Wild Turkey’s Final Master’s Keep Bourbon Is Fantastic

Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

The saying “all good things come to an end” is a well-worn cliche, but a more accurate expression might be that “most good things are just not as good as they come to an end.” Some examples that come to mind—Led Zeppelin, The Godfather series, and Liam Neeson’s career. Sometimes, however, the final push is the best, and that is certainly the case with Wild Turkey’s Master’s Keep series. What a way to go out because Beacon, the last edition of this high-end whiskey from one of Kentucky’s best distilleries, is the absolute best to date.

Times have changed, but things also still kind of remain the same—Jimmy Russell has been at the distillery for more than 70 years, and he still shows up at the gift shop to sign bottles a couple of days a week; his son Eddie still holds the master distiller title and continues to put out fantastic new Russell’s Reserve releases; and his grandson Bruce, associate blender and avowed fan of rye whiskey, is taking on a bigger role and selected one of the two bourbons that went into the new Beacon.

Master’s Keep first came out 10 years ago as a 17-year-old bourbon, an expression that Eddie considers to be the most unique whiskey Wild Turkey has ever released. Fast-forward to 2025, and the Master’s Keep line, which has really been shepherded by Eddie over the years, is coming to a close with this new blend of bourbons. “Dad’s not Mr. Wild Turkey,” said Bruce at a recent tasting. “My grandaddy is. Dad’s Mr. Russell’s, that’s the thing that he created and built his reputation on—except for Master’s Keep.” Based on the quality of this new whiskey, I think his reputation remains safe. It’s a blend of 10-year-old bourbon selected by Bruce that was distilled in 2015, the first year that he had a hand in actually helping to distill whiskey, and 16-year-old bourbon selected by Eddie from the Camp Nelson warehouse site that was distilled in 2007 and 2008, some of the last remaining barrels laid down before the distillery expansion in 2011 (there might also be a little bit of leftover Russell’s 15 in the mix, according to Eddie).

As Eddie will tell you, this bourbon is much too old for Jimmy’s tastes—the elder Russell doesn’t much care for whiskey over 10 years old. But the final Master’s Keep chapter is Eddie and Bruce’s show—this bottle is the first to have just their two signatures on the label and not Jimmy’s. Eddie’s retirement may not be imminent, but Bruce has certainly become a much more integral part of the Wild Turkey production process.

The liquid itself is, quite frankly, spectacular. Beacon is the best of the series, and that’s saying a lot considering how much I’ve loved past releases like Voyage, a bourbon finished in Appleton Estate rum barrels. It’s bottled at 118 proof, the highest in the Master’s Keep series (just short of the Wild Turkey record set by Generations which clocked in at 120.8), but you wouldn’t know it was that strong as you sip. There are notes of caramel, vanilla, yellow cake, maple, raisins, fig, and a touch of spice on the palate, along with a faint dose of banana that you might expect more from a Jack Daniel’s whiskey. There’s also a touch of that old-school Wild Turkey musty funk, although nowhere near what you find in the 17-year-old Master’s Keep Bottled in Bond release. This bourbon is a stunner, a whiskey par excellence, and while nothing is perfect I really have trouble finding any fault with it.

Of course, one fault might be the likely possibility of Beacon skyrocketing from its asking price of $300 once it hits the secondary market, the way some of the older Russell’s Reserve age statement bottles have. But hey, whiskey nerds are gonna whiskey nerd and whiskey sellers are gonna gouge. And while this might be the last Master’s Keep release in its current iteration (“the last of the current Master’s Keep lineup” is how Bruce put it), you can bet on some new limited-edition lineup taking its place. I look forward to whatever that is, but in the meantime I’m going to finish every drop of this fantastic new bourbon.

Score: 99

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