As bourbon followers flocked to the Wild Turkey guests’ heart, sitting close to the doorway was no strange greeter. Jimmy Russell, who has lived by a lot of the distillery’s wealthy historical past, was at his publish as a goodwill ambassador, signing whiskey bottles, posing for photographs and chatting up vacationers about his favourite subjects — making bourbon and sipping it.
For 70 years, the distillery within the coronary heart of Kentucky’s picturesque bourbon nation has been Russell’s dwelling away from dwelling. He realized his craft from a distiller who endured the darkish days of Prohibition. Many years later, Russell was a key participant in bourbon’s revival — creating among the premium whiskeys which might be cocktail staples and changing into a world entrance man for his model and the bourbon sector.
The 89-year-old Russell, recognized affectionately because the “Buddha of Bourbon,” marked his seventieth anniversary on the distillery on Tuesday. For practically a half-century, he was grasp distiller at Wild Turkey, placing him accountable for each step of manufacturing — from distillation to bottling.
“I always said, ‘The first day I have to come to work I’m retiring,’” he mentioned just lately.
That day nonetheless hasn’t arrived.
Russell is a beloved fixture on the distillery, practically a decade after turning over grasp distiller duties to his son, Eddie. Each father and son are members of the Kentucky Bourbon Corridor of Fame, and the following technology is constructing on their legacy. Bruce Russell, Eddie’s son and Jimmy’s grandson, works as affiliate blender, placing him on the heart of making new Wild Turkey merchandise.
The Russell household has a lengthy historical past of being high executives heading the manufacturing and, in later years, the promotion of the model. It additionally isn’t unusual for grasp distillers to have lengthy careers with a distillery and later grow to be model ambassadors. However Jimmy’s longevity places him in a particular class.
The elder Russell teamed up along with his son and grandson on a particular mission recognizing the household’s whiskey-making custom. Wild Turkey Generations was created by combining aged bourbons chosen by every of them to replicate their very own private preferences. The bourbons had been then blended to create the ultra-premium whiskey that had a restricted launch final 12 months.
“I got to work on a project with him where all our names are on the bottle,” Bruce Russell mentioned. “And that’s super special for me.”
Now not a part of the day by day grind of bourbon making, Jimmy Russell nonetheless samples and provides his unvarnished opinion about among the latest renditions of Wild Turkey being developed. However he usually spends time greeting vacationers a couple of days every week on the guests’ heart.
His easy-going appeal was on full show a few weeks in the past as Mark and Donna Barton requested him to signal bottles of Wild Turkey they bought within the reward store. Eddie Russell topped it off by including his signature.
“Heck yeah, this is going to go on display,” Donna Barton mentioned.
Whether or not the couple from Princeton, West Virginia, drinks the contents of the signed bottles, or retains them as unopened souvenirs, was “up for discussion,” Mark Barton mentioned.
“We may crack it and have an ounce and then put it back up,” his spouse added.
Jimmy Russell is a seasoned hand at charming and educating bourbon followers, having spent a long time touring the world to advertise Wild Turkey. One huge change by the years, he mentioned, is the extent of information whiskey followers now have about their favourite bourbons.
“When I started, it was all whiskey, it didn’t make any difference,” Russell mentioned. “Nowadays, people know every little drop, every little thing about it.”
When he began in 1954, he mentioned, the distillery had a distinct title — Anderson County Distilling — and the operation was a lot smaller, with about 40 barrels of whiskey produced day by day and saved in 4 warehouses for getting old, when bourbon will get its taste and golden brown shade. Wild Turkey — owned by the Italian-based Campari Group, which bought the model from French liquor firm Pernod Ricard in 2009 — now produces 700 to 800 barrels of whiskey day by day, saved in practically three dozen warehouses. The model sells globally and its largest abroad markets embrace Japan and Australia. A second distillery is being constructed on the Wild Turkey advanced to maintain up with demand.
Not like different distillery staff who usually caught with one activity, Russell rotated jobs early on, giving him the broader perspective that ready him to take over as grasp distiller in 1967.
“As soon as I learned a job real well, they’d move me and put me on something else,” Russell mentioned. “So I’ve done everything here.”
His son Eddie, now 64, had the identical in depth coaching when becoming a member of Wild Turkey in 1981.
“He wanted me to learn it from the ground up, the same way he had,” Eddie Russell mentioned.
Inside a few weeks, he mentioned he “knew it was home for me.” Different classes he realized from his father: placing most effort into the job and being a stickler for product consistency, he mentioned.
“The number one thing I tell everybody that I learned from Jimmy was if you’re going to do something, do it right or don’t do it at all,” Eddie Russell mentioned.
Kentucky distillers are a close-knit group, and one other famend bourbon baron, Fred Noe, a seventh-generation grasp distiller at Jim Beam, says Jimmy Russell has been a valued pal and mentor, particularly after the dying of Noe’s father, famed grasp distiller Booker Noe. Russell and Booker Noe had been shut mates.
“When I took over for my father, Jimmy became a second father figure to me, guiding me as I stepped into the role of bourbon ambassador,” Fred Noe mentioned. “His friendship and passion for the industry he and my father loved shaped me into the man I am today.”
In Kentucky, the place 95% of the world’s bourbon is produced, the grasp distillers are handled as celebrities. If there was a Mount Rushmore of Kentucky bourbon, Jimmy Russell could be on it, mentioned Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Affiliation.
“You think about the names of him and his peers at the time, you’re talking some of the most treasured, beloved and cherished names in the history of Kentucky bourbon,” Gregory mentioned. “And they were doing this at a time when bourbon was not celebrated as it is today. They paved the way for the success of Kentucky bourbon today.”
Watching his son and grandson observe in his footsteps is what Russell treasures most.
“That’s what I’m so proud of, to see what they’re doing,” he mentioned. “To see how far Eddie’s come along. He’s well-known everywhere now. Bruce is coming that way.”
His spouse, Joretta, now 93, has been with him each step of the best way, and Eddie Russell mentioned she deserves credit score for his father’s longevity. The bourbon enterprise wasn’t mentioned at dwelling, as she made certain to maintain her husband’s work and residential lives separate to assist him calm down, their son mentioned.
“Jimmy and Dad are master distillers at work. But at home, granny’s the boss,” Bruce Russell mentioned.
Of all of the questions followers ask him, one fixed is: how does he like his bourbon? Jimmy prefers it neat — with out ice or a splash of water. Nevertheless it’s served, it ought to be sipped and savored, he mentioned.
“Bourbon’s not something you sit and throw straight down,” Russell mentioned. “You sit and enjoy the flavor and taste of it. And I’ve always said, you know one thing about bourbon, you drink when you’re happy, you drink when you’re sad.”
And his humorousness hasn’t dimmed. Requested to call his favourite bourbon, he replied: “One of each.”
