Every Wild Turkey sits over its room; the 101 sits least

The brand's tags centre on about $75, which is where a distillery like this belongs, in everyday-money country. The comparison each bottle is judged against runs like so: the model finds the ten whiskeys nearest to it in flavour and takes the middle of their prices, the going rate for the style, which I will keep calling the bottle's room. Six Wild Turkeys price cleanly this week and all six land above their rooms, none of them flagged as a loose fit. The overshoot stays slim on the standard proofs and turns fat on the premium labels, which is at least the sensible way for it to fall.

The 101 is the bottle most people picture under the name, and it hugs fair the tightest of the lot. Its $75 runs about $6, roughly 7%, past a room near $69, the narrowest gap on the shelf. The higher proof pays its way in the glass: smoke and cinnamon lead, butterscotch sits beneath, and a baking spice carries through to a clove-edged finish. A 7% premium on a bourbon with this much going on is the sort you forget by the second pour, and if you want a single Wild Turkey to understand the house, this is the bottle.

Cheapest of them is the plain 81-proof in a 700mL, which doubles as a tidy lesson in bottle size. At $51 it sits about $5, some 12%, over a room near $46; it is the mildest Turkey of the range and an undemanding pour, caramel and char with a light rye spice and no heat to speak of. Draw the identical spirit from a litre and the sum shifts: $77 against a room near $53, about $24 or 46% over. Same easygoing bourbon, yet the bigger bottle sits a great deal further from its neighbours, so if this is the Turkey you want, the smaller bottle is the one that costs you least against its own company.

The Rye asks more again, as a rye tends to. At $75 it carries about $18, near 32%, over a room of $57, and it is the most assertive thing in the range: a spicy, peppery front with cinnamon, then dried fruit and a touch of honey rounding the back. Thirty-odd per cent over the room is a genuine premium, if a defensible one, and drinkers chasing that peppery rye bite ahead of the sweeter bourbon profile will reckon the extra few dollars fair. Anyone else is better served by the 101 next to it, closer to its room and the easier mixer.

That leaves the pair at the top, where the numbers stop being modest. The Rare Breed is $110 against a room near $71, about $39 or some 55% over. It is a barrel-strength bottling with a strong following, but I will leave its flavour undescribed, because nothing in the review data I trust pins down this exact bottle and I would sooner say nothing than guess. What the model is clear on is its company: squarely in the same high-rye bourbon family as everything else here, pitched better than half again over its nearest peers, the premium bought with proof and reputation rather than a different make of spirit.

The Kentucky Spirit single barrel goes further still, and by a wide margin. Its $157 towers about $95, roughly 156%, above a room near $62, the broadest gap anywhere on the Wild Turkey shelf. As a single-barrel pick it tastes like the house style turned up and concentrated: spice and sweetness together, rye and cinnamon, a fill of caramel and honey. It is a very good bourbon and an unapologetically special-occasion one, better than two-and-a-half times its neighbours' money, the kind of bottle you choose for the single-barrel ritual rather than because the figures sent you there.

Stand the six together and the arrangement is unusually readable, even with nothing cheap among them. The everyday proofs huddle just over their rooms, the 101 nearest at about 7%, the little 81-proof at 12%, the rye at 32%, and the plain litre adrift at 46% for no reason beyond its size. The two show-pieces then carry 55% and 156% over theirs. No confusing middle, no bottle posing as something it is not: the distillery takes a light premium on its workaday whiskey and parks the heavy markups in plain view, on the bottles that announce themselves as premium. The one real snare is the one the reputation lays, the reflex that anything wearing this label must be a steal against its peers. This week, none of it is.

How to buy it, then. For the definitive Wild Turkey at a premium light enough to shrug off, the 101 at $75 is the reach. If you simply want the gentle everyday pour and the label is the point, take the plain 81-proof 700mL at $51, the least-stretched bottle here, ahead of the $77 litre that holds the same spirit much further above its room. The Rye at $75 suits the drinker who wants the pepper and will pay a little for it. The Rare Breed at $110 and the Kentucky Spirit at $157 are for anyone after barrel strength or a single barrel and willing to pay well over the room, which, fairly enough, is precisely what those bottles are sold to be.