🥃Review: Russell's Reserve 10YR Bourbon Whiskey (RR10)

Russel's Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey on a mousepad in front of a metal aspen edge sign

📚Background: Named after legendary father-son duo of Wild Turkey Fame, Jimmy and Eddie Russell, this bottle is one of the more affordable 10 year bourbons on the market and has long been a staple of brown water enjoyers everywhere. To celebrate Jimmy’s 45th anniversary with the Wild Turkey Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Eddie crafted a special small-batch bourbon that he named Russell’s Reserve. With a mash bill of 75% Corn, 13% Rye, and 12% Malted Barley, RR10 is very close to the elusive and more expensive Eagle Rare with a bit of extra spice due to the slightly higher rye content. RR10 is a blend of whiskeys aged for AT LEAST 10 years, bottled without chill filtering in batches of about 200 barrels. The Russel's Reserve lineup also features a rye recipe, single-barrels, private barrels, single rickhouse, and 13/15 year aged iterations.

🛒Sourced: $35.99 Trout's North GA 750ml. Markets seem to be catching on to the fact that this is an outstanding deal for a 10-year whiskey. As of 2025, prices are hovering around $45 most places I see it.

Typically ~$40 these days and prices keep going up! Hoping that stabilizing demand doesn't result in this bottle getting bloated by bottle hype.

🧪Proof: 90, 45% ABV

🥔Mash Bill: 75% Corn, 13% Rye, 12% Malted Barley. All three are non-GMO grains and grown in the USA. Water for mashing and barreling is sourced from the Kentucky River and is naturally filtered through limestone, removing iron and other impurities (as most producers also claim). A No. 4 alligator char is used similar to other Turkey offerings. Barrels used in Russel's offerings are from the middle floors(3-5) of their 7-story rickhouses because temperatures are more consistent than those on high floors while having more movement in and out of the the wood than low floors. This results in less variation between individual barrels which would have to be blended out, a tougher ask given the smaller batch sizes, while still allowing for robust flavor.

Russel's Reserve Rickhouse Diagram picturing the varying conditions by potion of the warehouse

Taken from www.russellsreserve.com

👃Nose: Light and sweet with some zest or spice notes, definitely get some caramel underneath.

😜Palate: Very clean and mellow throughout but, this whiskey is eerily smooth with a good amount of complexity. Flavors are a beautiful meld of caramel, oak, and butterscotch. Some vanilla under there as well.

🔍Comparison to Previous: RR10 gets a new label almost every year it seems like, but I quite like the current iteration for it's simplicity and two tone aesthetic. It's worth noting that Russell's changed to new still in 2011, with aged releases coming on the market 10 years later. With any change in equipment, comes subtle changes in flavor, exchanging some cherry for more of the dessert sweets family of flavors. Rarebird101 has a number of excellent articles discussing this on his site if you want to learn more. He does mentioned that Private Selections of RR are showing some signs of the former life. For my part, I do notice some variations in RR10 batches over shorter periods but I'm assuming this is likely due to different ages making their way into the batch.

🏆Overall: 6.5/10 These bottles only last a few months on my shelf. RR10 is as solid as bedrock, easy to find, and a great value. For bedraggled Eagle Rare hunters, it's worth pulling up to the Russell's campfire for some quick warmth. The pour is so easy drinking I would recommend it to anyone getting into bourbon and it has enough complexity to stay interesting for an experienced palette looking to take some time off from higher octane bottles. I do think that I have a slight preference for WT101's more rough around the edges profile, but RR10 never disappoints. Looking forward to trying their SiB and Barrel Proof offerings soon. Wild Turkey Rare Bread and Kentucky Spirit are two other family favorites, lot of good work in the bird family.

💵Would buy again? Yes

⚖️Rating Scale:

1 Undrinkable
2 Bad
3 Poor
4 Below Average
5 Average
6 Above Average
7 Very Good
8 Great
9 Excellent
10 Perfect

🥃Review #15 Costco's Kirkland Small Batch Bourbon

Costco's liquor store is a thing of beauty. While not every Kirkland edition is a hit, there are enough standouts on a fun per dollar ratio to always merit a look. Almost all of the house brands are less than $30, and I'm always excited to take a long shot when the new seasonal releases come around. 📚 Background: Distilled by Barton 1792 in Bardstown Kentucky, Kirkland Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey hits the shelves a few times a year. Mine was from batch 1124. The bottle presentation is supposed to evoke the same feel as other small batch whiskeys and there is a decorative purity seal that is reminiscent of the ever reliable bottled in bond green filigree, albeit in a meaningless red. Unlike its bonded brethren, this edition comes in under 100 proof and does not have any age statement. There's not a whole lot of additional information provided by Costco or the distiller, but we can reasonably assume that it shares a similar pedigree as the entry level 1792...

🥃Review #53: Costco's Kirkland 15YR Highland Single Malt Scotch - 2025

The 2025 release of Costco's Kirkland 15-year Highland Scotch hit shelves in late January and is a recurring installment on an annual cadence. The first pallet to hit my local store sold out almost immediately. Thankfully, we got two more shipments at one pallet each that hung around a bit longer and I was able to snag a bottle. Like in previous years, this Highland Scotch is finished in sherry casks. Alexander Murray & Co. is the bottler with MISA imports out of Texas bringing it to the States for consumption (Costco's standard sourcing pattern for Scotch). The bottle has a nice heft to it and there is an ensconced Alexander Murray Lion adding some nice texture to the front of the bottle. Steve Lipp, CEO of Alexander Murray, calls it "Perfect for after dinner drinking." All-in-all, this shows an attempt to elevate the product and presentation from the ubiquitous blends and non-age stated iterations you'll sometimes find under the Kirkland label. Neither Alex...

☕ All Java Monster Flavors Tasted & Ranked

As a habitual caffeine abuser, I have a soft spot for Monster, both for their expansive lineup of flavors as well as their support for Sports and E-sports. Coffee is my standard caffeination vector, so the Java Monster suite of products is the perfect mix of bean flavor and energy boost. In this post, I'll provide my personal rankings and rationale for what is a very strong lineup. Note that I have not been compensated in any way for this write-up... I just like them. Currently, Monster Energy 's Java Monster lineup has five available flavors: Mean Bean - Vanilla Irish Crème Loca Mocha - Chocolate Salted Caramel Café Latte There are two "triple shot" versions of the Vanilla and Mocha which contain 300mg of caffeine though their flavors are very similar to the base versions above. At this point, we should also take a moment of silence for the two cold brew flavors, sweet black and nitro latte. The nitro latte was a personal favorite and I quite liked the sweet black,...

🥃Review #29: Costco's Kirkland Blended Canadian Whisky - Is it Crown Royal?

Awarded 91 points and a gold medal by the Beverage Tasting Institute, Kirkland Canadian Whisky is known a great value and many in the popular culture have alleged that it is repackaged Crown Royal due to its relative quality for the price. But is it? 📚 Background: Kirkland first introduced their line of spirits in the 1990s and has expanded their offerings over time. While I wasn't able to find a first release date for this product, the first TTB label in the COLA database is from 2016. The whisky is imported for Costco by Wide World Importers in Louisville Kentucky. Digging a bit further reveals that Wide World Importers is an alternative name for SAZERAC . For me, this conclusively busts the popular myth that Kirkland Canadian is made by Crown Royal (a Diageo property). Sazerac has a number of Canadian Whisky brands in-house, including: Rich & Rare Reserve ($19.99 for 1.75L - No Age Statement), Seagram's VO ($22.99 for 1.75L - Aged Six Years),...

🍺 Definitive Light Beer Tier List: Meta-Analysis & Ranking

Trends come and go: Craft Beer, Hard Seltzer, Canned Cocktails, and more. In the world of beverage, the currents are constantly shifting, but one drink has an irrevocable grip on America: Light Beer. Good old beer flavored beer may take a hit from new competition, but brands like Miller Lite and Michelob Ultra constantly sit at the top of sales volume lists, even with the fall of Bud Light and rise of Modelo's Flagship. But which light beer is best? Let's find out. Methodology - Light Beer Ranking Taste preferences vary significantly between consumers, but across a large sample we should be able to get a somewhat representative picture of the populations preferences. For this ranking, we will combine data sourced from multiple beer rating sites with an internal Castle & Cairn house ranking to create an overall beer quality score. The starting population of beer brands will be those that are explicitly branded as "flagship light" or beers with less than 100 calor...

Castle & Cairn

Search This Blog