one stage I thought it may have been the NAS as initially it was the least interesting, but with more time the subtlety shone through

Now the actual difference tasted was very very small and Im sure if I was to repeat the process I would probably get different results. In fact the whole process was really quite difficult and as far as a tasting goes there was too little variability in the whiskeys for my palate to really enjoy. One thing I did learn was that I can save a few dollars by buying the NAS over the RB, for me the difference wasn't that great in the end.

Would I buy the 8yr again? Maybe just for the bottle - its way cooler than the new label!

Edited August 20, 2013 by onemorepour

[kcgumbohead]

Well I finally undertook the blind tasting of WT101 8yr and WT101 NAS, and for my own curiosity I also threw the Rare Breed in as a wild card pour.

Tasting was done in three identical brandy snifters with equally measured pours and left covered for 15 minutes (all nicely done by the missus). It had been at least 3-4 weeks since I had tasted any of the selected bourbon and the week leading into it I hadn't had any bourbon at all.

I did take a bunch of tasting notes, but as I write this I cant find them, so I guess I can assume the tasting was somewhat of a success in at least one way.

Overall the verdict for my palate was that the was very little noticeable difference between the two 101s, my personal pick of the three was the 8yr, followed by the RB and finally the NAS.

A few interesting notes on the outcomes:

* I picked only one correctly! After some soul searching stemming from personal embarrassment I can only concluded that A) I am still a novice and my expectations of each whiskey skewed my judgement to some degree;

*Colour was pretty much constant between the three - no noticeable difference (however the light was pretty average)

*On the nose the 8yr had slightly more spice than the rest, however all displayed good hits of tobacco/leather/vanilla

*I confused the NAS and the RB - I expected the RB to be the harshest (from the higher prof) and when I tasted the NAS (slightly harsher and most tannic of all three) I assumed it was the RB. On the flipside when I tasted the RB I though the less tannic and subtle character was coming from a younger whiskey, when infact it was a slightly more rounded whiskey I was tasting.

*I picked the 8yr - I expected the 8yr to be the most subtle and it was the most rounded of the lot - but only very marginally, at one stage I thought it may have been the NAS as initially it was the least interesting, but with more time the subtlety shone through

Now the actual difference tasted was very very small and Im sure if I was to repeat the process I would probably get different results. In fact the whole process was really quite difficult and as far as a tasting goes there was too little variability in the whiskeys for my palate to really enjoy. One thing I did learn was that I can save a few dollars by buying the NAS over the RB, for me the difference wasn't that great in the end.

Would I buy the 8yr again? Maybe just for the bottle - its way cooler than the new label!

[squire]

Blind tastings tell the tale but I still prefer the traditional 8yr 101 proof. That combination seems to bring out the best in this brand's house style.

[VAGentleman]

We did a blind tasting a while ago with the 8 year export and it was the unanimous winner over RR, RB and KS http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?19262-WT-RR-blind-tasting