Australian Competitions Club

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WIN: 1 of 3 Bottles of Matthew McConaughey’s Wild Turkey Longbranch Bourbon

“This has been the biggest year for me”, says a newly clean-shaven Eddie Russell, as he pours out two glasses of water and sinks into an oversized pink chair in the overdesigned meeting space at Sydney’s QT.

It’s exactly one year since his last visit, where we first met in exactly the same spot, though a great deal has happened in twelve months. Since releasing the Master’s Keep 1894, an exclusive bourbon to the Australian market, his brand has continued to find a strong antipodean fan base, as drinkers become more and more sophisticated, and move towards the premium straight spirits for which the brand is initially famous, and further from the once-burgeoning RTD market. Australia is, in fact, the largest export market for Wild Turkey. 1894’s exclusivity to the Australian market was Eddie Russell’s way of saying, “Thanks”.

This time, he’s here to promote Longbranch, a bourbon which was produced in collaboration with Oscar-winning actor and proud southerner Matthew McConaughey. In his new role as Creative Director for Wild Turkey, his hands-on approach has been embraced by the Russell family, who, in hiring McConaughey, got a lot more than they were expecting.

“The idea was more about doing a few commercials, maybe doing a few events … that was sort of what they thought. But when he came there and met our family — my father and me and my son — he didn’t understand how authentic Wild Turkey was. It was still a family-type business, and between me and my father having a hundred years of experience, he really got behind that”, Eddie tells me in between sips.



https://manofmany.com/lifestyle/drinks/win-1-of-3-bottles-of-matthew-mcconaugheys-wild-turkey-longbranch-bourbon