Lem Motlow,  Proprietor, Lynchburg, Tennessee

    Established in the 1830's and registered by Jack Daniel in 1866, the Jack  Daniel Distillery is the oldest registered distillery in the United States.    In 1956, the Jack Daniel Distillery was purchased by Brown-Forman Corporation of Louisville, KY.  Brown-Forman, founded in 1870, is a diversified producer and marketer of fine quality consumer products.

The Jack Daniel Distillery is located 70 miles southeast of Nashville in Lynchburg (Pop. 361), Tenn.   Take I-24 east to Route 55 (exit 111).  Take Route 55 through Tullahoma to Lynchburg.  Or, from I-65, take US 64 through Fayetteville to Lynchburg and Route 55 through Lynchburg to the distillery. Jack Daniel's is not a bourbon.   While it has some of the same characteristics as bourbon, it falls in a distinctive product classification called Tennessee Whiskey.  Like bourbon, however, it's strictly a product of the United States...and more specifically, the hills of Tennessee.

    The production of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey begins with the careful selection of the finest corn, rye and barley malt.  These choice grains are mixed with the water from our cave spring to form a fermentable mixture called "mash."  Jack Daniel's is made by the old "sour mash process."  Of course, there is nothing really "sour" about Sour Mash Whiskey.  We call it sour mash because our distiller uses part of the previous day's mash to start the fermentation in each new batch.  Therefore, all of the mash is "related."  The end result of the fermentation process is "stiller's beer," which is sent on to the still for distillation.

    If Jack Daniel's were to be placed in a barrel and aged immediately after distillation,  it would be a bourbon.  However, that is not the case.  Our whiskey is trickled very slowly  through 10 feet of hard maple charcoal, right after distillation.  It's this extra step in the whiskey-making process that makes Jack Daniel's more than a bourbon...and provides the special character known only to Tennessee Whiskey.  This mellowing process is accomplished by the use of hard maple charcoal that we produce in a very special and traditional way. In the fall of the year, when the sap is down, we cut hard maple trees from high ground.  The logs are aged for a year, sawed into slats and carefully stacked into ricks.  The ricks are burned in the open air to produce a pure charcoal, which is ground up and tightly packed in the mellowing vats.

    Following the charcoal-mellowing process, Jack Daniel's is placed into charred white oak barrels for storage and aging in our warehouses.  As the whiskey ages, the extreme temperature changes of the passing seasons cause the whiskey to expand and contract, driving the whiskey deeper into and out of the wood of the barrel each year.  Hot summers age whiskey faster than cool ones.  At Jack Daniel's we have found the optimum aging to be between four and six years.  Maturity, therefore, is a matter of judgment...taste & judgment...and not a matter of counting days, months or even years.                         http://www.jackdaniels.com