Russell’s Reserve 10 Year Old Bourbon (the LL/ME laser code that everyone is talking about) Review

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Apologies for the clickbait title, but if I didn’t draw your attention to the exact batch of Russell’s Reserve 10 Year (commonly referred to as RR10), you might have never clicked on this review.

Longtime readers of mine may be wondering why I’m doing another review of Russell’s Reserve 10 Year. After all, it’s a batched product and not a single barrel, so how different can it be? There also haven’t been any big changes that have taken place at Wild Turkey 10 years ago that would warrant some big profile shift. But stick with me, I’ll explain.

For those of you who are strangers to what I’m talking about when I say “LL/ME,” then let me lay it out. Wild Turkey uses a laser code format that gives the date and time that a bottle is filled. Up until last year, it was up to you to decipher the letters and numbers to reveal that date. Nowadays, they started to put the actual date underneath the code.

In reality, all you needed to decipher were the two letters after the “LL/.” The first letter indicates the year and the second letter indicates the month. Here are few examples so you can get the hang of it:

LL/KA = 2022, January

LL/HG = 2019, July

LL/ME = 2024, May

Laser codes give you the dates, so what?

What’s the big deal about deciphering laser code dates? Some people use it to identify a particular batch that they enjoyed so they can go out and find more of the same. Others use it to play detective and find batches with significant meaning behind it. And when it comes to being a detective, no group of fans puts more work into their craft than Wild Turkey fans.

I don’t know where the rumor began, but a few months ago, it started to build up steam across YouTube and online forums. Enthusiasts were noticing that a particular batch of Russell’s Reserve that was bottled in May, 2024 (LL/ME) was noticeably better in almost every way from previous Russell’s 10 batches. This was no coincidence, they claimed. This bottling timeline immediately followed the release of the insanely popular Russell’s 15 release.

The theory is that 15+ year old barrels that didn’t make the cut to go into Russell’s 15 were dumped into the batch tank for Russell’s 10. If you think about it, this makes sense. Wild Turkey would not use these barrels for the Russell’s Single Barrel program (although they should consider it!) and the high age seems like it would be overkill to dump into the Wild Turkey 101/81 tank (those are both from the same source).

I have been carefully tracking this story since it caught wind in Rarebird101’s Discord for his Patreon members and I decided to wait to see what he had to say before I would chime in with my own opinion. Thankfully, I was able to get my own bottle thanks to a bundle deal with Master’s Keep Triumph that my friend Mike over at Mostly Peaceful Bourbon helped me get a few months ago. When I saw that it was an LL/ME bottle, I was ecstatic. So how does it taste? Let’s find out. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: This smells like it’s much older than 10 years old on the nose. This is perhaps one of the most impressive nose for any bottle under $40 that I’ve ever smelled – maybe even for any bottle sold for twice that price! The oak is way more rich than it has any right to be and the vanilla notes are about as deep as they come. Apricot and cherry preserves accompany the scent of lemon meringue. I can also find a bit of saddle leather. The baking spices are very well rounded and fragrant, too.

Palate: Each sip is significantly richer and more intense than previous RR10’s I’ve had. There is tongue-coating cherry cough syrup, mature oak notes, conditioned leather and a bit of varnish. Aside from the cherries, I’m also finding fruit notes like dried fig and stewed prunes. Cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice give virtually no heat, but add plenty of depth to the sip. I can also find a hint of peppermint and some flat Dr. Pepper. Why is this so good? Interestingly, I don’t find much in the way of caramel sweetness, instead it is more like a fudge sweetness to me.

Finish: The tannins really have their way on the finish bringing out the full sensory experience of seasoned oak, oak spice and barrel char. The leather note turns a little bit drier and most of the fruits drop off. Spiced cherries seem to be the only ones that remain. The fudge from the palate turns into a toffee note as the finish slowly dies out. Cinnamon and nutmeg round out the residual flavors still on my tongue.

Score: 7.9/10

What an amazing bottle! I’m left a little bit speechless after spending some time with it. Can it really be this good? How did they improve the flavor so much over previous batches? At the most, I’d be convinced this contains those rejected barrels of Russell’s 15 in this batch. At the least, some real honey barrels were somehow dumped into the batching tank – RR15 or not. Whatever the truth is, this is one of the top RR10’s I’ve tasted. It is also distinctly better than some RRSiBs I own.

Final Thoughts

I’m about 6 years into this bourbon hobby and a lot has changed since then. I used to gleefully walk into every store I could and spend dozens of minutes scanning the shelves, picking up bottles and researching what they were on my phone in the aisles. As time went on, I’ve become more uninspired looking at the same bottles or being put off by the high prices. I now “hunt” from afar – usually online or through groups I’m in. But after hearing about the wild theory on this batch of Russell’s 10, I now find myself with a renewed passion to drive around to stores I haven’t been in for a while and look at the laser code of every RR10 bottle they have. Finding hidden gems is what got me so deep into this hobby and I can honestly say I’m having fun again.

Maybe you’ll believe the hype on this bottle or maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll go out to a few stores to look at laser codes and maybe you’ll find an LL/ME that’s waiting for you to take it home. Maybe you’ll even have the same experience that I did. All I know is that the nostalgic flame inside of me that was starting to die out has reignited – even if it’s just temporary – for one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had this year. This Russell’s 10 is the real deal, believe it or not.