When did Rare Breeds Age Statement Change?

[jsrudd]

When Wild Turkey Rare Breed was launched with batch W-T-01-91, it was a blend of 8, 10 and 12 year whiskey. The current batch of Rare Breed is a blend of 6 to 12 year-old (maybe just 6-10 year-old) whiskey. Does anybody know when these age statements changed?

 

Google has failed me on this issue. I've found an old post post claiming that Rare Breed was a blend of 8, 10 and 12 year whiskey as late as 2009, but I've also found a contradictory post claiming that Rare Breed was a blend of 6-12 year whiskey as early as 2003. 

 

I think the confusion arises from the fact that the age statement didn't always (or ever) appear on the bottle, but any help would be much appreciated. 

[VAGentleman]

There have never been age statements on the label so anything people have been saying about it is pure speculation and could have changed anytime without anyone knowing(if it ever changed)

[Kpiz]

7 hours ago, VAGentleman said:

There have never been age statements on the label so anything people have been saying about it is pure speculation and could have changed anytime without anyone knowing(if it ever changed)

Good question. As VAGentleman said, since it was never on the label it would be tough to track when/if Wild Turkey changed the ages that they're blending into it. You'd have to look at Wild Turkey's statements over the years and see if they changed their tune at some point. Most recently, Wild Turkey has confirmed that they are using 6, 8, and 12 year old barrels (see 26-minute mark of episode 42 http://www.bourbonpursuit.com/31-45.html). But again, it's not on the label, so it's hard to know how accurate that is.

 

Not sure if you're planning to research more, but if you are, I'd certainly be interested in your findings.

[PaulO]

Isn't there a rule that only the minimum age can be listed on the label if it is a mingling of different ages?  NAS (not bonded) must be at least 4.  It could have older mixed in.  

[Kpiz]

37 minutes ago, PaulO said:

Isn't there a rule that only the minimum age can be listed on the label if it is a mingling of different ages?

Not for American whiskey as far as I know (though other members here surely know better than I do). I believe the different ages can be listed on the label, like Wild Turkey did for Diamond Anniversary: "A very rare blend of 13 to 16 year old hand-selected barrels." For Scotch, the SWA does have a rule that only the youngest age can be listed on the label, and that may be what you're thinking of.

Edited September 28, 2016 by Kpiz

[jsrudd]

I've been looking into this a little more. As of April 2001, the Wild Turkey website stated that Rare Breed was a blend of 6, 8 and 12 year whiskey. That means that, at a minimum, batch W-T-01-99 and after were likely 6, 8 and 12 year. This is the earliest snap shot of their website that I can find on the Wayback Machine. Any information before this would be contained in ads or press releases. Archives of ads do exist, but they're normally behind a paywall. I'm not sure if there are archives of press releases. 

 

Edit: I've found an ad from November 1992 stating that Wild Turkey Rare Breed is a "carefully arranged marriage of 6-12-year-old whiskies."  I guess this means that the original release of Rare Breed could have been a blend of 8-12-year old whiskies and later releases lowered the minimum age, but I think it's more likely that it was always a blend of 6-12 year-old whiskies.

 

Edit2: Case closed. Rare Breed has always been a blend of 6-12 year old bourbon. I found another ad in Wine Quarterly from 1991 that uses the same "marriage of 6-12-year-old whiskies." Google books will not let you see the entire pages, but I think the snippet is enough to convince me. 

Edited September 29, 2016 by jsrudd

[jsrudd]

Further evidence is provided by the Book of Classic American Whisky (1995). The entry on Rare Breed (p. 166) makes no mention of it ever being anything but a blend of 6-12-year-old whiskies.  

[amg]

The back label used to say something about it being a blend of 6, 8, and 12 year old bourbons as of the WT-03RB batch.

[Kepler]

This is kind of a moot point.  You can ponder the ages of the different blends, but the producer can mix different percentages of the young (6 year) and the oldest (12 year) to get whatever result they are looking for.  Obviously the more young whiskey (as a percentage) that makes up the blend in any particular batch, the cheaper it was to make, and presumably (though not necessarily) the lower the quality of the whiskey.  That's the key fact that we as consumers will never know the answer to.

 

That's the danger of NAS, and why the only number the consumer can really rely on is the youngest age.  Wild Turkey can say whatever they want, but you have to consider Rare Breed to be a 6-year bourbon, with some older whiskey added in to amp up the quality a bit.

[jsrudd]

54 minutes ago, Kepler said:

This is kind of a moot point.  

I recently found a bottle of Rare Breed from 1992. I had read lots of places that Rare Breed launched as a blend of 8-12 year-old-whiskey, but I had always known it to be a blend of 6-12 year-old-whiskies. I was curious whether this 1992 bottle was a blend of 6-12 or 8-12 year-old whiskies.

 

Turns out Rare Breed has always been a blend of 6-12 year old whiskies and the claims I had read to the contrary were wrong. .  

[Kpiz]

37 minutes ago, jsrudd said:

Turns out Rare Breed has always been a blend of 6-12 year old whiskies and the claims I had read to the contrary were wrong. .  

Good to know, thanks for doing the researching and following up. Not that it matters now, but I checked a bottle of RB batch W-T-01-99 when I got home and the label doesn't state any ages at all.

[amg]

9 hours ago, amg said:

The back label used to say something about it being a blend of 6, 8, and 12 year old bourbons as of the WT-03RB batch.

Apparently my memory is failing me. I just checked a bottle of WT-03RB in my cabinet and that's not there. Must have just been in the accompanying marketing materials.

[MTNBourbon]

On 9/28/2016 at 4:26 AM, VAGentleman said:

There have never been age statements on the label so anything people have been saying about it is pure speculation and could have changed anytime without anyone knowing(if it ever changed)

I've only been drinking it since 2010, never seen age statements.

[amg]

It's not *pure* speculation since it is (or was anyway) on the Wild Turkey web site, but it should certainly be taken with a grain of salt since it's not on the label.

Edited September 29, 2016 by amg

[Kpiz]

3 hours ago, amg said:

Apparently my memory is failing me. I just checked a bottle of WT-03RB in my cabinet and that's not there. Must have just been in the accompanying marketing materials.

I remember seeing it on some WT literature as well, and thought that it was listed on the hang tag but I couldn't find it on there either, at least not for the batch/bottle I have.