- Joined
- Apr 13, 2004
- Messages
- 16,982
Lots of half-understood old wive's tales and outright bullshit floating around here.
JD is definitely not whisky, because that's the traditional Scottish spelling... and JD is NOT Scotch whisky. Nor is any other bourbon.
True Scotch is never made with any American corn/maize; bourbon is always made with at least 51% American corn, usually a much higher percentage.
That's the whole point... when scots/irish settlers came to what we now call Appalachia and the Middle South, they brought their highly-developed skills and technology with them, but found very little barley (or peat, for that matter). So they used plentiful, easy-to-grow and ferment/distill maize to make their liquor, instead.
Is JD bourbon? Yes. Actual laws and trademark rules require anything labeled "bourbon" to be made from at least 51% corn, among other very specific guidelines. Jack Daniel's fits within all of those guidelines, so yes, they could call it bourbon without telling a single lie.
JD is very much a "Tennessee whiskey", and there are even stricter laws and rules for that. Mostly involving charcoal-filtering, and aging requirements, as well as the grains used in the mash and other techniques.
So the upshot is, Yes all Tennessee whiskey is (technically) bourbon. But not every bourbon is Tennessee whiskey.
Untrue. First of all, Bourbon County is in KY, not TN. More importantly, there is no legal or even cultural "rule" that bourbon must be made in Bourbon County.
I'm not arguing with you James, but it's definitely all confusing, and even the "experts" don't always agree. For example, George Dickel's website disagrees with you, stating that TN Whiskey is NOT Bourbon. See the first FAQ here. The text says,
"First of all, Tennessee whisky isn't a bourbon. It's a separate category of whisky, differing mostly in the extra steps taken after distilling. One of these steps is charcoal mellowing, a process in which whisky is slowly seeped through vats packed with charcoal. Tennessee whisky distillers make their charcoal from aged, hard sugar maple trees, and we still fire ours the old-fashioned way: in the open air."
Also, interestingly, they use the old Scottish spelling of Whisky without the "e" due to George's belief that his product was of equal or greater quality:
"Born 40 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, George A. Dickel was an established Nashville merchant. In 1867, he visited Tullahoma with his wife, Augusta. Three years later, Cascade Hollow would be home to the Dickel Distillery. Declaring his whisky of equal quality to the finest scotch, George Dickel followed in the Scottish tradition of spelling whisky without an "e."
So, there's that. :shrug:
The first couple times I went on my own, but then I've been with co-workers who haven't seen it many times since. I've spent a fair amount of time in the nearby area at AEDC for work over the years.
The first two barrels were only sold on-site, and buyers could sign the barrels if they chose to (I did).
I only missed getting a bottle from the first barrel by a couple weeks, but that's the way it goes. If memory serves, they were selling for about $90 each. I opened this one, and enjoy a bit every now and then. 
