Kentucky bourbon icon Jimmy Russell celebrates his seventieth anniversary at Wild Turkey

LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. — As bourbon followers flocked to the Wild Turkey guests’ heart, sitting close to the doorway was no unusual greeter. Jimmy Russell, who has lived by way of a lot of the distillery’s wealthy historical past, was at his submit as a goodwill ambassador, signing whiskey bottles, posing for images 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 house away from house. He discovered 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 a number of the premium whiskeys which might be cocktail staples and turning into a worldwide 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 all the time mentioned, ‘The primary day I’ve to come back 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 subsequent era 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 long history of being top 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 together with his son and grandson on a particular undertaking recognizing the household’s whiskey-making custom. Wild Turkey Generations was created by combining aged bourbons chosen by every of them to mirror 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 set to work on a undertaking with him the place all our names are on the bottle,” Bruce Russell mentioned. “And that is tremendous particular for me.”

Not a part of the each day grind of bourbon making, Jimmy Russell nonetheless samples and gives his unvarnished opinion about a number of the latest renditions of Wild Turkey being developed. However he sometimes spends time greeting vacationers a number of days every week on the guests’ heart.

His easy-going allure 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 present store. Eddie Russell topped it off by including his signature.

“Heck yeah, that is going to go on show,” 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 dialogue,” Mark Barton mentioned.

“We might crack it and have an oz after which put it again up,” his spouse added.

Jimmy Russell is a seasoned hand at charming and educating bourbon followers, having spent many years touring the world to advertise Wild Turkey. One massive change by way of the years, he mentioned, is the extent of data whiskey followers now have about their favourite bourbons.

“Once I began, it was all whiskey, it didn’t make any distinction,” Russell mentioned. “These days, folks know each little drop, each little factor about it.”

When he began in 1954, he mentioned, the distillery had a special identify — Anderson County Distilling — and the operation was a lot smaller, with about 40 barrels of whiskey produced each day and saved in 4 warehouses for growing older, when bourbon will get its taste and golden brown colour. 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 each day, saved in practically three dozen warehouses. The model sells globally and its greatest 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 employees who sometimes 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 quickly as I discovered a job actual effectively, they’d transfer me and put me on one thing else,” Russell mentioned. “So I’ve performed all the pieces right here.”

His son Eddie, now 64, had the identical in depth coaching when becoming a member of Wild Turkey in 1981.

“He needed me to be taught it from the bottom up, the identical manner he had,” Eddie Russell mentioned.

Inside a few weeks, he mentioned he “knew it was house for me.” Different classes he discovered from his father: placing most effort into the job and being a stickler for product consistency, he mentioned.

“The primary factor I inform everyone that I discovered from Jimmy was if you are going to do one thing, do it proper or do not do it in any respect,” 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 buddy and mentor, particularly after the loss of life of Noe’s father, famed grasp distiller Booker Noe. Russell and Booker Noe had been shut pals.

“Once I took over for my father, Jimmy turned a second father determine to me, guiding me as I stepped into the function of bourbon ambassador,” Fred Noe mentioned. “His friendship and keenness for the business he and my father liked formed me into the person I’m at present.”

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 concentrate on the names of him and his friends on the time, you are speaking a number of the most treasured, beloved and cherished names within the historical past of Kentucky bourbon,” Gregory mentioned. “They usually had been doing this at a time when bourbon was not celebrated as it’s at present. They paved the way in which for the success of Kentucky bourbon at present.”

Watching his son and grandson comply with in his footsteps is what Russell treasures most.

“That’s what I’m so pleased with, to see what they’re doing,” he mentioned. “To see how far Eddie’s come alongside. He’s well-known in all places now. Bruce is coming that manner.”

His spouse, Joretta, now 93, has been with him each step of the way in which, and Eddie Russell mentioned she deserves credit score for his father’s longevity. The bourbon enterprise wasn’t mentioned at house, as she made certain to maintain her husband’s work and residential lives separate to assist him loosen up, their son mentioned.

“Jimmy and Dad are grasp distillers at work. However at house, 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 is served, it needs to be sipped and savored, he mentioned.

“Bourbon’s not one thing you sit and throw straight down,” Russell mentioned. “You sit and benefit from the taste and style of it. And I’ve all the time mentioned, you realize one factor about bourbon, you drink while you’re glad, you drink while you’re unhappy.”

And his humorousness hasn’t dimmed. Requested to call his favourite bourbon, he replied: “One among every.”