Review #769 - Buckner's 15 Year Single Barrel - The Prime Barrel Pick
Buckner's is a brand from Augusta distillery; this new distillery, based in Augusta, Kentucky, just started distilling their own spirit in 2024, but they released sourced bourbons before that. These bourbons came from a variety of sources, often in the Bardstown, Kentucky area, and have been released under a few different labels (depending on their age and where you buy them): Old Route 8, Buckner's, and the River Proof series.
The Buckner's label has been released with several different age statements, such as 10, 13, 15, and 17 years; this label is reserved for the most well-aged bourbons that Augusta has sourced so far. Buckner's has started to see a lot of single barrel releases, and some of these are picked by stores or other clubs. Here's one that was picked by The Prime Barrel, an online spirits retailer that specializes in barrel picks, and it comes with a 15 year age statement (15 years and 11 months, specifically).
The distillate in this bottle is BuffTurkey, which is bourbon that was contract distilled by Buffalo Trace for Wild Turkey back in the 2000s. It uses Buffalo Trace's yeast strain, but it uses Wild Turkey's bourbon mashbill of 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley. After distillation, these BuffTurkey barrels were aged at Wild Turkey, but considering the differences in flavor from their typical profile, the distillery decided to liquidate the stock a few years ago, which is why we've seen so much of this released by non-distilling producers (NDPs) over the past couple of years.
This specific pick comes from barrel #77, and it was named 'Winged Wildebeest' when it was bottled in 2025; it originally retailed for a hefty $325.
Buckner's 15 Year Single Barrel - The Prime Barrel Pick
USA - Bourbon
Price: USD 325 (2025)
Age Statement: 15 Years
Strength: 60.45% ABV
Details: Barrel #77, distilled March 2009; selected February 12, 2025; bottled 2025
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 2 months from a sample. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: A rich, brooding nose with lots of old oak and a decent amount of dark fruit. Cherries, raisin, gummy bears, and cherry Jell-O; behind that, we get some rye and oak spice notes like anise, mint, sage, and lots of tobacco. We also get clove and nutmeg, a bit of licorice; sweet vanilla, perfume, and soft dusty grain funk round out the flavor notes, and this is very well-integrated and developed.
Palate: Tobacco and strong oak start us off, but also lots of fruit: oranges, or cranberry-orange bread, more gummy bears like the nose, and tart cherry. Some tannins and wood char add spice, but we get more sweetness from vanilla and even more dark cherry. Mint, sage, and rosemary are hints in the background, along with a freshly baked French bread; it's quite complex, and the mouthfeel is medium-thick.
Finish: Lots of orange fruit, lots of tobacco, lots of vanilla. Old furniture oak mixes with wood smoke and a bit of that grain funk from the nose, and we get hints of cigar ash, chocolate, herbal rye, and floral notes. The aftertaste brings strong cola and brown sugar flavors; it's a long finish.
Final Note: A superb bourbon, one of the best that we've tasted. This BuffTurkey pick really shows how an old bourbon can be intense and full-flavored, but at the same time, it isn't overwhelmingly hot or unbalanced. It's very well-rounded but never bland, and it has great complexity.
The flavor profile bounces back and forth between strong old oak flavors, bright fruits, sweet baking notes, and a backbone of rye spice; every tasting session brings some new nuance, and it's quite well balanced overall. Excellent bourbon, one that we would seek out.
Value time - unsurprisingly, with this price point, it's below average. That said, considering the other sorts of bottles that you get at this price point, whether at MSRP or on the secondary market, we actually think this is one of the better ways to use your money if you're willing to spend a lot. One of our favorite bourbons so far, and one of the rare times that, if we had the chance to buy a bottle now, we might actually spend $300+ on it.
Our Rating: 9.2 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 5.33
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
Check out our other BuffTurkey reviews:
