A little background

Rare Breed is the readily available barrel proof offering from the venerable Wild Turkey Distillery in Lawrenceburg Kentucky. It has had several iterations with varying proofs since its inception with the newest in the line weighing in at chill-filtered 116.8⁰. MSRP of around $45.

*Note: Bottle pictured is from before the bottle change. I tasted both bottle styles side by side and if there were any differences they were very negligible.

(Tasted neat from a Glencairn.)

Color in the glass

Medium Amber

Nose

Cherry Cordials, vanilla, cinnamon, fried apples, and slight astringent oak. There is also a floral aroma lurking in the background. The nose is in line with what I consider the “Modern Turkey” profile.

Palate

Brown sugar, vanilla, crisp apple, orange zest, nutmeg, cinnamon, and charred oak. The rye spice makes its presence known.

Finish

Medium in length…very spicy with leather, slight maple, and unsweetened steeped tea. Charred oak continues throughout and is the last flavor to fade. The #4 “alligator” char dominates the finish but in an almost artificial way.

In closing

It is nice to see the current Wild Turkey renaissance thanks to blogs like RareBird101.com, because there is still great whiskey being produced from the distillery such as the quality bourbon bargain of Wild Turkey 101 and the fantastic Russell’s Reserve Single Barrels that have been popping up recently. With those two mentioned products, Rare Breed finds itself in a peculiar situation of being a hotter version of WT101 and less complex than the non-chill filtered RR single barrels.