((PKG)) JACK DANIEL’S WHISKEY
((Banner: Tennessee Whiskey))
((Reporter: Lesia Bakalets))
((Camera: Sergey Sokolov))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Lynchburg, Tennessee))
((NATS))
((Jeff Arnett, Master Distiller, Jack Daniel’s Distillery))
If you live in another state, if you tell someone you’re from Tennessee, there’s only a couple of things that are going to come up with most people and that is music and whiskey. It is truly what the state is most known for and, of course, the music takes on a lot of different varieties. Some people will be talking about Elvis. Others might be talking about country music, but when it comes to whiskey, there’s really only one brand they’re talking about and that’s Jack Daniel’s.
I’m very, very honored to serve as the master distiller of Jack Daniel’s today.
Whiskeys are very much a product of their place. So that the yeast culture that we use here was harvested from this area, so it has sort of a local flavor to it. The Cave Spring water that flows, that’s used to make every drop of Jack Daniel’s, only flows from one place. So, you know, I think if you try to take Jack Daniel’s and move it to another location, that it just wouldn’t be the same.
((Ben Spears, Tour Guide, Jack Daniel’s Distillery))
So, Jack heard two things. Well, three things really. Number one, iron free. If you have iron, it’s going to ruin color and flavor. So, iron’s going to mess with the production process. This is limestone, and limestone rock is a natural filter of iron. So, as the water goes down through the limestone, it’s going to be naturally iron free. It’s going to have things like calcium and magnesium, which are good for making whiskey, but it’s also very chilly, as you can feel. And something what you need when you make whiskey is a cold water source for cooling certain things during the process. So, this is 56* Fahrenheit (13* G) all year round.
((Jeff Arnett, Master Distiller, Jack Daniel’s Distillery))
When people think of Tennessee whiskey, they largely think of Jack Daniel’s. But if we go back in our history, prior to the turn of the century, back into the 1800s, the true distinction of Tennessee whiskey has always been that they were
((Courtesy: Jack Daniel’s))
charcoal mellowed somehow. And that largely was created in this area and called the Lincoln County process.
((NATS))
((Ben Spears, Tour Guide, Jack Daniel’s Distillery))
It’s actually still smoking a little bit, but it’s not hot, it’s just kind of warm. What this is in the world of science really, is activated carbon, which is an odorless natural filtration system. So, from top to bottom, it’s going to take the whiskey about four to six days to travel through the charcoal. It’s going to filter out those things we don’t want and don’t need and then the whiskey’s going to go into a barrel. So, that charcoal is just a giant filtration system, about four to six days, about a gallon of whiskey a minute, across about 72 vats at the same time.
((Jeff Arnett, Master Distiller, Jack Daniel’s Distillery))
So, we taste our whiskey, both before and after charcoal mellowing. But then, after charcoal mellowing, days later, we’ll also taste it again. Then years later in the process, after it comes out of the barrel, there’s also, sort of, a final tasting.
((Courtesy: Jack Daniel’s))
And that’s when we’re confirming character for our different brands, for single barrel, for our Old No. 7 Tennessee whiskey, and for Gentleman Jack, and each one has distinct characteristics that we’re looking for. So, tasting is definitely a big part of what we have to do here, take notes on it and then move to the next sample.
((Ben Spears, Tour Guide, Jack Daniel’s Distillery))
So, what we do is we call it maturation. We mature the whiskey. It doesn’t sit in there for a certain time. It sits in there until it’s ready. So, we do everything to taste. We’ll go in there at four years. We’ll taste the whiskey. We’ll see if it looks right, if it tastes right, if it smells right, and then we’ll judge, is it ready or not. So, there is an average to it. It’s about a five to seven year average.
((Jeff Arnett, Master Distiller, Jack Daniel’s Distillery))
We truly want to be a friend to everyone and we think that our whiskey helps us to make friends all around the world. That, if they know nothing else about Tennessee, they can open up a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and get a sense of who we are as a group of people.
