Wild Turkey Rare Breed...

Wild Turkey Rare Breed (56.4%): Rare Breed is the cask strength expression of Wild Turkey's regular line-up and it's still a well kept secret in the bourbon world... The batch of 2015 sitting on my desk today is a vat of 6, 8 and 12 year old bourbons distilled from a mashbill of 75% corn, 13% rye and 12% malted barley like any other Wild Turkey bourbons and bottled at 112.8 proof.

Color: Deep amber, sage honey.

Nose: Nail polish and hard wood shavings. Sweet and sour: Butter melting on a slice of warm sourdough bread, eucalyptus drops and overripe baby bananas... Quite hot on the nose. A few drops of water help and amplify corn aromas: Warm corn bread, kettle corn and toasted coconut flakes. Sunday flea market: Vintage furniture, old leather jackets and vinyl covers... Linoleum floor tiles and recently cleaned dashboard of an old car. Noses like a dusty bottle from another decade.

Palate: Hot but not disturbing... Warming and mouth covering. Toasted oak, burnt rice pudding, cinnamon dusting and ground cloves. Brown muscovado sugar. Adding water rounds all the edges: Fennel seeds, nutmeg and bananas. I mean a lot of bananas... Warm apple pie, apple compote, quince jam and heavily burnt creme caramel. Are there any other cinnamon dusted sweets I should be mentioning here? Bitter cocoa nibs, ginger snap cookies and lightly roasted coffee beans. I don't know if "brown sugar cinnamon rye cookie" is a thing but if it was it would taste exactly like this... I am really enjoying this bourbon right now.

Finish: Long with black pepper, cinnamon and whole cloves. Sweet and sour sauce, vanilla and molasses.

Overall: It is a very very good bourbon. A big step-up from the regular Wild Turkey 101. A good sipper, handles water very good and amazingly well layered. It is not cheap as far as bourbons go but also not unreasonably priced for my two cents. Not easy to spot on the shelves all the time but worth to keep an eye for it. You are not going to be disappointed. I am definitely sold... This bottle won't last here at home long for sure...

Price: $40

89/100

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