Dusty Thursday: Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit Pewter Top

Today a bit of dusty trivia. Serious dusty hunters look not only for out of production brands and distilleries but familiarize themselves with changes to the bottle. They know that a bottle of Weller Centennial with sloped shoulders comes from a different time period than one with sharp corners. Today, we dive into that minutiae.

Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit is a single barrel expression of the Wild Turkey 101 bourbon. Today, the bottles come with a wooden topped cork, but they previously had a pewter topped cork. Those pewter tops are now considered desirable dusties. From what I understand, the bourbon began production in the 1990s and the switch from pewter to wooden tops came in 2001. Today, I'm trying a pewter topped version from 1995.

Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit (Pewter Top), 50.5% abv (And for all you bourbon geeks: Barrel 1, Warehouse E, Rick 12, June 8, 1995).

The nose is sweet with a bit of wood. The palate is strong on vanilla with a bit of spice in the background and some oak notes as well. The finish has rock candy and wood.

I'd say I like this just a little bit better than the current version of Kentucky Spirit. This one has a bit more wood influence and a bit more complexity, which could be due to older whiskey being used. It's good but not something I'd go to great effort to hunt down.