Russell's Reserve

Russell’s Reserve is the personal label of Jimmy and Eddie Russell — the father-son master distiller team at Wild Turkey with over 100 combined years of distilling experience. Where Wild Turkey 101 is the workhorse, Russell’s Reserve is the expression of their finest barrel selections: longer-aged, more complex, and reflecting what two generations of distilling knowledge can achieve with exceptional Kentucky barrels.

The lineup: 10 Year Bourbon (90 proof, refined oak, vanilla, dried fruit); Single Barrel Bourbon (barrel proof, hand-selected, signed by Jimmy or Eddie, each barrel unique); Single Barrel Rye (barrel proof, bold and peppery); 13 Year (limited release, barrel proof).

Browse all bourbon, rye whiskey, and rare and allocated bottles at Wooden Cork.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the substantive difference between Wild Turkey 101 and Russell’s Reserve 10 Year?

Both are produced at Wild Turkey Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky from the same high-rye mashbill and aged in the same warehouse system — but they represent different intentions and different barrel selections. Wild Turkey 101 is blended for broad consistency and cocktail versatility: a large-batch blend of multiple age groups designed to hit 101 proof reliably with the characteristic Wild Turkey spice and oak profile. Russell’s Reserve 10 Year is a more curated selection: Jimmy and Eddie Russell select barrels that have reached at least 10 years of aging and show specific flavor development beyond the standard Wild Turkey profile — more refined vanilla, dried fruit, and wood integration from extended aging. The proof reduction from 101 to 90 is also intentional — the lower proof allows the more developed barrel character to express itself without the heat of the higher-proof blend asserting itself first. The result is a bourbon where the oak and fruit complexity comes forward rather than the rye spice, which is a meaningfully different drinking experience from Wild Turkey 101 even from the same distillery.

What does the signed single barrel designation mean and how does it affect what’s in the bottle?

Each Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon and Single Barrel Rye is selected personally by either Jimmy or Eddie Russell — and each bottle is signed by the distiller who selected that specific barrel. The signature is not a marketing device: it reflects the fact that Jimmy and Eddie taste barrels individually and select those that meet the Russell’s Reserve standard, which means rejecting barrels that don’t qualify and bottling at whatever proof the barrel has reached naturally without water addition. Because each barrel matures differently based on its position in the rickhouse — upper warehouse ricks experience more heat cycling and produce more intensely flavored, higher-proof whiskey than lower ricks — no two Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel bottles are identical. The signature on the label identifies which family member evaluated and approved that specific barrel, giving each purchase genuine provenance from one of the two most experienced distillers in American bourbon.