WILD TURKEY 101
8 Year Age-Stated Japanese Export (2021)MASH BILL – 75% corn, 13% rye, 12% malted barley
PROOF – 101
AGE – 8 years
DISTILLERY – Wild Turkey Distillery
PRICE – $32 (¥4635) for a 1L bottle purchased in Japan
WILD TURKEY 101
8 Year Age-Stated (1978)MASH BILL – 75% corn, 13% rye, 12% malted barley
PROOF – 101
AGE – 8 years
DISTILLERY – Austin Nichols Distilling Co.
PRICE – free sample from a kind fellow dusty enthusiast
I mean c’mon, why post about this?
Easy! Pure curiosity. That’s the only possible reason. There is arguably zero consumer-oriented reason to post about a comparison of these two bottles. For one of them you need to either live in or visit Japan. For the other you have to either time travel or hit up Must Have Malts in the Netherlands with fingers crossed.
Anyway I’ve never been terribly consumer-oriented here on the blog—though I’m pleased if my reflections have helped anyone make a buying decision they were on the fence about. The journey’s the thing. And the opportunity to try Wild Turkey 101 8 Year from 1978 is definitely a key destination on any whiskey journey’s map!
This 2oz sample came about because of a post I did about dusty whiskeys back in November 2024. A fellow member of my local Facebook whiskey group was dismayed on my behalf to read that the oldest Wild Turkey I’d personally had was bottled in 2001. Not a true dusty, in his opinion, if it’s bottled in the current century. How delighted was I, then, when he generously offered a sample from his 1978 bottle in exchange for a sample of the Old Potrero 17 Year Rye I’d recently written up.
So here we are, the 1978 sample freshly uncapped—I don’t know how long the bottle it came from has been open. The 2021 Japanese export was uncorked two months ago for a comparison with the 2024 70th Anniversary WT 101 release, and I’m now almost halfway through the bottle. These brief notes were taken using simple brandy glasses, my favorite for Wild Turkey.
COLOR
2021 – soft but deep orange-amber
1978 – also soft, but notably darker and deeper orange-amber
NOSE
2021 – a clean and rustic freshness to it overall, with vanilla, caramel, baked cherry, baking spices, solid oak, and just a subtle whiff of that WT herbal funk
1978 – quite different, with strong walnut blended into baked cherry, cherry cough drops, well-aged cherry brandy, oak, subtle baking spice, coffee and coffee grounds, the subtle funk leaning more woody than herbal here
TASTE
2021 – brighter than the nose, with the caramel and cherry leaning forward together, supported by nice oak and baking spice notes, some oak tannins adding bitterness
1978 – true to the nose’s walnut and cherry emphasis, with strong oak and oak tannin, some strawberry, the vanilla and caramel still lacing through it all
FINISH
2021 – warm, black pepper, oak and oak tannins, the sweeter candy and fruit notes now faint
1978 – bitter tannins plume right up front then continue to settle gently, with the walnut and oak also lingering, the cherry fainter
OVERALL
2021 – solid WT 101 that hits all the notes I hope a WT 101 would
1978 – more bitter compared to the 2023, but that wonderful walnut and cherry combo is a rich surprise
Having read many accounts of twentieth century Wild Turkey, I expected a notable difference. The lack of overt funk in the 1978 is a surprise, I’ll say. But the more remarkable difference is that walnut note. It took me straight to a 2017 George Dickel Hand Selected Barrel release, a single barrel store pick aged 12 years 10 months. Never would I ever have thought any Wild Turkey release would remind me of George Dickel!
It must be said, that George Dickel SiB was itself unique within my George Dickel experiences. Its own walnut / cherry combo was such a rich and sumptuous experience. Here in the 1978 Wild Turkey, the notably strong oak tannins keep the walnut / cherry notes rustic, especially on the taste and finish.
It’s on the nose where the 1978 really shines for me. There all is in easy balance, with a calming effect from the walnut, coffee and oak, sweetened perfectly by the fruit and candy notes. There is something particularly rich about the walnut that adds a luxuriousness. And that aged cherry brandy aspect. It’s like I’m in some well-to-do old country home, sipping the bourbon by the brick fire hearth in a leather chair wearing a cozy old-school smoking jacket. Whereas with the more oak-centric 2021 I’m on the porch of some nice Tahoe cabin, present day, looking out across a field or forest.
Needless to say, I’m grateful to my Facebook friend for sharing this precious blast from the past. The opportunity to travel in time—to actually touch, smell, and taste something from another era—is very special.
In 1978 I was still in my one-digits of age, running around in striped shirts and sturdy corduroys and getting into wonderful, creative, occasionally dangerous mischief in the mountain woods around our small town home. I am so grateful I grew up well before the time of helicopter parenting and the default to fearing others. To be sure, it was neither a simpler nor greater time. Not at all. But sipping this 1970s whiskey in 2025, I reflect on the good that came of a more analog existence. You had to deal with people face to face—a radical prospect today. You wrote letters by hand, sent them off, then forgot about them and moved on to other things in the weeks or months before getting a response. There was just as much time in a day then, but more patience and trust. Circumstance compelled it.
I’ll stop there, before I slip into more raucous commentary. 😉 The two glasses of Wild Turkey 101 on my table are much more important at the moment!
So here’s to the 2020s and the 1970s—two very different eras, both with excellent bourbon.
Cheers!
The Right Spirit 