Interview – Eddie Russell Master Distiller, Wild Turkey Bourbon

Master distiller for Wild Turkey Bourbon, Eddie Russell, visited Australia to launch his collaboration with Hollywood star and bourbon obsessive, Matthew McConaughey, the Longbranch Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Drinks Trade caught up with Eddie at the rooftop bar at Melbourne’s QT Hotel to chat about the brand, the Buddha of Bourbon, and the Russell family legacy.

Drinks Trade: Your father, Jimmy Russell, is affectionately known as the Buddha of Bourbon. What drove you to follow in your father’s footsteps and become his successor as the master distiller at Wild Turkey?

Eddie Russell: I grew up in a little, bitty small town. As a teenager you think you are going to go to college and move away to a big city. Dad worked seven days a week so I was not sure if I wanted to get into the business. I had a year of college left and I went there for a summer job. I started out rolling barrels, dumping bottles, stacking cases, mowing grass – the bottom end. I knew everyone there. I grew up with them. Within a couple of weeks I realized this is where I belonged. Dad always tells the story - Eddie came for a summer job and it’s been 37 good summers for him. I was so lucky to do it. I had an older sister and brother who never had an interest and I didn’t think I really did but once I got there and started working, it just felt like home to me.

DT: How is Jimmy Russell involved in the brand now?

ER: He’s definitely got the knowledge so I still talk to him and use him as a sounding board. Luckily for us he sits in our visitor centre a lot and meets the visitors. It’s amazing for them because in no other distillery do you get to see a master distiller, especially someone like Jimmy. He comes in most days. Sometimes my mum comes in and sits with him. People love that.

DT: How did you work together as father and son? What were the dynamics?

ER: Well it wasn’t very easy I can tell you that! I always tell people that my name was ‘No’ for 20 years. I would say - Jimmy can we do this? Jimmy can we do that? And he would say ‘No’. Later on I think he realized I wasn’t going to mess things up too bad and he felt comfortable with me picking the barrels. It’s definitely not easy working with your family especially when your father is the Buddha of Bourbon. Over the years I have paid tribute to him but had to do things for me too.

DT: So I believe now your son is also working for Wild Turkey?

ER: That’s right. Bruce. The same thing happened to him. He was going to college when we needed tour guides. We have about 95,000 visitors come through (each year) and he needed to make a little money and asked if he could be one. Man, within a couple of weeks he was wearing me out. Now I know how my Dad felt. Question after question. He followed my around on tours. It was really amazing to see. I always felt at the beginning he didn’t want me there but really you are so proud. It was funny because he worked for us for about a year when the marketing people realized - here’s another Russell! He is my Dad made over. I am a lot like Dad, don’t get me wrong, but he is identical. He has that same charisma and everybody loves him. Then just as Marketing was talking about the next Russell, Bruce left. Nobody could understand but me. It’s a lot of responsibility when you are the face behind Wild Turkey and at 22 it is sort of scary. He went to work for another company but in six months he came back and he was all in. He finished his college and spent about five months with me at the distillery. He wanted to move to a big city so we decided we would use him as a brand ambassador. He is based in Austin Texas and is now 29 years old. His main focus is the on-premise, the bartenders. He fits right in. He’s used to starting at 2 pm and working until 3 am. It’s wonderful. My Dad doesn’t think about the on-premise or bartending because that is not what he did when he came through but I’ve seen both sides. To have him out there, the same age as most of them, and to have three generations, is a blessing for us.

DT: Jimmy Russell launched the Wild Turkey 101 60 years ago and it has become his legacy. What do you think is your legacy?

ER: The Russell’s brand, I came out with that for Wild Turkey’s 45th anniversary, and Master’s Keep, the series that I am doing. I think the Longbranch will definitely be part of me but it is also part of Matthew McConaughey. I hope it sells as much as 101 some day but I think it is more the Russell’s line and Master’s Keep that will be my legacy.

DT: How did Matthew McConaughey get involved with Longbranch?

ER: When Matthew came on board as our creative director, which was the title he gave himself, (laughs) I really thought he would just do some commercials for us and maybe two or three events a year, but he really got into it. He loves the family. He’s a big family guy. When he was at the distillery I was letting him taste right out of the barrel, stuff I was experimenting with. He just kept talking about how he would love to make his perfect bourbon. It was the hardest thing I ever did because before it was just me and Jimmy deciding what we liked. With Matthew it started with phone calls and emails. I knew his taste profile from sitting around with him and from what he drank. (Matthew was raised in Texas but his parents come from Kentucky.) I wanted to connect Texas and Kentucky (in the blend). If you think about Texas you think about ‘big’ because everything is ‘bigger’ in Texas, and it’s a huge state, but really you think about Mesquite wood. In America when you say BBQ you talk about 14 or 15 hours smoked meats and in Texas they use Mesquite wood that imparts a hint of smokiness to it. So right off I thought that might be a way to connect but I didn’t know exactly how I could do it. I started to send Matthew samples. I probably sent him fifty over 18 months. We got some Mesquite char. Before that we had never ever charcoal filtered. It’s legal to be a bourbon and charcoal filter but at our distillery we never have. So we got the Mesquite charcoal and got a hand grinder to see what size to ground the char to. It was a very complicated process. We were using 6 Year Old bourbon and we dumped about 150 barrels in a tank and used what I called ‘the teabag’ which was a stainless steel container with small holes in it. We put the char in there and for a day we re-circulated the whisky through it. When it came out it was super smoky and wasn’t what we were looking for but we sent the samples off to Matthew to make sure. I could not have called that straight bourbon it would have had to be a specialty product. He didn’t like it either and he sent me notes back. He was big into music so he would talk a lot about base and the high notes. Finally we went from a 6 Year Old bourbon to an 8 Year Old. For me, even though my Dad doesn’t think so, it’s always nice to pay tribute to him. He’s always known for the 8 Year Old 101 Bourbon so we used the 8 Year Old. All of us at the distillery loved it. Matthew called me up at 4.30 am one morning and had been sampling a few and he said, “Eddie! Eddie! This is it! It’s perfect! I don’t have to put an ice cube in it. I can drink it neat and that’s what I’ve always wanted.” Then we had to come up with the name. Matthew always brings his wife and kids with him and many times, his mother. We were at the visitors centre sitting around and we were talking about family trees and he wanted to know about our family tree and he talked about his family tree. His father passed away a long time ago and we got to talking and joking about that one aunt or uncle or cousin where the tree is sort of crooked. And there is always a branch of your tree that reaches out to friends that become part of your family. A couple of days later he rang me and said I have the name. Longbranch. It’s the branch you reached out to me to make me part of your family. What more could you ask for? That’s how we got the name.

DT: What do you love about Australia?

ER: You fly into Sydney and it’s gorgeous and Melbourne has such a great cocktail scene. I got to go to Darwin, and as I grew up in the outdoors, to go to a place like that was truly amazing. It reminds me of Kentucky. In Kentucky everyone is friendly and here it is the same way. Everybody is looking at you and talking to you. Not everywhere in the States or the world is like that. Here people love Wild Turkey and want to talk about Wild Turkey so it’s great fun. The only bad part about coming here is the plane ride!

To read the rest of this interview with Eddie Russell please go to drinksbulletin.com.au

Eddie Russell with Matthew McConaughey