Over a year ago, when I picked up my bottle of OHLQ Russell’s Reserve Winter 2021, I walked into the store and found a whole collection of them. As of a a couple of months ago, the state managed to drop bottles around the state resulting in 2 – 3 hour lines in some locations (that wrapped around the building). It most likely goes without saying that the hype train has claimed another victim. While the secondary on these isn’t egregious, and you can find them on shelves from time to time, is it worth the hunt?
OHLQ Russell’s Reserve Winter 2021
The state described this pick as follows:
Creamy, smooth caramel up front with an extensive wood finish. Enjoy this one as you sit back and relax after a long day of working in the yard.
This barrel’s information is as follows:
- Distilled: 12-12-11
- Dumped: 08-08-20
- Bottled: 10-27-20
- Age: 8 years 8 months
- Barrel # – 20-0464
- Warehouse: B
- Floor: 4
Sight: A solid tawny.
Smell: The nose is complex and weighty off the bat with a tobacco and red fruit like sweetness. Notes of ethanol, strawberry, jammy blackberry, and raspberry combine before giving way to caramel and vanillas. A pecan and peanut nuttiness comes in with some powdered sugar. Notes of coffee, tobacco, and oak with a subtle creaminess. There’s a solid amount of heat here as well.
Sip: The sip almost starts off sweet with light berry flavors before things get extremely hot with a wave of black tea and oak. Tones of caramel and vanilla run through the background, and there’s almost a tobacco or unripened stone fruit flavor to the body. The most interesting thing other than the brown sugar, nuts, and heavy spicing is the way that it seems to turn the flavors on and off like a light switch. The turn from sweet and lightly fruity to spice, tea, and sugars is the almost a vertical take off.
Savor: The finish is spicy, with plenty of rye, oak, ethanol, and black tea. There’s a medium to heavy amount of astringency from the tannins here.
OHLQ Russell’s Reserve Winter 2021 a spicy fire bomb with a slightly fruity edge. The roller-coaster of flavor is powerful, and not necessarily a good starting point for those who prefer more toned down spirits. While the heat is noticeable, the flavors are equally powerful. The heavy notes of herbal tea, caramel, nuts, spice, and sugars are the predominate notes. Expect a powerful hit on your first sip from this bourbon.
In Cocktails
In a Manhattan It’s exemplary. The fruity characteristics show up interlaced with ribbons of sweet dulce de leche. The spices and oak join in, giving an amazing mix of sweet caramel, stone fruit, black tea, and vanilla laced oak. The body is smooth and rich, but the finish lets those spice, oak, and vanilla notes really shine with just a bit of silky smooth tannins. It’s a little hard to fully state how much the caramel, and the refinement of the caramel, really comes through in this application.
In Review – OHLQ Russell’s Reserve Winter 2021
OHLQ Russell’s Reserve Winter 2021 is nothing short of amazing, and another example of why these store picks are leaving the shelves faster than ever. So should you spend the time to hunt for one? That question depends more on what you find you enjoy in a bourbon. As a cocktail whiskey, it is delightful, but probably too expensive and time consuming to find and justify. If, however, you’re already a fan of Wild Turkey’s offerings, and enjoy sipping them straight, than these picks are worth the search.