Wild Turkey Forgiven Discontinued & Single Barrel Rye Introduced

Photo of Eddie Russell by Glenford Jameson

Wild Turkey Forgiven is the result of an accidental blend of bourbon and rye. The story behind the whisky is straight-forward—An employee accidentally blended Wild Turkey Rye into a batch of Wild Turkey Bourbon. It’s not necessarily an easy mistake to make, but distilleries re-route whisky into big vats before bottling. Mistakes happen.

Master Distiller, Eddie Russell, bottled the resulting batch as Wild Turkey Forgiven. It’s a popular drink, and the original batch tastes sort-of-like-you’d expect, with a bourbon start and a late rye finish from an unintended blending. This wasn’t a perfect accident by any means, though Wild Turkey released a second batch that was intentionally blended and with better results.

We met with Eddie earlier in the week, and Eddie confirmed they have no plans to bring Forgiven back after this latest release. If you love Wild Turkey Forgiven, grab it quick. It won't be coming back. Eddie told us he's prioritizing both his bourbon and rye on current releases to keep-up with increasing demand. 

While we’ll lose Forgiven, Wild Turkey is releasing Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Rye. I only had a quick taste of the rye, but from what I had, it’s excellent. The mouth-feel is all Wild Turkey, and the rye is bright and floral and pushes bright rye flavour.

Wild Turkey’s brand extension with Russell’s Reserve is solid, and available. That is increasingly a rare combination.