🥃Review: Russell's Reserve 10YR Bourbon Whiskey (RR10)

Russel's Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey on a mousepad in front of a metal aspen edge sign

📚Background: Named after legendary father-son duo of Wild Turkey Fame, Jimmy and Eddie Russell, this bottle is one of the more affordable 10 year bourbons on the market and has long been a staple of brown water enjoyers everywhere. To celebrate Jimmy’s 45th anniversary with the Wild Turkey Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Eddie crafted a special small-batch bourbon that he named Russell’s Reserve. With a mash bill of 75% Corn, 13% Rye, and 12% Malted Barley, RR10 is very close to the elusive and more expensive Eagle Rare with a bit of extra spice due to the slightly higher rye content. RR10 is a blend of whiskeys aged for AT LEAST 10 years, bottled without chill filtering in batches of about 200 barrels. The Russel's Reserve lineup also features a rye recipe, single-barrels, private barrels, single rickhouse, and 13/15 year aged iterations.

🛒Sourced: $35.99 Trout's North GA 750ml

Typically ~$40 these days and prices keep going up! Hoping that stabilizing demand doesn't result in this bottle getting bloated by bottle hype.

🧪Proof: 90, 45% ABV

🥔Mash Bill: 75% Corn, 13% Rye, 12% Malted Barley. All three are non-GMO grains and grown in the USA. Water for mashing and barreling is sourced from the Kentucky River and is naturally filtered through limestone, removing iron and other impurities (as most producers also claim). A No. 4 alligator char is used similar to other Turkey offerings. Barrels used in Russel's offerings are from the middle floors(3-5) of their 7-story rickhouses because temperatures are more consistent than those on high floors while having more movement in and out of the the wood than low floors. This results in less variation between individual barrels which would have to be blended out, a tougher ask given the smaller batch sizes, while still allowing for robust flavor.

Russel's Reserve Rickhouse Diagram picturing the varying conditions by potion of the warehouse

Taken from www.russellsreserve.com

👃Nose: Light and sweet with some zest or spice notes, definitely get some caramel underneath.

😜Palate: Very clean and mellow throughout but, this whiskey is eerily smooth with a good amount of complexity. Flavors are a beautiful meld of caramel, oak, and butterscotch. Some vanilla under there as well.

🔍Comparison to Previous: RR10 gets a new label almost every year it seems like, but I quite like the current iteration for it's simplicity and two tone aesthetic. It's worth noting that Russell's changed to new still in 2011, with aged releases coming on the market 10 years later. With any change in equipment, comes subtle changes in flavor, exchanging some cherry for more of the dessert sweets family of flavors. Rarebird101 has a number of excellent articles discussing this on his site if you want to learn more. He does mentioned that Private Selections of RR are showing some signs of the former life. For my part, I do notice some variations in RR10 batches over shorter periods but I'm assuming this is likely due to different ages making their way into the batch.

🏆Overall: 6.5/10 These bottles only last a few months on my shelf. RR10 is as solid as bedrock, easy to find, and a great value. For bedraggled Eagle Rare hunters, it's worth pulling up to the Russell's campfire for some quick warmth. The pour is so easy drinking I would recommend it to anyone getting into bourbon and it has enough complexity to stay interesting for an experienced palette looking to take some time off from higher octane bottles. I do think that I have a slight preference for WT101's more rough around the edges profile, but RR10 never disappoints. Looking forward to trying their SiB and Barrel Proof offerings soon. Wild Turkey Rare Bread and Kentucky Spirit are two other family favorites, lot of good work in the bird family.

💵Would buy again? Yes

⚖️Rating Scale:

1 Undrinkable
2 Bad
3 Poor
4 Below Average
5 Average
6 Above Average
7 Very Good
8 Great
9 Excellent
10 Perfect

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