Eddie Russell Interview

[Jackinbox]

My apologies if this interview has been covered already.  I know many here listen to the Bourbon Pursuit, but I did a search and didn't find this interview from last November being discussed.  I was surprised at how specific Eddie got.   I know a lot of this ground has been covered before, but I still think there's some new info here.

 

After listening to it, I decided to listen to it again and take notes for future reference...

 

Wild Turkey 81 - Current bottles are 6 1/2 years of age.

 

Wild Turkey 101 - Current bottles are 7 1/2-8 years of age.  1200 barrels per batch.

 

Kentucky Spirit - Minimum of 8 years of age, but some barrels are 9 years.

 

Russell's Reserve 10/90 - Eddie's favorite.  The age statement is permanent.  Eddie said if Campari ever tried to remove it that he'd also remove his name from the bottle.  

 

Russell's Reserve Single Barrel 110 - Current bottles are between 9 and 11 years old.

 

Rare Breed - A mix of 6, 8 and 12 year old barrels.  I think that's pretty common knowledge.   When Rare Breed was introduced, they wanted the proof in the range of 108-110.  Because of Jimmy's 107 barrel entry proof, the average barrel dump was 104-105 proof.  Jimmy wanted 101 to have as little water as possible.  Therefore, he had to get much of the Rare Breed stock from the upper floors.  With much of the higher proof whiskey being used, this led to difficulty in keeping proofs high enough for batches of 101  He also stated that this was the reason for pulling the 12/101 from Japan and replacing it with 13/91.

 

Diamond Anniversary - This batch was 95 proof when dumped.  Eddie says this is because so much of the older whiskey was gone from the top floors.  Because it was 95 proof out of the barrels, he says that's the reason they bottled at 91.  I remember a lot of discussion around this release at the time and the consensus seemed to be that the 91 proof was done to stretch profits.  While that may also be true (since it was slightly cut), knowing that it was 95 proof out of the barrels makes it far less annoying to me than it was at the time.

 

More Info On Barrel Entry Proof - Eddie talked about how Jimmy's preference for 107 was costing them an extra $3 million per year in barrels (in addition to keeping proofs high enough to make 101).  These days he says they put some in the barrel at 110 and a lot at 115.  He won't go any higher than that.  Apparently they had done some testing as high as 125 and it brought out flavors that they didn't like.  

 

Lastly, he mentioned that 10 years is his sweet spot, but Jimmy think the sweet spot is a little younger than that.  

 

They currently have 570,000 barrels aging.  There was also some interesting discussion on the warehouses.   

 

Overall, I found it to be a good interview and well worth listening to.  I've heard a lot of different numbers in regards to the age of their products these days, so it was nice to know that they aren't as young as I'd expected.  I was especially surprised that RR SiB is that high considering the lack of an age statement.  It's also good to know that the 10 year AS on RR 10/90 is staying put and that they won't go any higher than 115 on entry.  

 

I find it somewhat baffling that they are so forthcoming on details on everything except their grain percentages.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[drunkenjayhawk]

Thank you, lots of good information.

[Richnimrod]

Good Stuff, Jack...     Thanx for posting!