With over 150 years of history, the Jack Daniel’s brand and distillery was established by founder Jasper Newton ‘Jack’ Daniel in Moore County, TN in 1886. The youngest child of 10, Jack ran away from home as a young child and found refuge with Baptist preacher and distiller Dan Call. Under the supervision of Call and his Master Distiller, Nathan “Nearest” Green (an enslaved African-American man who continued to work with Call after emancipation) Jack was taught the distilling trade. After facing pressure from his clergy, Call eventually left the distilling operation and so Jack purchased the hollow and land where the modern-day distillery is now located, registered the distillery under his name, and continued operations with Green as his first Master Distiller. The No. 7 distillery quickly gained a strong reputation for the quality of its whiskey and even won its first gold medal for its whiskey at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. In subsequent decades, however, numerous setbacks to the distillery operation, including the cessation of distillation due to state and National Prohibition, saw the distillery shuttered for many years. Then under the ownership of Jack’s nephew Lem Motlow, the distillery wasn’t fully reopened until after the second world war in 1947 after good-quality corn was once again available. Following Motlow’s death in the same year, his sons continued to run the business until eventually selling the operation to the Brown Forman Corporation in 1956.
Under Brown-Forman’s leadership and guidance, Jack Daniel’s whiskey and brand flourished. In the decades that followed the sale of the brand, the distillery returned to and surpassed its pre-prohibition strength and the brand underwent the transformation from a little-known regional whiskey to an American icon as synonymous with the rock and roll movement of the 60’s and 70’s. Moving into the 80’s and 90’s the brand entered an age of innovation with products like Gentleman Jack, and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel added to the portfolio as well as the setup of the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue® competition.
In modern times, the Jack Daniel’s brand has continued to prosper and in 2018 was ranked the most valuable global spirit brand. Further brand extensions now cover 16 different labels and include a full range of rye whiskies, several flavoured whiskies, several limited edition bottlings such as their Sinatra Select, a range of ready-to-drink offerings, and numerous distillery-only releases under their Tennessee Tasters. The distillery itself is still located in and around a hollow known as “Stillhouse Hollow” or “Jack Daniel’s Hollow”, where a spring flows from a cave at the base of a limestone cliff and provides the water used in creating every drop of whiskey. The distillery produces around 16 million cases of whiskey every year and in 2013 Brown Forman announced that they were investing $100 million dollars in an expansion of the Jack Daniel Distillery in response to global demand. The investment included the addition of stills, barrel warehouses, and related infrastructure to support the expanding operations and at present Jack Daniel’s have 89 barrel houses in Lynchburg, with each aging approximately 20,000 barrels of whiskey.
Announced in May of last year, Jack Daniel’s Bonded and Jack Daniel’s Triple Mash were Jack Daniel’s first super-premium line extensions in 25 years. As permanent additions to the existing portfolio, they were also the first releases under the new Bonded Series, which, according to Jack Daniel’s, “honors the whiskey-making excellence of the iconic Jack Daniel Distillery…” and will feature some exciting new whiskey styles from the distillery.
Today we’ll be looking at Jack Daniel’s Triple Mash expression. As the name suggests, this features a blend of 3 Jack Daniel’s mashbills with the addition of being Bottled-in-Bond. As with all ‘Bonded’ whiskies, this means that (as stipulated by the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897), the whiskey must have been distilled by a single distiller during a single season, matured in a government bonded warehouse for at least four years and bottled at 100 proof. This law was introduced in the late 1870s when the whiskey market was heavily unregulated. On one hand, you had straight whiskey producers making whiskies from grains: distilling, barrelling, ageing them for the required 2 years or longer, bottling once mature, and hoping to sell them to make an honest living. On the other side, you had many dishonest rectifiers who bought their distillate from unknown sources, aged it for questionable amounts of time, frequently blended it with whiskey from several distilleries, added stuff such as tobacco spit, iodine, colouring, and sometimes poisonous additives, then sold these heavily adulterated whiskies with false claims of age and quality for a good deal cheaper than the straight whiskey distillers. Despite a number of rectifiers selling honest quality whiskey, many flooded the market with cheap, sometimes poisonous, ‘whiskey’ which damaged the industry by breaking the trust and risking the health of consumers all whilst putting honest distillers out of business. The end result was the Bottled in Bond Act which ironically was also the first piece of consumer protection legislation in the US.
To create Triple Mash Jack Daniel’s created a blend consisting of 60% straight rye whiskey, 20% American malt whiskey, and 20% Tennessee whiskey. Each component was Bonded and followed all the legal requirements to make the final blend a Bottled-in-Bond whiskey. I have to admit this is the first time I’ve ever had a Bonded whiskey that is made from multiple whisky styles but given the size of their operation, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack Daniel’s was the first to release something like this.
How exactly does this translate into what’s in the glass? Let’s find out!
Vital Stats:
Name: Jack Daniel’s Triple Mash
Age: NAS (at least 4 years old)
Proof: 100 Proof (50% ABV)
Type: Straight blend of Bottled-in-Bond whiskies
Mashbill: Blend consisting of 60% straight rye whiskey (70% rye, 18% corn, 12% malted barley), 20% American malt whiskey (100% malted barley), and 20% Tennessee whiskey (80% corn, 8% rye, and 12% malted barley).
Producer: Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, TN
Website:https://www.jackdaniels.com/
Glassware: Glencairn
Review
Nose: The nose opens with an enticing blend of sweet caramel and black cherries, followed quickly by rich toasted oak, fragrant vanilla, and sweet malted cereal notes. As you nose deeper, it continues to develop, revealing layers of earthy baking spices, faint milk chocolate, and a touch of smokey barrel char whilst the fruit and malt notes also continue to intensify.
Palate: The palate opens with milk chocolate, caramel, fresh black cherries, and thick vanilla notes followed by warm toasted oak, dark baking spices, sweet cereal malt, earthy rye spice, and a touch of tart cranberries. As you chew, the caramel, fruits, toasted oak, and barrel notes continue to develop and build on the palate, revealing complex flavours as they’re swirled around the palate and warmed by the spice.
Finish: The finish opens with lingering cherry sweetness and warm toasted oak spice. This is followed by chocolate, caramel, vanilla and baking spices leading into a fruit-driven aftertaste with cherries, and baking and oak spices lingering around the edges.
Overall
First thing first, this whiskey is delicious. It’s sweet, fruity, and spicy, whilst delivering a unique Jack Daniel’s experience that is approachable, yet complex, and well-balanced. Despite everything that could have gone wrong with blending 3 different styles of whiskey, it transitions seamlessly between its constituent parts without the wheels coming off. The secret to this success I think was using a base of 60% rye, which scaffolds the overall experience as the rye’s fruity spice provides the perfect opportunity for earthy toasted oak and sweet malt notes to fill the gaps in the flavour profile. As a result, you get a whiskey that’s very easy to enjoy both neat or in a cocktail where a more full-bodied base spirit is called for.
Jack Daniel’s deserves all due praise for producing another excellent whiskey. So far their Bonded Series has opened with two fantastic permanent additions and it’s great to have whiskies which bring something unique to the table instead of being the same base whiskey wearing a different hat. I had also never heard of a Bonded whiskey that was a blend of multiple Bonded styles before, but Triple Mash fills the brief without sacrificing a drop of its JD character and shows the extent Jack Daniel’s will go to produce something unique and delicious. For JD fans, this whiskey isn’t your daddy’s Uncle Jack, which after a few too many is liable to convince you that texting your ex would be a swell idea. Instead, this whiskey is your well-travelled Uncle Jack who, similarly to Troy Hawke, wears a silk smoking jacket, leaves a warm impression, and is always ready to regale you with a tale of one of his many adventures.
Under the leadership of Master Distiller Chris Fletcher and Assistant Distiller Lexie Phillips, the Distillery has continued in the right direction and is destined for new and exciting pastures. As a Jack Daniel’s fan, I can’t wait to see what they come up with next, and perhaps we’ll get to see a higher-proof release of the Triple Mash blend in the future, as I’m sure it sings at barrel-proof.
Try or Buy?
The pros of buying this whiskey is it’s priced well (RRP of ~$30/~£40), it’s bottled at a great proof, it’s very approachable and easy to drink, it gives existing fans something unique to try, and it looks great in the old-style embossed bottle. There are no cons – go buy it.
Before you go…
Before you go…
Before you go…
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