Jack Daniels Whiskey

We left the Natchez Trace on Sunday morning and drove to Lynchburg, TN, home of the Jack Daniels Distillery then on to Tim’s Ford Lake and State Park.  We drove down some of the narrowest and curviest roads we have ever been on to arrive at the State Park, only to find that we have reservations in another campground that is another 9 miles down the road!  This state park is divided into two locations and we plugged the wrong location into the GPS.

After all the hiking and biking we have done this past week, we have been really lazy and not done much of anything for two days!  The Fairview Campground is closer to Winchester and is right on Tim’s Ford Lake. It is fairly empty during the week but completely full on the weekends so by Friday, we will have to find a new place to stay.  

Even though we arrived at the Jack Daniels Distillery shortly after it opened we were still in the 2nd tour of the morning.  Moore County is a dry county, one cannot buy any kind of liquor in any store and there are no bars in this county, and yet the largest whiskey producer in the world is right in the middle of it in Lynchburg, TN. Jack Daniels owns 88 barrel houses with each house holding anywhere from 1 to 3 million gallons of whiskey.

Jack Daniels, Jasper ‘Jack’ Newton Daniels, was the youngest of 10 kids born in 1850.  At the age of 7 he asked to leave home and moved in with a Lutheran minister and his new wife.  This minister distilled whisky, taught Jack how to do it and sold the recipe and business to him in 1866 when he was 16 years old. The secret to his whiskey is the spring water found on his property. 

We toured the production areas, seeing the mash, the barrels and one line of the bottling process.  Whiskey, and bourbon, is made from 80% corn, barley and rye.  Other than spring water, the other process Jack Daniels uses that nobody else does is to filter the alcohol through 10 feet of charcoal over 4 days to remove all impurities from the liquid.  The charcoal (made on the property) and the barrels are made from sweet maple wood.  The barrels are charred on the inside before adding the whiskey.  It is then stored in the barrel houses for 3-10 years. 70% of the whisky's flavor and its color comes from the barrel.

Jack Daniel’s died at the age of 61 due to a broken toe. Well, not directly.  One morning he couldn’t remember the combination to his safe and in frustration, he kicked the safe and broke his toe.  It got infected and had to be amputated, then the foot got infected and had to be amputated and then the leg and then he died.

At the end of the tour we sampled five of their products - Gentleman Jack, Black Label No. 7, Single Barrel, Honey, and Fire.  The last two are considered liqueurs.  

We had lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House.  A family style meal of fried chicken, meat loaf, mac and cheese, and whiskey flavored baked apples followed by fudge pie with whiskey flavored whipped cream.  They say you can’t drink the whiskey in this county but you can serve it up on a plate!