Wild Turkey Distilling Co

Few American distilleries can claim a single family's hands on the stills for more than seventy years. Wild Turkey Distilling Co in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky can. Jimmy Russell started at the distillery in 1954 and became master distiller in 1967, and his son Eddie, who began as a relief operator in 1981, has held the title since 2015. That continuity shows in the whiskey: high-rye bourbon distilled and barreled at low proofs, then aged in heavily charred oak, made much the way it was when Eisenhower was in office.

History & Heritage

The distillery's roots reach back to 1869, when James Ripy, an Irish immigrant from County Tyrone, and his sons began distilling on the Kentucky River outside Lawrenceburg, in a riverside settlement James renamed Tyrone after his home county. His son Thomas B. Ripy grew the operation into one of the largest distilling concerns of the late nineteenth century, and in 1893 his bourbon was chosen from more than 400 whiskeys to represent Kentucky at the Chicago World's Fair. The Wild Turkey name arrived later. In 1940, Austin, Nichols & Co. executive Thomas McCarthy brought warehouse samples on a wild turkey hunting trip, and his companions kept asking for that wild turkey bourbon; the company began bottling under the name in 1942. Austin, Nichols purchased the Lawrenceburg distillery outright in 1971, Pernod Ricard took ownership in 1980, and Italy's Campari Group acquired the brand and distillery in 2009 and remains the owner as of July 2026. A new distillery began operating on the historic site in 2011, with seven-story rickhouses still aging stock on the bluffs above the river.

The Whiskey

Wild Turkey runs a single bourbon mash bill, widely reported at roughly 75 percent corn, 13 percent rye, and 12 percent malted barley, with heavily charred barrels and a notably low barrel entry proof. Less water added at the end means more of the barrel in the glass, part of why Wild Turkey 101 Kentucky Bourbon has long punched above its price. The Sentinel Room's Reserve Whiskey Library holds ten Wild Turkey expressions, from that flagship and its sibling Wild Turkey 101 Rye Whiskey to Wild Turkey Rare Breed Barrel Proof Bourbon, a marriage of six, eight, and twelve year stocks bottled uncut, first released in 1991. Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit Single Barrel, introduced in 1994, and the Russell's Reserve line, launched in 2001 and named for the father-son distilling team, round out the range alongside Wild Turkey Longbranch Bourbon, a 2018 collaboration with Matthew McConaughey.

Why It Matters

Wild Turkey never chased trends. While competitors lowered proofs and lightened styles through the lean decades, the Russells kept making bold, high-rye bourbon at full strength, and the whiskey world eventually came back around to them. Jimmy Russell is widely recognized as the longest-tenured active master distiller in the world, and in September 2024 the distillery marked his seventieth year on the job with Jimmy Russell's 70th Anniversary 8-Year-Old Bourbon, a commemorative 101 proof release. The line now runs three generations deep: Eddie's son Bruce Russell was named associate blender in 2022, and all three Russells collaborated on the 2023 release Wild Turkey Generations. The family's refusal to compromise made Wild Turkey a benchmark for those who appreciate good whiskey, and ten expressions in the Reserve Whiskey Library let a guest trace one house style from entry proof to barrel proof, side by side.

Visiting the Distillery

The Jimmy Russell Wild Turkey Experience at 1417 Versailles Road in Lawrenceburg offers distillery tours and tastings Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m., in a renovated visitor center on the Kentucky River bluffs. The distillery is a stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.