When you sell more than 50 million bottles of your flagship product, as Jack Daniel’s did with its Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey last year, sometimes you need to try something new every now and again just to keep things interesting. Master distiller Chris Fletcher and his team in Lynchburg continue to innovate with smaller special releases, and two recent products are fun additions to the product line.
The first is Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series Selection #15, a high-proof Sweet Mash Tennessee Whiskey that is available only in Tennessee. What’s unusual about this specific product is that 99-plus percent of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey is made using a sour mash process, in which distillers take a portion of the spent grain mash (called “backset”) from a distilling run and add it to the next batch of fresh grain before fermentation begins. The acidity of the grain that has already released its sugars helps lower the pH of the new mash to ideal fermentation levels. It also helps to provide consistency of taste from run to run.
Mainly, it’s just tradition — how distillers have done it for generations at Jack Daniel’s and other producers. And a monster production facility — like Jack's, with its multiple stills — prefers to run everything the same way every day.
Except when it doesn’t. Most people think the stills at Jack Daniel’s run 24/7/365. But they actually shut down for about a month every summer. Why? Operators need to do planned maintenance, like when they replaced the entire #3 still this summer after 16 years of service. Mainly, they shut down because it’s just too damn hot in the holler to work in a steamy distillery environment and maintain process and temperature control.
That means the first whiskey after the shutdown cannot be a sour mash, because they have no spent mash to add to it. That’s the inspiration behind Distillery Series Selection #15, which is literally the first run after vacation.
Made with the same grain recipe as old No. 7 — 80 percent corn, 12 percent malted barley and 8 percent rye — #15 was honored by separating the barrels from the rest of the Tennessee Whiskey made afterward and stored for nine years in the top floors of Jack Daniel’s warehouses in Tract 2. The extra time and premium warehousing position created a rich whiskey with deep, dark fruit flavors and butterscotch caramel notes. To help feature the nuance from the sweet mash and the extra aging, Jack bottled it at a hefty 117 proof. It’s a novelty worth seeking out in 375-milliliter bottles for an MSRP of $44.99. You won’t find it again until next fall, if then.
The second new release from Jack Daniel’s is even more exciting. It’s their annual Single Barrel Special Release, and this year the bottles feature a rye whiskey aged in a revered piece of Lynchburg land. Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Special Release Tanyard Hill Rye is a mouthful to say, and a mouthful to enjoy.
First, if you want to sound like a native Lynchburger, pronounce it “tan-YARD.” not “TAN-yurd.” Tanyard Hill is next to Coy Hill, just southeast of the distillery and visitor center. Traditionally, this is where some of the best and highest-proof whiskey comes from.
The new product was made using the standard 70 percent rye, 18 percent corn and 12 percent malted barley mash bill recipe of Jack Daniel’s other rye products, and the whiskey did run through charcoal mellowing like Tennessee Whiskey. However, since it didn’t have as high of a corn content, the rye only spent a third as much time passing through the charcoal since it didn’t have as much corn oil to strip out.
All the whiskey in the Single Barrel Special Release Tanyard Hill Rye release was distilled in October 2015 and entered the warehouse the next month. The result is a big, bold 10-year-old rye that picked up a bunch of proof during its oaky repose on Tanyard Hill. Around 150 barrels were used, and each came out with a unique proof level — so bottles are hand-labeled to indicate the exact ABV between 65.1 percent and 74.4 percent.
The bottle I sampled was a robust 145.9 proof, but it drank much smoother than that. You should be very careful not to bury your nose in the glass lest you singe your nostril hairs, but with a few drops of water and a gentle sniff, aromas of sweet cinnamon and dark chocolate reveal themselves.
Rather than the expected tropical fruit notes that Jack Daniel’s yeast strain usually imparts, this rye was more black cherry. Someone on the tasting Zoom call I attended mentioned a Cherry Coke, and suddenly a lot of heads began to nod in agreement. That was a great descriptor.
At such a high proof and such a long time in oak, I would have expected a more tannic finish, but it remained sweet and balanced until the smoke and char of the barrel finally faded away to the edge of the tongue. If you’ve never been lucky enough to visit a spirits warehouse to “thieve” whiskey directly from a barrel, this single-barrel, uncut rye is about as close as you can get.
And it’s spectacular! You should be able to find 700-milliliter bottles on local store shelves in roughly $80 range, but remember to check the bottle as proof values will vary greatly. Cheers!
