Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Beacon Review

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It’s extremely rare for me to get to the point at the very beginning of the review, but here it is. Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Beacon is 2025’s Whiskey of the Year. Barring some superhuman effort by the blending team on the upcoming Single Rickhouse Camp Nelson E release, my opinion won’t change between now and December 31st.

How can I arrive at that conclusion so decisively? Because I tried it side-by-side with the winner of my whiskey of the year from 2024 – Russell’s Reserve 15 Year. That bourbon simply blew me away with how much better it was than the previous Russell’s 13 batches. Oh, and for those of you who will fuss over why RR15 wasn’t in my Most Memorable Whiskies of 2024 list, it’s because the price automatically disqualified it based on my rules. But I can still recognize greatness when I taste it, and RR15 was simply incredible.

So before I got into the tasting notes and add fuel to the (Secondary Market Dumpster) fire, let me tell you real quick about the limited backstory that I know for how Beacon came to be.

Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Beacon – The Last Master’s Keep ever?!

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room – the rumor that this is the last Master’s Keep release ever. I’ve heard this now for the last 2 years and simply can’t believe it. Why would Campari allow their shining, err, beacon to be extinguished forever? I know they could do whatever they want, but with each passing month the sales charts at every major distillery has to look more and more alarming. It doesn’t make good business sense to stop producing such a winner. In fact, they could stand to launch another LE line of whiskies.

I view the Master’s Keep line similar in respects to the Parker’s Heritage line. Heaven Hill has managed to have multiple flagship products that are each known for their own thing: Parker’s Heritage, Heritage Collection, Select Stock and William Heavenhill. All of these prove that their are buyers willing to fork over money when they understand what the purpose of a particular line is. In regards to Master’s Keep, it shows us the innovation that still exists inside the walls of DSP-KY-67. Wild Turkey needs to keep it around for cool blends and finishes and can probably designate the Russell’s Reserve line for high-age stated bourbons and ryes.

What’s in the bottle?

Details about any new Wild Turkey product usually takes between 6 to 12 months to eventually leak out (like how RR15 had a batch proof close to 160 proof!), so there’s a lot we don’t know about Beacon. The literature on this product tells us that there are 10 and 16-year-old barrels in the blend. The 16-year-old barrels were made by Eddie Russell between 2007 and 2008 while the old distillery was still active. The 10-year-old barrels were made by Bruce Russell in 2015. And I can almost bet that 118 proof is not barrel proof mainly because… Wild Turkey usually puts barrel proof on the label if it is.

There was a story I heard where the first batches of bourbon that Bruce distilled was mandated that he do it all manually – as in no automation. Jimmy and Eddie observed him over the course of many days where he had to receive the grain shipments and do the testing followed by milling the grains and then fermenting them. Finally, he had to operate the still to create the final product. That’s a hazing ritual I’d actually like to do!

I can’t be for sure that the 10-year barrels used in Beacon were those ones that Bruce made, but the timing seems perfect. I like the fact that Eddie dumped in his own pick of barrels to this release because in my mind, I’m envisioning the typical father/son dynamic where the dad is worried the son isn’t doing it right, so he swoops down in to correct it – even if it didn’t need correcting. It might have been cool to just bottle up what Bruce made by itself, but I guess that wouldn’t be too different from Russell’s Reserve 10.

Beacon also stands out for its high proof. At 118 proof, it’s no longer the highest-proofed Wild Turkey product ever, but it’s close to the top. So how does it taste? Thanks to Mike over at Mostly Peaceful Bourbon, he managed to grab a bottle super-early. So early, in fact, it caught a lot of enthusiasts off-guard because it looks like Indiana was the first state to get an allocation. I’m not complaining, though! Let’s get to tastin’. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: I thought the nose from Russell’s 15 was awesome, but this one somehow amps it up even more. The wood has an even deeper scent that feels like you’re smelling inside of it, rather than just the surface. It’s a mixture of old and very old notes. Light cigar wrapper can also be found. Lighter fruit notes make themselves known such as candied orange peel, raisins and lemon-poppyseed bread. Surprisingly, I’m not finding much by way of nuttiness on the nose, but there is a bit of brownie edges and honey.

Palate: If I told you this was an oak-lovers dream, would it scare you away? Because it shouldn’t. It turns out oak is only one of the many bold flavors Beacon has to offer, but it’s probably the one that it does the best. The oak is both soft (not bitter) and hard-hitting (spice, varnish). That’s not saying other flavors aren’t making themselves shown either. I can taste cherry Twizzlers, lemon and orange pound cake, dried apricots and some dried fig. Add in some baking spices (the usual suspects) and it morphs into mince pie as the session goes on.

I know there’s nothing in here that should remind me of an old “Dusty Turkey” note, but why is it that I’m finding some flashes of that exact note here and there? All I can tell you is that it’s focusing on the rye element of the mash bill – making each sip taste like there’s easily double the amount of rye – and I absolutely love it. The spice level feels like it’s more than most Wild Turkey bourbons – almost bordering on a rye whiskey. There’s something for everyone in this bottle.

Finish: Long and full of character. The spiced fruit notes remain along with fleeting spiced honey sweetness. There is some double mint gum as well as chocolate and rye spice that makes the finish interesting. I still get candied citrus peel, cherries and figs. Of course there is oak and tobacco wrapper, but I’ve been hit with them the whole time so I feel like I need to identify something outside of the tannins family. Basically, if you’ve read it this far, this tastes very aged from start to finish and even if that’s not your cup of tea, I don’t think you’re going to mind.

Score: 9.4/10

Bruce, did you secretly double the rye in the mash bill when your dad and grandpa weren’t looking? You can tell me, I promise your secret is kind of safe with me. But seriously, the thing I love so much about this bourbon – and it took me two sessions with it to finally figure it out – is because it has such a heavy, aged rye influence. It impacts the spice level, the fragrance on the nose and how much bolder it comes across to my palate. I know Bruce loves his high-proofed barrels and I have no doubt that his contributions made this one of the most bold Wild Turkey releases in a long time.

Final Thoughts

When I got into this hobby, Wild Turkey was a nothing brand to me. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with 101. I thought Rare Breed was good, but not exceptional and back then, I had yet to experience a dusty from the brand. But then I kept having their Limited Editions and finding myself loving them. I continued to put them up against what I loved from other distilleries and they kept walking away the winner. A Wild Turkey bottle has won or taken second place in my Top 10 lists in 2021 and 2022 and the only reason why it didn’t win them in 2023 (Single Rickhouse F) or 2024 (Russell’s Reserve 15) is because the price was above my threshold of $180.

I figured that 2025 was finally the year that Wild Turkey toned it down a bit since Batch 6 of Russell’s 13 didn’t move the needle much from previous batches. But now that I’ve had Beacon, I am saying to myself “are you kidding me?” Wild Turkey has done it again, dammit. And if Bruce’s barrels are responsible for even half the flavor of this release, then the future is looking brighter than ever. I hope to be writing the same thing for *ahem* next year’s release.