Wild Turkey Beyond Duplication 12 Year Old Bourbon (Export, 1988) Review

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I’ve expanded on the whiskey glut of the 1980’s and 90’s in other reviews of older bottles, so I’ll begin with just a quick refresher. The general public – and specifically in the United States – had fallen out of love with brown liquors after World War 2 had ended. Each passing decade saw a dip in sales and general interest as spirits consumers embraced clear liquors. As a result, many distilleries closed and the ones that remained open purchased the excess inventory for cheap.

This created the additional problem of too much stock and not enough room to put it all by the 1980s, most distilleries were only firing up their own stills for a few weeks out of the year in order to replace the barrels that had been used. Warehouses were generally filled to the max with barrels that were getting older each year with no significant demand on the horizon.

As a result, the time period from the early 80s to the late 90s saw bottles being released with ever-increasing age limits. And since whiskey was not a hot commodity in the United States, more of it was being exported to overseas markets than ever before. Money had to be made.

Wild Turkey was going through the same issues I just covered. Jimmy Russell and the rest of the Wild Turkey crew he worked with started to notice that they were dumping older stocks into their standard 8-year-old, 101 proof bourbon. The taste profile was nowhere close to what a batch of 8-year-old barrels would have been, begging the question “are they leaving money on the table?” The answer was to introduce a new line of 12-year-old bourbon in 1982.

Wild Turkey Beyond Duplication

Just like the 8/101 version before it, Wild Turkey Beyond Duplication 12/101 still had barrels older than twelve years, but at least the profile could be something more indicative of a 12-year product. Years later, we learned that the batches were comprised of roughly 600 barrels to make this product and some of those barrels could have been up to 20-years-old.

For the US audience, the Beyond Duplication label you see on the bottle I’m reviewing was available on shelves in the United States from 1982 to 1985. At the end of the run, the 12-year label was swapped out with a new look – one with gold foil which has affectionally taken on the nickname “Cheesy Gold Foil.” However, overseas markets would continue to receive the older Beyond Duplication label up to 1989 and possibly as late as 1992. See my chart here:

The bottle I’m reviewing today was re-imported back to the United States after spending many decades in Japan, unopened. The base of the bottle indicates it was bottled in 1988. This would place it firmly in the timeline where Wild Turkey Cheesy Gold Foil was being bottled in the US. And while some newer enthusiasts might think they’re two separate things, the reality is that the same 600-barrel blending tanks that held the bourbon used in CGF would have been used to fill this export version of BD as well. The die-hard dusty community knows this and the secondary prices for each reflect that.

I have some experience with dusty Turkey from the past, but this is by far the oldest one I’ve drank. So how was it? Let’s find out. I sampled it neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: The nose is dripping with sweets, tannins and so many oxidized notes that it makes my head spin. Vanilla buttercream frosting combines with butterscotch of all kinds. The oak is warm and toasty and is joined with the classic Turkey dusty funk that’s hard to understand but is unmistakable once you’ve had it a few times. Toasted hazelnuts blend with scents of chocolate ganache. Cinnamon sprinkled cherries adds a little fruitiness into the air with each sniff.

Palate: Flipping back through my notes, I see I’ve wrote and underlined “This is my favorite tasting bourbon of all time.” It’s not an exaggeration. The flavors initially had me so flabbergasted, it’s like I struggled to identify and write them down for the first few sips. But I recovered and had this to say about the taste: The mouthfeel is rich and oily with waves of flavors. This is the epitome of how an oak barrel should influence the whiskey within. Sweet, musty oak mixes with oak spice and heavy tobacco leaf. Aged leather mixes with chocolate pudding. Grandma’s candy dish spills out with classic flavors while I also find a bit of floral, fennel and soft ginger notes. That must be the rye whispering to my tongue. More sweetness comes from a semi-scorched brown sugar while fruit comes back with those famous oxidized cherries. Wonderful.

Finish: Rye spice comes more into focus on the finish with a little bit of heat through a more demure kind of “cinnamon candies.” Butterscotch and chocolate pudding notes are a holdover from the palate and the oak finally gives me a small amount of bitterness. Still, that does not detract from the overall experience, just an observation. Other lingering flavors include cigar wrapper and a bit of anise. The finish lasts for a long time, but part of me wants it to last forever.

Score: 10/10

This is such a perfect, flawless bourbon in every way. I’ve rated other bottles 10s before, but this one feels like its in its own class of 10s. There isn’t anything comparable to the layers and types of flavors I experienced. It was simply an out-of-body experience from start to finish. Whatever I’ve said in the past about preferring dusty Old Grand Dad to dusty Wild Turkey has me rethinking my stance along with reevaluating my life choices. This is the bourbon I’d want to drink for the rest of my life if I only had one bottle to choose from.

Final Thoughts

The bad part is, I’m not made of enough money to buy this bottle for the rest of my life. But maybe that’s okay. I think part of what makes a bottle like this so special is that each sip was fleeting. If I had this to drink every day, the special-ness of the bottle might wane over time – or at least that’s what I have to keep telling myself so that I’m not saddled with sadness for the rest of my life.

Out of all the 10s on my list, I usually say the same thing at the end of each review. Make every possible move you can to get a taste of this for yourself. It will radically change how you perceive bourbon. And once you’ve had a taste, go and spread the good word to others. Bourbon this good should never be kept a secret.