Thursday, October 25, 2012

Lynchburg, Tennessee and Jack Daniel's Distillery

Cornersville, Tennessee - Temperature Today: High 78, Low 43:  Jack Daniel's in Lynchburg, Tennessee is the oldest distillery in the United States. It's sold in over 130 countries.  Having lived many years in middle Tennessee we both had already toured this historic facility (years ago) but had an urge to see it again -- so we did it this week while traveling through the area.
Products of Jack Daniel's  Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee
Gentleman Jack, Old No. 7 Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey and Single Barrel

Our tickets for Tour #14

The Jack Daniel Distillery Tour is a popular tourist attraction for visitors to middle Tennessee -- and today, even though it's mid-October, was no exception. 

We had about an hour wait for our tour, which is free but requires a ticket.


We spent our waiting time looking around inside and outside the visitors center. 

None of this was here when either of us toured long ago.

Outside the Visitor Center
All this is new from our earlier visits here.
Now, I could retype from brochures or "cut and paste" a ton of material about Jack Daniel, the man, and the whiskey he made famous in this little Tennessee town of fewer than 5,000 people.  Instead of doing that, I'm posting a link directly to the company.  Jack Daniels Distillery .  Fair warning... you'll be required to enter your date of birth before entering the site, but it's chocked full of good information about Jack Daniel, his whiskey's history, the town of Lynchburg and this seventh wonder of the modern world.  

Special wood is used to make the charcoal through which the famous concoction is filtered.

The wood is burned just to the point of becoming charcoal.
Too much and it turns to ash... Too little and it doesn't crumble to the consistency that allows proper filtration.
Each piece of charcoal is less than 1" in diameter.

This is the famous cave spring from where the water comes that is used to make Jack Daniel products.  
Our tour guide is the young, slow-talking, bearded guy on the left. His name is Chris and he did a good job.
The tour comes with a fair warning that it takes an hour and a half, is both indoors and out
 (so you'd better dress accordingly) and has more than 100 stairs (up and down). 
You can't take pictures inside the buildings and you can't leave the tour once it's started.  
The three ingredients of Jack Daniels product.  Corn, Barley and Rye.

Jack posing with the Wayner and me.
Jack was, in reality, a mere 5'4" tall and wore a size 4 shoe. 
(The bronze sculptor who created this statue made him a bit taller at about 5'6")

Me and my pal, Jack.
Jack Daniel died at age 61 from gangrene that resulted from an early morning at the office, when he kicked the company safe, injuring his toe.  Infection caused his foot, then lower leg to be amputated. The infection finally took his life.  
The moral of the story: "Don't go to work early"..... 


Inside one of the 50+ buildings that house the barrels of whiskey while it matures.
The buildings are scattered across the county for good reason.  The product is flammable. 
If one building should catch fire, the others would be out of range and could be saved.


Most people who know about Jack Daniel's Distillery know it is made in a dry county -- meaning liquor cannot be purchased here.  I asked Chris about the status of that law these days.  Yes, the county is still dry and alcohol cannot be purchased here.  A state resolution was passed in recent years however, that allows souvenir bottles to be sold at Jack Daniel's Distillery and those souvenir bottles are allowed to have some of the product in them.   Good move.
 
Our stop here was in route to our usual fall destination for football at Auburn University.  We'll be there for a few weeks and hope you'll share the adventure with us.  





1 comment:

  1. Enjoyed your tour. It is quite impressive we thought and it was nice weather when we were there, too. Hope all are well. Good football weather on the way! Me

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