Jack Daniel's master distiller Chris Fletcher with his newest product
Considering how much whiskey nerds obsess over the age of the bourbon in their bottles, it’s pretty amazing that the bestselling American whiskey, Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, has not had an age statement of any sort on their bottles since 1953. Rather than bragging about how long their whiskey has been lying in oaken repose in one of their dozens of rickhouses around the county, Jack Daniel’s has maintained the flexibility to draw different vintages of whiskeys together to create the most consistent product possible. The company takes great pride in the fact that a snifter poured in Tokyo should taste virtually identical to one in a Lower Broad bar. If that means blending a 12-year-old barrel or two in the mix with a bunch of younger whiskey to contribute a particular desired attribute to the final product, they’re not afraid to do it.
So that’s why it’s a pretty big deal that Jack Daniel’s has announced a brand-new old whiskey with its Jack Daniel’s 10-Year-Old Tennessee Whiskey. There’s nothing different about the mash bill or distillation process of this new product compared to your everyday Jack Black, but master distiller Chris Fletcher has specifically chosen a batch of barrels from a decade ago to create this new product.
Unlike single-barrel programs where aficionados can select a specific barrel to bottle in one run, Jack Daniel’s 10-Year-Old is made by blending a batch of barrels. The only difference from the flagship product is that these batches are smaller — maybe a couple hundred barrels — and only contain this older juice. It’s also bottled at 97 proof, a first for the company.
Fletcher says this product has been a long time coming. “We couldn’t have done this 50 years ago," he says. "We didn’t have enough whiskey to let it age this long. This is the result of decades of investments in our capacity expansions and the long-term vision of the Browns.” (The Browns are the family behind Brown-Forman, the owners of Jack Daniel’s Distillery.)
In the distant past, Jack Daniel’s actually released all sorts of older versions of No. 7, ranging from 10 to 21 years old, but this new product has been a labor of love for a while. “This is meant to honor what Jack did,” shares Fletcher. “Something like this hasn’t happened since Jack was still alive!”
Ten years ago, Fletcher and his team specially selected a quantity of barrels for this planned project and moved them all to the top floors of rickhouses so that they could “sear” the whiskey in the charred oak of the barrel staves. The hot Lynchburg summers and cold winters tidally pushed and pulled the spirits in and out of the oak. Then, three years ago, those same barrels were intentionally moved to the bottom floors to “simmer” the whiskey for the rest of its time in oak.
While Jack Daniel’s 10-Year-Old Tennessee Whiskey won’t be available in the market until Sept. 1, I was fortunate to join a group of spirits writers on a visit to the distillery last month for a preview. We were there a week before the new product was actually blended and bottled, but we did get to sample some of the whiskey from the lot of barrels that will be part of the new release.
Compared to traditional No. 7, the older product exhibited more of a raisin and dried-fig aroma than the usual banana note that characterizes their flagship. The aged whiskey maintains the sweet-forward attack on the tongue with a lovely cooked-caramel flavor. The group also noted a very interesting herbal, almost menthol, character along the edges of the palate. I’ve noted that in some older Weller single barrels before, but never from a Tennessee whiskey, and it was quite remarkable. (Which is why I’m remarking on it.)
The finish did exhibit a little bit of the astringency that a decade-plus in a barrel often imparts to older whiskey, but it was just subtly tannic and not at all unpleasant. Some old bourbons can taste like a puddle of wet leaves smells like to me, and I’m not a fan of those.
The new label design is referential and reverential to Old No. 7, but with a hand-drawn version of the cartouche mark that appeared on bottles more than a century ago. While the square bottle is similar to the Jack you know and love, the striking gold ink will make it unmistakable on the shelf.
It’s almost certain that collectors will snatch up a large proportion of this newest release, especially at a retail price of $70 a bottle. But Fletcher promises this is not just a one-off program. “We’ve got an every-year release plan,” he promises. “We believe in innovation, so we’re going to keep pushing age and new grains. We want to create the most diverse portfolio of whiskeys in the industry.”
Fletcher won’t say how old he’ll let his whiskey go. “It’s not about chasing a number,” he avers. “It’s about innovation across the company.” With this latest innovation, Jack Daniel’s again proves that its future depends heavily on what they’ve done in the past — more a century ago when Jack Daniel was still running the operation, and a decade ago when they made this bold move to spin off an intriguing new product.
