We’re back! Yes after a very drunken and plaque riddled holiday Honest Booze Reviews is back at it’s scheduled time. Now soon enough (Read: 2 months – actually half a year) DJ Lvl will post an exciting special edition where we review not only a wine we gathered from my basement, but some short reviews of a wine tasting we attended. However that’s just a bit too classy, and while class is expected at The Buffalo Lounge it’s second only to manliness. As such this week we review a bourbon whiskey, with a turkey on it.
Now while our normal format dictates that our four reviewers (DJ Lvl, BuffaloJern, Justice, and William Henri Neve the IV) partake in a shot of the intended liquor followed by a variety of mixed drinks. Bourbon is not meant to be shot and much like the scotch we reviewed was taken on the rocks. However as standard procedure our metrics and personal scores (honesty excluded) are based on how well Wild Turkey rates against other bourbons we’ve sampled with 5 being an average score.
Wild Turkey began as whiskey brought along on a hunting trip for some wild turkeys and has since grown into a well known popular icon in movies and music (of course eclipsed by it’s Tennessee cousin Jack Daniels) However when most people think of this whiskey they think of it’s older brother the Wild Turkey 101 Proof which not only known for having more booze also contains a much different and in my mind better taste. The 80 proof we sampled is considered the lowest of the Wild Turkey line – perhaps for good reason.
Now being a Buffalo I’m a man who is a fan of his bourbon and while my go-to choice is Ezra Brooks, I can see the appeal of the Wild Turkey 80 proof. It’s what I would call a sharing whiskey, the kind that yes you would bring with you on a hunting trip or carry in your daily flask. If you have some close friends over you’d probably offer something a bit nicer than this but as it is there’s nothing wrong with the regular Wild Turkey. As far as bourbons go it’s the standard – nothing exemplary, but it sure as hell shouldn’t be worse than this (right Jim Beam?)
Even their bottle suffers from no over abundance of wankery but also has no manly story or measure of class.
What they say: “The 80 proof bourbon is produced in the same traditional manner as all the bottlings of the Wild Turkey family, using only the finest natural ingredients and pure limestone water. Aged slowly in new charred white oak barrels, our 80 proof bourbon is a tribute to the Master Distiller’s art. (This is not bourbon it’s just a tribute, and people reading this hate me now)”
Taste: 4.625 – Standard as far as bourbons go; there’s worse, but there really is better tasting bourbon
Aftertaste: 5.875 – Initial aftertaste is bleh, no real burn it’s just bad. It has that bad aftertaste but then it has the nice oak happy long warm aftertaste.
Burn/Smooth: 7.375 – The smoothness going down is halted by the bad taste, but is otherwise really smooth and goes down quite nicely.
Aroma: 7.33 – Strong oaky smell, smells like scotch tastes. Very nice bourbon smell.
Honesty: 7.25 – Makes me think of thanksgiving from not just the turkey but the bottle labeling itself. Little bit of wank on the bottle, but pretty standard. Image of turkey detracts from it’s man points we just think oh hey a turkey I’m going to be eating that thank you very much.
Mixability: 4.33
Whiskey and Coke: 4.16 – Kinda tell it’s there but it’s hidden, in whiskey and cokes the whiskey is meant to exemplify the drink whereas this one is just lost in the coke only showing itself with a bit of oaky taste.
Old Fashioned (With Bourbon): 4.5 – Fair old fashioned. Takes on the whiskey with nice aftertaste. Good taste but better aftertaste. Would be better with rye, but that’s neither here nor there.
Value: 5 – Average not the best for the price but chances are we’d probably buy something else. If you’re looking for a standard bourbon you can pick this up easily enough but I’d recommend looking elsewhere.
Google Shop Average $22
Website: http://www.wildturkey.com/
Reviewer Scores
William Henri Neve IV: Back in Nam, we didn’t have this fancy smancy alco-ma-hol that you have here we had the good old man’s calloused hand, blue collared, red-blooded working drink. This thing kept us through the times and kept us going, helped us kill children, and helped us so we couldn’t remember things. With that said. 6
Justice: 5
BuffaloJern: 5.5
DJ Lvl: 5
Want to compare this spirit against our archives? Visit our statistics page.
Metrics Overall: 41.79/70 Average: 5.97: Reviewer Average: 5.375
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Final Thoughts:
It’s bourbon.
