Drinkhacker Reads – 01.26.2015 – Eddie Russell Promoted to Master Distiller at Wild Turkey
Drinkhacker Reads – 01.26.2015 – Eddie Russell Promoted to Master Distiller at Wild Turkey
Congrats to Wild Turkey’s Eddie Russell, who has been promoted to work alongside his father Jimmy as Master Distiller. Eddie’s been at the distillery for 34 years, working every position imaginable at the distillery. But it wasn’t through nepotism that he won the job. In fact, in an open letter to the press this morning, Jimmy admitted that he “made him do every job there was, even cutting the grass, so the other employees wouldn’t think I was showing him favoritism. I was probably a lot harder on him than I needed to be, but it was all to help him get to this very special moment today.”
Eddie’s wasting no time getting to work, with his first creation coming down the pipe later this year, and it’s one that Jimmy believes is one of the finest he’s ever tasted. There’s also a new Russell’s Reserve in the works for later this year as well. On behalf of everyone here at Drinkhacker, a raise of the glass and warmest wishes of good luck!
While there’s a constant onslaught of bourbon shortage news — the latest being Four Roses discontinuing its Single Barrel Limited Edition — the word from Scotland is that there’s a whisky crisis brewing quietly. With import taxes being quite high, distilleries are looking more and more to exports and less to the mainland UK, which would create a scarcity of rare and high end scotches for sale. [Telegraph UK]
In beer news, the Boston Globe files a report on the cult of craft beer drinkers and the lengths they go to in order to secure a bottle of rare and desirable expressions. In other news, Anheuser-Busch is buying up yet another craft brewery. The lucky beneficiary this week: Seattle’s Elysian Brewing. [Boston Globe]
