Jack Daniels

Forget all you know about Jack Daniels, whose basic Old No. 7 is the biggest selling American whiskey. In recent years, the Tennessee distillery has released a range of new expressions experimenting with different proofs, barrel selection, and ageing. At a Whiskey Squade meetup we tasted the No. 7 alongside five other offerings, and everyone left impressed. All the whiskies use the same mashbill: 80% corn, 12% barley, and 8% rye, which highlighted the different impacts of the other variables.

In drinking order we tasted:

Old No. 7
Aged for at least 4 years. 40% ABV/80 proof.

Gentleman Jack
Aged for at least 4 years. 40% ABV/80 proof.
Undergoes a second charcoal mellowing - after whiskey is matured in barrel and before bottling.

Bonded
Aged for at least 4 years. 50% ABV/100 proof.
According to the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, Bonded whiskies must be distilled from a single distillery in a single distillation season, aged in a federally bonded warehouse for at least 4 years and bottled at 100 proof.

Single Barrel Select
Aged for at least 4 years. 47% ABV/94 proof.
Specific barrels selected for darker color and bold oak character.

12 Year-Old (Batch 1, March 2023)
Aged for 12 years (duh). 53.5% ABV/107 proof.

Single Barrel, Barrel Proof
Aged for at least 4 years. 64.7% ABV/129.4 proof.
JD's first cask strength whiskey. Aged at top of warehouse. Minimal filtration. No water added.

The winners were the 12-year-old (rare, pricey, but really good), and the single barrel bottlings (both the select and barrel proof versions). I liked the Bonded too. Aside from the 12-year-old, all of these are pretty affordable and widely available, at least in Austin. Good work, Jack.

Fun JD facts:
-The distillery was established in 1866.
-It's located in a 'dry' county, which means the only alcohol you're permitted to buy in the area is a single commemorative bottling direct from the distillery.
-The sour mash method that's mentioned on the bottle is used by pretty much every whiskey producer in the US, and just means that some of the by-products of previous batches (wet solids) are mixed into the next mash to help achieve a more consistent fermentation (like a sourdough starter, perhaps).
-JD calls its spirit Tennessee whiskey rather than bourbon. What's the difference? JD is technically a bourbon as well, but to call itself a Tennessee whiskey the spirit needs to go through a charcoal filtering (a.k.a. Lincoln County) process, which according to JD makes things mellower.