Wild Turkey Distilling Co

H Wild Turkey Distilling Co was born in 1891 by Thomas Ripy when he built the Old Hickory Distillery in Tyrone, Kentucky to once again produce bourbon. Ripys sold the bourbon he produced to wholesalers who bottled it under their own brand. Austin Nichols was one of those wholesalers. The "Wild Turkey" brand is said to have originated when an Austin Nichols executive, Thomas McCarthy, took some samples of the stock on a wild turkey hunting trip in 1940. The bourbon proved so popular among his friends that they kept asking him for "this wild turkey bourbon."