{"id":43,"date":"2020-02-23T22:09:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-23T22:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/?p=43"},"modified":"2026-10-26T20:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:18:51","slug":"review-wild-turkey-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/review-wild-turkey-81\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Wild Turkey 81"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\"><\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">min read<\/span><\/span><p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;padding:10px\" src=\"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/wildturkey81-scaled.jpg\" width=\"200\" \/> <\/p>\n<h2>Key Details<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Whiskey Name:<\/strong> Wild Turkey 81<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distillery:<\/strong> Wild Turkey Distillery<\/li>\n<li><strong>ABV:<\/strong> 40.5% \/ 81 proof<\/li>\n<li><strong>Age:<\/strong> NAS (6-8 yrs claimed by label)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Type:<\/strong> American Bourbon<\/li>\n<li><strong>Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/wildturkeybourbon.com\/visit-us\/<\/li>\n<li><strong>Price:<\/strong> \u20ac33 in most retail stores, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/38UydcH\">\u00a323 on Amazon<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Wild Turkey has an interesting history and they&#8217;ve changed ownership a few times over the years. The history goes back to 1891 where the Ripy family built and began producing bourbon. At that time in history it was commonplace for distilleries to sell their spirit and have it bonded by others under their name. Austin Nichols was one of these bonders and the Wild Turkey brand was born from his bottling in 1942. <\/p>\n<p>Wild Turkey was a non-distilling brand bottling bourbon under their name for nearly 3 decades under Austin Nichols. Nichols finally decided to buy the facility, Boulevard Distillery, in 1971 and changed the name to Wild Turkey Distillery. Nichols and Wild Turkey must&#8217;ve been doing something right as they caught the eye of drinks juggernauts Pernod Ricard (the same people who own Jameson, Glenlivet, Ballantines, Chivas Regal) who bought them in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>The Campari Group acquired the distillery and Wild Turkey from Pernod Ricard in 2009. Wild Turkey began to distil at a newly constructed facility near the old distillery in 2011 and it sits where the old bottling took place. One of the things that haven&#8217;t changed much over the years is the distilling pedigree. Jimmy Russell started in Wild Turkey back in 1954, then known as Boulevard Distillery. Jimmy is a Bourbon Hall of Famer, and it&#8217;s no wonder with his 60yr tenure at Wild Turkey! His son, Eddie (Also Bourbon HoF) followed suit, and became the Master Distiller at Wild Turkey in 2015, 35 years into his tenure. It&#8217;s great to see a family lineage through a distillery and they both know how to consistently deliver on their bourbon.<\/p>\n<h2>Nose (20\/33)<\/h2>\n<p>Strong corn syrup nose on this with a deep fudge and vanilla coming through. You can tell this is a sweet one!<\/p>\n<h2>Taste (25\/34)<\/h2>\n<p>A good amount of barrel spice in this, you can tell it&#8217;s been aged quite a while in the new oak barrels pulling in those woody and spicy notes. Surprisingly it&#8217;s quite oily to feel. Very nice<\/p>\n<h2>Finish (21\/33)<\/h2>\n<p>Short, doesn&#8217;t hang around and you get some caramel sweetness as it hits your throat.<\/p>\n<h2>Score<\/h2>\n<p>66\/100<\/p>\n<p>Great bourbon at a great price. I feel like the lower proof on this sells it short, but if you want to start exploring bourbons this would be a great start!<\/p>\n<p>Please let me know on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thewhiskeycompanion\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thewhsikeycompanion\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Carl_TWC\">Twitter<\/a> if you&#8217;ve tried it and agree or disagree and share your notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wild Turkey 81 is a \u20ac33 bourbon bottled at 40.5%, and the lower proof sells it short, but it is a decent first step into bourbon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[32,35,34,33],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-bourbon","tag-budget-whiskey","tag-wild-turkey","tag-wild-turkey-distillery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}