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There’s been so much written, videoed and podcasted about Wild Turkey Kentucky Legend (aka “Donut”) that I felt like there was nothing new to say about it coming into this review. But as I delved deeper into my research, there was one assumption that seemingly everyone had about this very limited release that I ended up finding out wasn’t true. What was it? Read on to find out!
The origin of Wild Turkey Kentucky Legend
The first Kentucky Legend was very different from the bottle I’m reviewing today. It came out in 1991 at Duty Free stores around the world and used the same bottle shape as Wild Turkey Tradition. It was also 101 proof and non-age stated. Regardless, Kentucky Legend didn’t really put much space between it and the rest of the 101 proof products that Wild Turkey was selling at the time.
All of that would change in 1998 when Wild Turkey rolled out a totally refreshed Kentucky Legend concept. The most obvious change is the bottle shape – it went from the “Violin” (also sometimes referred to as “Jellybean”) to the “Donut.” Kentucky Legend was also bottled as a single barrel product and left untouched at barrel proof. It’s even been theorized that it was non-chill filtered (a rarity for Wild Turkey) even though the rear label says it was “filtered.” Some reviewers – like David Jennings over at Rarebird101.com – happen to think the filtering they’re referring to is just a rudimentary screen filtering for barrel char. Here’s what the rear label says:
“Since the Wild Turkey Distillery opened in 1855, privileged visitors have been given the rare opportunity of tasting our oldest and finest bourbon straight from the barrel. The creator of Kentucky Legend extends this tradition to a wider group of connoisseurs. This whiskey has been decanted from one specially selected barrel, filtered and hand bottled under my personal supervision at its original strength. The barrel has imparted its own subtly different flavour resulting in a unique hand made Kentucky Bourbon. True Legends are rare indeed.” – Jimmy Russell Master Distiller
As a quick aside, did you pick up on the word “flavour” spelled the old English way? That’s another hint that these were meant for an export audience.
One of the hottest discussion points among enthusiasts is how old these barrels are. I wish I had a definitive answer for this, but all I can say is that it’s somewhere between 8-and-15-years-old. Some of the barrels were reportedly babied by Jimmy Russell for just such a release. This should surprise nobody who knows a lot about Wild Turkey. After all, this is the man who had also apparently babied 20-year-old barrels that he put into the first Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit bottles (“Pewter Tops)” back in 1994.
Just how many single barrels of Kentucky Legend were made?
At the beginning of this review, I mentioned an assumption I kept hearing from enthusiasts about this release. It’s about the total number of single barrels produced. Almost every person I talked to or read their opinion on believed there was only 30 single barrels of Kentucky Legend bottled. But as I began to piece together information from multiple sources, I realized it was much more – The Facebook Group “Wild Turkey Rafter” had started a small spreadsheet of about 10 barrels and their codes while the Reddit user u/kumori created this post detailing the ABV/Proof and other barrel info that he had come across. His count was up to 30 at last look. However, it was a certain well-known secondary seller (initials “CF” in case you were wondering) who has sold dozens of these bottles over the years where I found the most info. Once I added them up, even David Jennings was wow’ed when I revealed how many I had recorded.
So what’s the number? I’m currently at 93 single barrels with a possibility of 94th. Number 94 came from a person named Ben Coffey on Facebook who said he “saw” a 120.6 proof one. If true, that would make it the highest proofed Donut ever. I’ll remain skeptical until I see photographic proof, though.
Of those 93 single barrels, I have verified 69 unique barrel numbers (some are partials). There are repeat barrel codes on a few different barrels which I identified with an asterisk. Speaking of the barrel code, there’s been a lot of speculation on what the numbers mean. If we were to take the aforementioned Kentucky Spirit labeling practice, the letter stands for the warehouse, the second number would be the rick and the third number was the barrel number on that rick. Some do not have a barrel number at all.
The warehouses that Kentucky Legend came out of were A, B, C, D, E, F and G. My guess would be those are all on Tyrone (main) campus. From the 69 barrel identifiers I recorded, the most common warehouse that barrels came from was D. The least common warehouse was G. Obviously the story might change if I had all of the data from every barrel, but it’s interesting to know nonetheless.
Neck Label Mania
One final thing I want to talk about is just how infuriatingly inconsistent these neck labels are. After scouring hundreds of pictures I basically determined that the person who hand-wrote all of them didn’t give a shit. Many neck labels have the ABV listed, but not proofs. Some have proofs but not ABV percentages. Some have both. I even found multiple instances where the ABV is not half of the proof – or if it is, they’d need to put a second decimal place in.
For instance, look at the single barrels that were bottled at 57.9% ABV on my chart. The proofs that coincided with that ABV vary from 115.7 to 115.9! Additionally, not every single barrel has the barrel number written on it and some didn’t have the bottle number listed either. This could be the result of handling them repeatedly until the marker wore off or leakage. The latter is possible due to their notoriously poor seals. They often break apart when first being opened. All of this could result in bourbon dripping down and erasing what was wrote.
What I’m saying is that if you ever get a chance to photograph a Donut, pay special attention to the label and make sure you take pictures capturing every bit of information. It might just help out the future bourbon historians who want to document all of this stuff.
Finally, onto the tasting notes! A special thanks to Jon G for the chance to try this bottle. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.
Tasting Notes
Nose: Characteristic oxidized oak notes waft into my nostrils as other tannic notes like fine cut tobacco and loose leaf tea join in the party. Fruit notes like sticking your nose in Grandma’s candy dish offer an opposing viewpoint from the tannins. Blueberry actually sticks out for me as a scent that I don’t often find in a bourbon, but when it does, it’s always in a dusty bourbon. Speaking of candy dish, sweetness comes from Werther’s Originals. There’s also a very complex note that I liken to smelling a glass of Tawny Port where the oxidation and age have developed into a nutty profile. I normally find a nutty note in modern Wild Turkey, but never like this before!
Palate: Spices begin to develop on my tongue with ground cinnamon and a hint of clove. I also find a light black licorice flavor. Fruit notes come forward like pithy blood orange and a hint of cherry. What’s odd is that the fruit notes are accompanied with a hint of minerality. I’ve read other reviewers who describe their bottles of Kentucky Legend also have this minerality note akin to George Dickel. It’s not offensive and actually makes it more interesting to drink. Other notes include buttery oak, cedar cigar box and vanilla.
I want to take a moment to expand on a dusty Wild Turkey characteristic that I often find and that’s “lack of sweetness.” It’s not like dusty Turkey is bitter and dry – quite the contrary – but I never truly find a lot of sweetness when I drink it. For years I disliked the profile but now I’ve grown fond of it. Your mileage may vary.
Finish: The tannic notes stick around for a very loooong time. Cedar cigar box, antique oak, leather straps and tobacco leaf all show off the age on this barrel. A lingering flavor I can only describe as “dusty funk” remains too. Baking spices like cinnamon and anise hang around while sweet and fruit flavors like caramel and oxidized cherry slink away rather quickly.
Score: 9.1/10
Let me take a moment to shower this bottle with praise. This bottle injects all of the classic, dusty Turkey notes directly into your olfactory system. It’s the total experience. Beautiful tannins, oily mouthfeel and oxidized flavors abound. This tastes every bit as old as you’d think it was (I would believe it to be 15 years based on taste alone).
There’s not much I can complain about here. I might want it to drink a little bit hotter because as it stands, the 111.7 proof points taste like a 101. It’s just that mellow. But this is a feature of dusty Turkey that I know many enthusiasts prefer it this way. I think the rest of the experience more than makes up for it.
Final Thoughts
I’d like to circle back to the rarity of this label for my final thoughts. If we were to all agree that the average amount of 750ml bottles that would come out of a 15 year old barrel is around 120, then that means that there should be at least 10,680 bottles that were produced. To put that into a more modern perspective – about 3/4 the amount of bottles produced in the annual Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition release. That’s rare air for sure, but probably not as rare as some people have previously believed. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the total number of single barrels is upwards of 100.
All of this is to say that the current secondary price for these bottles ($1100 for lower proof barrels and more for higher proofed ones) might seem a little crazy, but this is still a product that has no equal. Single barrels of Wild Turkey bottled at barrel proof simply don’t exist outside of the oddball Single Cask Nation/Whiskey Jewbilee/Pride of Anderson County releases. Plus, the Donut has that dusty element that can’t be recreated.
Father Time has not been kind to these bottles due to their high rates of evaporation (seriously, all of them I’ve seen have an ounce or two missing at least). Plus everyone I know who has one, has opened it. The time to get yours might be right now. So what are you waiting for?
We’re asking for your help! – If you have a Wild Turkey Donut that you don’t see covered on the list above, or have information on one that we don’t have, please leave us a comment or send us an email! We’d love to hear from you. Tell us if you’d like to be credited with your name and we’ll add it down below. Cheers!
A special thanks to:
IgneousMiracle via Discord
Underhilltab via Discord
Glorie via Discord
BourbonFett via Discord
PseudoApe via Discord
Jason Sinclair