It's been awhile, but I've finally done a little adventuring
worthy of a blog post!
Last Sunday was
Carl's birthday, and since his parents were in town, we decided to do something
fun. We drove up the back roads from northern AL through southern
Tennessee to Lynchberg, TN, home of the infamous Jack Daniel's Distillery.
We did the Flight
of Jack Daniel's Tour which entailed an hour and a half long guided tour of the
facilities and a sampling at the end.
Our tour began on
a shuttle bus, as it was "so cold" outside (and by so cold, I mean
between 20 and 30 degrees). The shuttle took us to the top of one of the
hills and our guide showed us where they store the American White Oak wood used
to make the barrels for aging the whiskey. The JD Distillery is one of
the only distilleries in the world that makes their own barrels. Quite a feat
considering each barrel is only used once! They let the wood season outside for
some time before making barrels with it. The same area is used to handcraft
the barrels and then char the insides. They don't burn the barrels on
Sundays however, so we didn't get to see that process. Fun fact: the wooden
staves that the barrels are made of are not nailed together, they stay together
simply by the pressure of the arrangement.
Then we shuttled
back down the hill where we were shown the cavern that extends throughout the
property. The water from the cave is iron free and is so clear and pure!
They use the water for a lot of the distilling processes. Near the
opening of the cave was the little white office building where Jack once
worked. Inside that building was where he committed an act that would end
up being fatal to him- he kicked a safe. (Okay, so that was a little dramatic).
When he had kicked the safe, he injured his foot. Unfortunately, he didn't
get it examined until almost a year later, but by then it was too late.
He had an infection that had traveled into his blood steam and ending up
killing him at the ripe old age of 60-something (I can't remember exactly!)
The mouth of the cave with a statue of Jack in front of it. This statue is actually 7 inches taller than Jack's actual height of 5' 2".
Some more fun
facts about Jack's life- the distillery was actually sold to him for like 20
bucks I believe from his pastor (minister?). The pastor had been the one who
taught Jack to make whiskey at the age of 7 or so, but when his parishioners
found out about his secret hobby, they made him choose between the whiskey and
the church. He chose the church, and thus his sale to Jack.
Anyway, we then
finally got to go into the distilling building where they presented to us the
giant vats that held the mash. The mash is created by using a mix of grains combined
with water from the cave. From there it is fermented for about a week, and
then distilled in a copper still where it becomes clear bourbon.
From there we went
to the building where they do the charcoal mellowing. The clear, 140-proof
bourbon is dripped into the top of one of the 14-foot tall vats full of
charcoal. By the time it drips to the bottom of the charcoal pebbles,
approximately 10 days later, the clear bourbon has become a whiskey.
The (almost) last
stop of the tour was a barrel house. Whiskey at the top of the storage
area ages the best because of the temperature changes, and because heat rises.
Thus why good whiskey, especially single barrel whiskey, is called
"top shelf." The JD process does not determine maturity based on age,
but rather on professional tasters. People taste the whiskey in order to
determine if it is done, and if one barrel of a batch is determined
"unready," the whole batch stays in the barrel house until it has
matured. (I'm still trying to figure out how to become a qualified taster).
The actual last
stop of our tour was the tasting! We got to try five different Jack
Daniel's products. The first one we tasted was the Gentlemen Jack.
A fun fact about this whiskey is that it goes through the mellowing
process TWICE. Our second sample was the Jack Daniel's Old Number 7.
I've never had JD straight before and while it wasn't my favorite
whiskey, it was better than I expected it to be. The third sample was a
single barrel whiskey, which again, was good, but not my favorite.
Fourth, we sampled the Jack Daniel's Honey Whiskey- now THAT was a JD
whiskey I could get on board with! It’s technically more of a liquor, but
regardless- delicious! Lastly, we sampled the Jack Daniel's Fire, which
was similar to Fireball, but better.
Our samplings
Now I've only
toured 4 or 5 distilleries, but the JD tour was by far the best one I have been
on. (And the only one I could tell you the process of still 4 days
later!) I'm still not a whiskey connoisseur but I like to think I'm on my way
there!
