252. Russell's Reserve 10 Year Bourbon Review

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

But you know who likes to give back to their community is one of our sponsors, Jim. Chris Cruz from Cruz Customs Flags. He does custom flags out of bourbon barrels. Not only does that, he do that, but he's also using veterans to build those flags with. I've got one right behind me, Jim. I know you got one on your bar. Beautifully handcrafted, repurposing a bourbon barrel, not throwing it away, not making it into smoking chips, making a piece of Americana, right?

something that'll last probably quite a few years longer than a bourbon barrel would, right?

Not only that, but he's using veterans to build those pieces of art with. You know, you got to love that. But he's also giving back to his community at all times, helping veterans out like ourselves. He is really in tune to that. Go check his site out, uh, cruise customs, flags.com. You can buy his flags on their key holders. Jim's got some, uh, these neat little cups that are chart inside made out of oak that you can put a cocktail in.

They call those the whiskey grail, don't they?

Yeah, that is, it kind of reminds you, you know, when you think of a grail, but truly a whiskey grail right there. Go check those out at Cruz Customs Flags. Purchased from this guy, veteran owned, veteran operated, making a veteran built product.

Hello everybody, I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, it's another Crafted Story Monday for us, but actually it's Thursday, March 17th. Which is St. Patrick's Day. St. Patrick's Day. So you and I gathered at the Red Lion in Shelbyville, Kentucky to have some traditional Irish food. Yeah.

I think the Red Line Park's going away, but it's in a historical building called the Science Hill, which used to be a school for young ladies back in the 1800s into the early 1900s.

For over a hundred years. Yeah. They raised young ladies to be young women. Yes. And taught them how to be good young women. A finishing school, I guess it would be called.

But now it's a restaurant owned by our good friends. Christian and Brian Grubb. Brian's a veteran like ourselves. and they let us use their it's going to have a new smoking bar in here a cigar bar cigar bar and plenty of bourbon here it's pretty swanky in here yeah this is pretty nice Jim yeah it's a great place and we do appreciate them letting us use their uh to be cigar bar yeah as a recording studio today sure i'd say if you're on a bourbon trail you're traveling through shelbyville uh down route 60 You want to stop by before you go to Bullitt or if you're on your way back from Bullitt. Make sure you stop by super quaint little restaurant. Not little. It's pretty big. Pretty big. Pay them a visit. They're veteran owned and operated. You know, we're big into that. So yeah. But Jim, I got a bourbon of all bourbons today and I got it because it was on sale. You know, I'm always looking for a bourbon sale. You got a really good deal on this bottle. Yeah.

Yeah. You got it for about $8 under

List. Yes. From Cox's Evergreen is where I got it from. This is a Russell Reserve 10-year. 90 proof. Regularly $35, I got it for $26, that's a steal right there. For a 10-year-old bourbon, I don't know that you can get a 10-year-old bourbon for that price.

Yeah, and folks don't expect to see it for $26 very often. I think when stores are trying to make a little room on their shelves for something or they're moving some older stock, they're trying to deal with, you're going to find those deals, so you've got to keep your eye open for it.

Yeah, most certainly. So a little bit of history about this, Jim. 1998, It's 45 years at Wild Turkey for Jimmy Russell. They wanted to create a bourbon or a small batch bourbon to honor his 45 years. And they created the Russell Reserve brand at that time. Come along 2001, they go with a Russell Reserve 10 year that was 101 proof.

Fashioned after the 101 Wild Turkey bourbon.

And then in 2005, we got the bottle that we have today. They took it down to 90 proof. Maybe to squeeze a little bit more juice out of the barrel.

Well, I think to find the right price point on the shelf maybe you know at that time bourbons were coming out of the sort of the dark ages a little bit, right? Trying to find their place in the world. And you know, maybe you needed to adjust that proof a little bit to find the right spot in the market for it. Sure.

I could see that. Now for you new listeners out there, new bourbon drinkers out there, Russell's Reserve is from Wild Turkey. Who is the Russell's? It's Eddie and Jimmy, right? They're two master distillers. Jimmy's been there now for 60 something years over. Eddie's been there for over 40 years. And both the names, our signatures are on the front of this Bible. So it's a father and son tape. Most certainly. Well respected in the Bourbon world. Jimmy is the, I would guess he would be the godfather of Bourbon at this point right here.

They call him the master distiller's master distiller.

Yeah. So if you don't know, if you always look at Russell's Reserve and you're like, what is that? It is wild turkey. with their name on it to honor those two guys, rightly so. So, yeah. Well, I guess enough about the history of it, Jim. Let's get to this whiskey though. Let's check it out.

Such a great nose on this. I've always been a huge Wild Turkey fan, but I tell you what, when you get something with a little more age in it, and let's be honest, the 101 is typically 68 year old bourbon, so we're not getting a lot older here, but we're getting a little bit older here at 10 years. Now they say a minimum of 10 years, so there can be some older bourbons in here. I'm getting that rich oak out of the nose of this.

I'm getting some dark fruit on this for some reason. I wouldn't say cherries, but maybe a plum.

Yeah, I tend to agree with you there. I think this bourbon shows... The first thing I get when I sniff this is a rick house. I feel like I'm at Wild Turkey, walking through the rick house there with Eddie, trying to pick out a barrel. I just smell the rick house and it's got a lot of oak to it. There's a wonderful vanilla and caramel to it, but behind it, I mean, it's just tobacco and oak and leather and it's got that, that Rick house aged smell to it.

I get a little bit of a, you know, I like to drink tea in the winter time. Teavana is a tea company out there. I get a little bit of cherry tea with this, with some honey in it. You know, that's just a, maybe a little bit of floral in there too.

You know, for the price, think about it, guys. I mean, when you can get a 10-year-old bourbon from a well-respected distillery at 90 proof for $35 or less, that's a bargain these days.

Yeah. I mean, when I saw the price, I had to look back. I said, is the price right? And he's like, yeah, that's right. So I grabbed it. almost ran out of store with it without paying for it.

And this would, I mean, on the shelf, this would compare equally with like an Eagle Rare, right?

Yeah. That 10 year, $35 a Henry McKenna bottle and bond. Sure. Those 35 to $40 bottles is where this sits at. Now people are going to say this ain't bottled and bond, but still it's 10 years and it comes from the master distiller.

And it's made up of selected barrels. of at least 10 years of age. It could be older, but this is a small batch bourbon, so it's a bourbon blended from multiple barrels. And they do a great job there at Wild Turkey at blending their whiskeys. Well, I'm going to put this thing over my left hand as we've learned, Jim.

Yep. And I'm going to say cheers. Cheers.

Look in the eye. Look in his eye. Yeah. I mean, wow.

Chewy, right? Yeah. It's definitely viscous. It's got a lot of body to it. The first thing that hits me is that oak and a little bit of like a spicy caramel, a little bit of leather. But on the back, on the back, I'm getting that spice. The spice is starting to gather on the back of my palate, that finish.

I'm getting this chocolate, like a chewy chocolate. What are those little, they're like little balls, but they're super chewy. That's got caramel, maybe.

Oh, sugar daddy's.

Sugar daddy.

There's the other one too. Sugar babies? No. a milk dud. Milk duds. Now, I do remember those, but it's been a minute since I had a milk dud. Yeah, that's what I'm getting.

They're super chewy. You get them in your teeth and you're trying to chew it apart. This is so viscous with great legs on and stuff. I get that chocolate out of it. I do get the oakous richnesses there, that vanilla, the caramel, just so buttery.

Now, this is a typical 75 corn, 13 rye, 12% malted barley. what historically has been called a high rye bourbon, but any more. That's not high rye, right? Now this thing does have that Kentucky hug on it.

It, it'll kick you in the chest if you're not careful.

And the longer you sip on it, the more that hug builds, right? Yeah.

But you know, this has, I gotta say, it's got a long finish, Jim. It's sitting on my tongue right there. It is perfect drinker. Um, And I hate to call this a gateway bourbon, but this was one of Vivian's first bourbons that she actually liked when she drank it. She was like, I really liked that, Mike. I think I could drink that. She says it tastes like cherry juice. I don't know if I get cherry juice out of it, but if that's what you did get a hint of cherry though, I did get a hint of cherry out of it. I wouldn't say cherry juice because it's not that sweet. Cherry juice is super sweet when it's that concentrate, but a super beautiful bourbon with that long finish. A great mash bill that they have for this. Great bottle, great pickup. I mean, heck, you can't go wrong with this bottle.

Now, they have a companion to this. It's their single barrel. They do. They also make a rye as well, but their single barrel is an 8 to 10 year old, so it's a little bit younger. a barrel that's chosen for the single barrel, but it's another 20 proof points higher. So we're looking at 110 proof single barrel, and some of those single barrels are magical if you get the right one of those.

Just you could go into the store and pick one up and you'll be amazed at how good those taste.

And some of those you can find as picks. Yeah. And they're just, they're really something, really something. And when you're going to pick a Russell's single barrel, sometimes you'll pick a barrel and by the time they pull it out and they get ready to bottle it, they'll find out that it doesn't quite hit the proof point. You know, and it has to be something else. Ah, that's horrible. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, great, great whiskey. Mike, on the shelf all the time. If you don't have a bottle of Russell's Reserve Tenure on your bar, You need to peel back a 20, a 10, and a five out of your wallet and go pick one up.

Yeah, I actually thought I had a bottle underneath the shelf at home. It turns out somebody's been sneaking a little bit of it because when I'm walking down to the basement and that's where we keep a bunch of empty bottles at, there's a bottle down there. I don't know if you'd been coming over to him or Viv's been coming over and drinking on the bourbon a little bit, but somebody is drinking it. So I had to go out and get another bottle and I'm glad I did. I saved myself a couple of books. This will certainly get drank by both of us and by guests that come over to the house. I'm sitting here watching the glass and the legs are just kind of running down the sides of my glass right here.

If you've been in a rick house on a tour, if you've been in a rick house on a barrel pick, if you've spent any time at all at a bourbon distillery, you know that smell. You know that aroma you get when you walk into that rick house. And that's exactly what you get on the first whiff out of one of these, is that wonderful rick house smell. And some of the best smelling rick houses in the world, right at the Wild Turkey Distillery.

Most certainly. Well, Jim, another great review for our listeners out there. Hopefully we don't steer them wrong on these reviews. I think most of the time we're pretty right. We get a lot of praise. Well, listeners, we have two big events coming up the summertime and in the fall, Jim. Our first event is July 23rd. It's a Saturday night. Me and Jim are going to get dressed up in some tuxedos. Black tails and tie, right? Yeah, yeah. Heck, I might even wear a black cowboy hat with some black boots. Oh wow. There you go. But that's going to be for the USA Cares Bourbon Gala. If you want to help us out with that, you've got some extra bottles sitting around your house that are unopened. Get with me, send me a DM, send me an email. It goes to help veterans across America. It's also helps service members that maybe got behind on a car payment. or a house payment or electric bill or something like that. They've given away 17 million dollars, Jim, since their founding. It started here in Kentucky and it's went nationwide. They're doing great things. A kind of charity that's really near and dear to my heart and your heart too, right, as veterans ourselves. I'm glad we never had to have that experience or we needed that help. But that bourbon gala is July 23rd. So that event's going to be at the Galt House. beautiful hotel downtown. If you haven't been there, they got one hell of a bourbon bar inside there, but there'll be plenty of bourbon there. We're going to try to curate 300 plus bottles for this event. It's a bourbon raffle. Tickets for the event are about $300 each. You can go to usacares.org and you can find that event. Our second event that we're going to be at, Jim, and this is one that we had so much fun at this last year is Bourbon on the Banks. in Frankfort, Kentucky on October 1st. We'll have the Bourbon Road Lounge. We'll have our t-shirts there. We'll have a bar. We'll have a sponsor for our tent again. You don't wanna miss that event. The tickets are on sale now. You don't wanna miss this event. It's already getting tough to find a place to stay.

Oh yeah, we know. So you need to plan in advance and you need to get yourself a hotel room and plan on spending the weekend in Frankfort.

Yeah, October 1st is a little bit cooler at that time of year. There's not a lot of big football games going on that time of year. Come down there, spend the afternoon with Jim and I, our wives will both be there drinking whiskey this year. If you're a Brody and you want to help out, let us know so we can get some extra vendor tickets for you. We'll need some help this year for sure because I think it'll be a bigger event for us than it was last year.

It's hard to believe it's going to get bigger than last year. We had a tent.

How big was the tent? I think we did a 20 by 30 foot tent.

We had about 80 people just hanging around that thing all day long. Everybody says it's a place to be. It's a place to be. Whiskey was flowing all day, and then we had the special bourbon road bar. We had 20 plus bottles there, some really good stuff, where roadies got to pour what they wanted. Well, speaking of that, Jim, what is the roadies? Oh, the bourbon roadies. It's our private Facebook group. A group of people who love bourbon, love to talk about bourbon, take pictures of bourbon, chit chat about going on in our lives. It's a good group of good friends that just share one common interest and that's bourbon whiskey.

Yeah, there's no rudeness in there. You gotta be 21 and you gotta like bourbon. That's our rules. We don't talk about politics in there. We don't talk about religion. and we dang sure make sure we stay out of social issues. We stick to the whiskey. And I think that's what's so good about that group is if you drink from the very bottom of the shelf, your mid shelf like Russell's Reserve Tenier, you're at the very top of the shelf with a Pappy Van Winkle. Heck, I don't have that. Jim, you got one of those you're hiding from me? I don't have one of those. I think you got, you got one you're hiding from me?

I'd share it with you if I had it, Mike.

Well, you can find us all over social media. You can find us at, We've got some videos out there. You can find us on Instagram. You can find us on Facebook. You can find us on Twitter and YouTube. Make sure you check us out at all those. Give us a follow. We do two shows a week. Jim, what do we do?

Absolutely. Every Monday we'll do a craft distillery episode like today's episode. We'll take a single expression from a craft distillery. Today, not quite a craft of celery. Wild turkey is a big boy, but that's okay. Every now and then they squeak on by. We'll do a review of that whiskey. We'll tell you whether or not we feel you should have it on your shelf. And I think we're pretty much agreement today. You need to have a bottle of Russell's Reserve 10 year on your shelf. Certainly. You cannot beat that bargain at $35. But every Wednesday, we will do a longer episode, a full-length episode, about an hour in length, where we'll have a guest on. We'll broach a more detailed subject. Sometimes we'll have two or three bottles. Sometimes it's on the road. Sometimes it's at home. Great content. Thirty minutes. We'll get you to work. We'll get you home. Thirty minutes more. About an hour every Wednesday. Two shows a week. Mike, how do they make sure they don't miss a single one of those episodes?

Well, first, you're not going to want to miss this week's episode coming up, right? Because it's with Michter's two amazing guests. But you want to go on up to the top of that ad, hit that plus sign, that check sign, that subscribe sign. It'll let you know that, hey, these guys got episode that has came out or is about to come out. You can scroll on down, hit that five star review for us and leave some comments. We really love those comments with that five star review. If you don't, you know what's going to happen. Heck, I could bring a whole lot of this Russell's Reserve tenure. I can bring some Russell's Reserve single barrel. Heck, I even got a 13 year old Russell Reserve over on the shelf. I'll bring that with my friend, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon. We'll drink that all night long. By the end of the night, you're going to give us that five star review. Those reviews really do help us. They get us into great distillers. It gets great whiskey in our hands. We really appreciate them.

We certainly do. And in addition to those reviews, we want to know what you think. If you've got a comment about the show, If you've got an idea for a guest or a bottle or a distillery in your hometown, be sure to reach out to us. Mike and I are very approachable. You can write us an email. I'm jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's mike at the bourbonroad.com. But as we always say, probably the best way. Hit up our DM on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief. And we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.