Tennessee Whiskey is made in Tennessee. We know that to be true.
But there’s a slew of classifications that need to be met before a brand can print “Tennessee Whiskey” on its label. It’s more scientific than one would think, and it even affects the complexity of a cocktail.
So what is it?
We asked Jack Daniel’s Brand Ambassador Jake Sherbrooke for a little lesson on Tennessee Whiskey and some insight into one of the category’s most respected names.
How do you explain to consumers what Tennessee-style whiskey is?
So, it is the same as bourbon and the reason I like to emphasize that because some people don’t want to try Jack. They're like, "Oh, it's not a bourbon,” but it is bourbon.
There are specific laws or rules you must follow for a spirit to be called a bourbon or if you wanted to open up a distillery and be able to put the word “bourbon” on your label. You have to be distilled under 160 proof and when you're putting the whiskey into those newly charred oak barrels, it has to be above 125 proof.
It has to be entered into a newly charred oak barrel. It doesn’t necessarily have to be American oak, although that is the usual, but just oak in general. It could be French oak or anything like that, just as long as it's new. You can't reuse the barrel and it must be 51% corn.
Then it has to be bottled at no less than 80 proof. That's sort of the high standard for bourbon and what makes bourbon so desirable. And it has to be made in the United States. 95% of the world's bourbon is made in Kentucky, but you can make bourbon anywhere as long as it's in the U.S.
Tennessee whiskey hits all those points. We do make bourbon at the distillery until we add one more step, which is the charcoal mellowing process or, I guess back in the day when Jack was doing it, it was called the Lincoln County Process.
How does the Lincoln County Process work?
It usually takes about two to three days. A bourbon maker would pull the whiskey out of the still and immediately put it into a charred barrel. We take that extra two to three days to filter it because it is drop by drop.
If you've seen like a Brita filter and you sit there for 20 minutes waiting for your pitcher to fill halfway up because it's dripping through the filter, it's essentially the same thing. We have these copper pipes lined above the charcoal vats and we send it through drip by drip. We change the charcoal around every six months. Some people have accused it as being a shortcut.
Jack Daniels is only four to seven years in a barrel and some of these companies that have 12 to 15, even 20-year bourbons. The barrel, although it's adding flavor and color, is also a filtering process. The extraction and penetration in the wood is actually filtering the whiskey.
Our masters still like to say, "A shortcut is something that saves time and money." The charcoal mellowing process adds two to three days and it’s multi-million dollar process each year. So it isn't really a shortcut. Yes, Jack traditionally did that, but that's what makes us Tennessee whiskey and we love what it does to the flavor profile.
How do you explain Tennessee Whiskey’s flavor profile compared to bourbon or rye whiskey?
One thing that really stands out for me is how smooth it is and we always talk about Tennessee whiskey being smooth. It’s like Chris Stapleton and that song: “smooth as Tennessee Whiskey.”
That’s s a subtractive process. It's pulling out off flavors and negative congeners from the new make whiskey — anything that might give you that burn in the back of your throat or an unpleasant oily feel.When I describe Tennessee whiskey, as opposed to bourbon, it's a little bit less sweet, in my opinion and then also, just a lot smoother. When the finish is smoother, it doesn't really linger in the back of your throat. It hits that center palate, so it's not really stringent up front, not stringent in the back. Some people will try a glass of bourbon and they feel that burn all the way down. Jack or Tennessee whiskey is a lot smoother than that and that's because of the extra process.
For us, Jack Daniel's, and specifically Brown-Forman as a whole, the most important ingredient in whiskey is the barrel.
- Jake Sherbrooke
Could you make the case for Tennessee Whiskeys to get their own section on a spirit menu and what distinction would you give it?
Yes, when I was working it Louisville, there were around 350 bourbons, but there really are not that many Tennessee whiskeys. The handful of Tennessee whiskeys that are around and Jack Daniel’s is the oldest and the first registered distillery in the country. In the case of Tennessee whiskey, I think having something different on your shelf and having the best version of that is really cool.
I’d call it Tennessee Whiskey. In Chicago at least, the restaurants or bars that do take the time to sort out their whiskeys label it as Tennessee Whiskey.
How does it alter a drink or cocktail when used in place of bourbon or rye whiskey?
It does have a very distinctive flavor. I can’t think of the right words but if you were to pour me 10 whiskey and Cokes and I tried all of them, I could pick Jack out of that 10. And I think due to that charcoal mellowing process. For me, Jack has a little bit of a nutty note to it. When you're using it in cocktails, especially something like Gentlemen Jack, which is a double charcoal mellowed whiskey, it doesn't get lost in that cocktail.
The problem with a great bourbon and then mixing it with a bunch of stuff, is you're losing a lot of the flavor nuance they tried so hard to develop. But with Jack, that charcoal mellow finish really stands out in the cocktail and adds a lot to the complexity of it.
What sets Jack Daniel’s apart from other Tennessee Whiskeys?
For us, Jack Daniel’s, and specifically Brown-Forman as a whole, the most important ingredient in whiskey is the barrel. You can have all different types of grains, you can have a charcoal mellowing process but at the end of the day, it's the barrel that does all the talking.
What’s something about Jack Daniel’s whiskey making process that not a lot of people know?
When people smell or taste Jack, they detect banana. That's a really common smell and that is because of our yeast strain. We have our own proprietary yeast strain and we have our own yeast lab on site at the distillery. That's the second most important ingredient for whiskey making — the yeast. If we were to use a different yeast strain but use the same process, it wouldn't taste anything like Jack Daniel’s.