On occasion, Joe Canal’s staff members are able to go on trips to meet the producers of
the items we sell. Whether we travel to the great wine regions, or any other location, the
trips are educational, great for team-building, and, of course, they’re fun.
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Kentucky and Tennessee, to see how American
whiskey was made. This trip also included Dave Carver, Director of Purchasing for our
corporate parent, Birchfield Ventures. This is the second and concluding part of my
travelogue.
Given that we were traveling in the South in the spring, weather can always be iffy. And
the weather did impact our visits on the second day of our trip, as it moved from overcast
to light rain to afternoon thunderstorms.
Our first stop on the second day of our distillery tour was Jim Beam, in Clermont, KY.
As the world’s largest producer of bourbon, Jim Beam does have its fair share of visitors.
On our visit, we ended up as part of a general tour, and we were driven around the site
in a mini bus. Those large, black structures you see throughout the Clermont area are the rickhouses, where Jim Beam’s bourbons age gracefully.
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| In a Jim Beam barrel warehouse, looking up. |
The tasting room at Jim Beam was as sophisticated as the rest of the tour. Due to local
laws, we were limited to two pours, each measuring a half-ounce. You can choose from
the entire Jim Beam portfolio, and the tasting portions are served from an automatic
dispensing device. Personally, I chose to sample Basil Hayden (90 proof, with caramel
and vanilla notes) and Booker’s (about 125 proof, a massive profile of fruit, tannins,
caramel, maple sugar and hints of tobacco, with a very long finish). And then, all too
quickly, we were on our way to the next stop.
Because of the distance to Woodford Reserve, in Versailles, KY, we grabbed a fast
food lunch on the way. Woodford Reserve is the oldest and smallest working bourbon
distillery, and they usually feature a special 1 liter Kentucky Derby release each year.
Unfortunately for us, here’s where the weather really turned against us. The severe
thunderstorms and lightning strikes kept us at the Visitor’s Center until their scheduled
closing time. Something about lightning not mixing well with alcohol vapor and copper
stills. We did get to sample the bourbon and tour the gift shop, so the trip wasn’t a
complete loss.
We moved on to our next hotel, in Tullahoma, TN, in advance of our next day’s visit to
Jack Daniel’s. Tullahoma looks like most any small suburb, with an assortment of strip
malls and other commercial properties. After a decent meal at a Mexican restaurant, we
called it a night.
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| Dave Carver (L) and Steve Wernick (R) at Jack Daniel's. |
Like the other distilleries we visited, Jack Daniel’s was in a pretty remote area.
Lynchburg is famously located in a “dry” county, but we were able to sample a few
products at the end of our tour. Once again, our tour group included non-industry people,
so we were taken through in a very efficient manner.
Of course, some of what we learned was about the backstory, not necessarily the
whiskey. We got to see the water source, spilling right behind a life-size (and he wasn’t
tall) statue of Jack Daniel himself. We learned that there is no “official” explanation for
the Number 7 designation on the Black label. And we also learned that Jack Daniel died
from complications that arose from having broken his toe when kicking a safe.
Early in the tour, we visited the Rickyard, where the Jack Daniel’s team burns wood
to make the charcoal that they use to filter their whiskey. We missed out on any
roaring fires, and the crew members were hosing down the embers. Even in the hills of
Tennessee, environmental protection is important, as the air scrubbers above the charcoal pit was a prominent point of the tour guide.
Later in the tour, we saw the charcoal in action. Jack Daniel’s filters their whiskey
through 10 feet of charcoal, replacing the charcoal every few months. Their whiskey
starts as a bourbon, but the filtering turns it into the hugely popular Tennessee whiskey.
We also learned that Gentleman Jack is then filtered through an additional two feet of
charcoal.
The key to any whiskey gaining flavor from the aging process is the expansion and
contraction of the oak barrels in heat and cold. Warmer temperatures allow the whiskey
to be absorbed into the oak, and the cooler temperatures expel the whiskey. The location
of the barrels within a warehouse will influence this process, as higher floors experience
more of the desirable temperature variances. For Jack Daniel’s, this variation makes
the difference between their Black and Green label whiskeys. They are aged for about
the same amount of time, but the Black label whiskeys have been exposed to a greater
temperature range, providing them with more flavor.
Our distillery visit wrapped with a tasting in an old office, like it was a big secret. It’s
a dry county, so maybe it was. Our tasting menu included Jack Daniel’s Black label,
Gentleman Jack, Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel (side note: Joe Canal’s has participated
in the Jack Daniel’s Barrel Program, where our representatives select a barrel from the
warehouse, to be bottled with a special designation. You may have seen these bottles
for sale in our stores, and the distillery devotes a room to those who participate in the
program), and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey. The kicker was the addition of two
products that are not available for purchase: samples from before and after the Charcoal
Mellowing.
After our distillery tour, we visited the very little town of Lynchburg. The downtown
is an old-fashioned town square, with the municipal building in the center and a variety
of businesses, many selling official Jack Daniel’s merchandise, ringing the square. Our
Lawrenceville store just started carrying one of the food items we saw there, the Jack
Daniel’s Whiskey Praline Pecans. They’re an amazing snack, and a great addition to
salads.
We were treated to lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House Restaurant. Like the
name suggests, this place of Southern dining is located in a former boarding house. There are assigned seatings, and our dining room was in a former bedroom. We were seated with about 10 other people, and the room included a hostess who facilitated conversation and explained the food to Yankees like us.
Fried catfish, fried okra, fried turnip greens, spare ribs in a mustard sauce, some kind of
cheese/rice combo, biscuits, and (my favorite part of lunch) Jack Daniel’s apples. The
ribs were in a mustard-based sauce, and the creator happened to be at Miss Mary Bobo’s that day, to answer questions and sign bottles.
Tired and full, we still had a few more miles to go, as we were flying home from
Nashville. It was a great trip, and I’m glad to be able to share what I’ve learned with our
staff and our customers.
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