Jack Daniel’s flips familiar profile with move into rye
Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey is like a movie you’ve watched dozens of times, a wellworn hoodie you’ve been throwing on during cool weekend days for a decade, like an old friend you’ve known since college.
Its flavor, full of caramel, vanilla and banana bread notes, is instantly familiar. That’s a reflection of two key elements: charcoal mellowing and a mash bill that’s 80 percent corn, 12 percent malted barley and just 8 percent rye.
While rye is present in the mash bill, it’s subdued, particularly in comparison with similar mainstream bourbons. (Since 2013, Tennessee whiskey has been defined by Tennessee state law as a bourbon produced using what’s known as the Lincoln County Process that filters bourbon through, or steeps it in, charcoal chips before the spirit goes into casks for aging.)
Rye has never been a significant part of the Jack Daniel’s flavor profile, which is what makes the distillery’s major push into the category with Tennessee Rye so interesting. The whiskey, which is a new permanent addition to the distillery’s lineup, comes seven years after Jack Daniel’s first distilled its rye mash bill. That mash bill — 70 percent rye, 18 percent corn and 12 percent malted barley — is the first by Jack Daniel’s to differ from Old No. 7 since Prohibition.
“We practically flipped the mash bill on end,” says Jeff Arnett, Jack Daniel’s master distiller.
Before the permanent release was ready, the distillery released several one-off bottlings featuring that mash bill, including Unaged Rye in 2012, Rested Rye in 2014 and Single Barrel Rye in 2016.
Tennessee Rye is clearly a rye, and yet, despite the very different mash bill from Old No. 7, it tastes remarkably familiar. Like Old No. 7, Tennessee Rye is extremely smooth, with the Jack Daniel’s trademark vanilla and caramel flavors. But unlike Old No. 7, those sweet elements are counterbalanced against relatively mild peppery spice notes.
It’s a testament to rye’s rapid growth that Jack Daniel’s first began distilling rye in 2010.
“We saw that there was more rye coming into the marketplace,” Arnett says. With a hunch that more consumers would soon be drinking rye on its own and in cocktails like an Old-Fashioned or Manhattan, Jack Daniel’s wanted to offer them the option to “stay loyal to Jack,” he says.
Tennessee Rye does just that. Like Old No. 7, Tennessee Rye isn’t a challenging, complex whiskey for connoisseurs, but that’s OK. It’s an instantly familiar whiskey that’s tasty on its own or in a cocktail.
Zak Stambor is a freelance writer.