Jack Daniel's always said:
"Every day we do it, we do it to the best of our ability"
With more than 150 years, and under this motto, Jack Daniel's whiskey has an interesting history with a lot of curious facts that you may not know, we will tell you 13 of them.
1| The boy... who owned
Jack was six years old when his mother passed away, leaving Jack and his siblings motherless. His father remarried but Jack did not get along with his stepmother and he went to live with his uncle.
He became friends with Dan Call, a local Lutheran minister who ran a grocery store. Dan took him under his wing and employed Jack as an apprentice in his shop. The business had a small distillery that was run by a slave who also served as a helper, named Nathan "Nearis" Green. It was this slave, as revealed by the Jack Daniel's Company itself in 2016, who taught him how to distill and make whiskey. Jack would later hire Nearis's son as the manager of the still.
In 1863, Reverend Call's wife made him choose between his ministry or his whiskey business. Convinced of the evils of alcohol, Call sold his apprentice the distillery business thus making a 13-year-old a distillery owner.
2| The name... it was a nickname
The real name of the founder of the whiskey brand was " Jasper Newton Daniel" but his friends used to call him Jack. Without that "nickname" today we would be drinking "Jasper Daniel's". Doesn't sound so good, does it?
3| death...unfortunate
Jack Daniel died in a very unfortunate way. One morning he arrived early at his office, needing some books that were stored in his own safe and unable to remember the combination, he kicked it in frustration, breaking his toe and creating an infection that would kill him six years later. Ironically, if he had doused his own whiskey on his toe shortly after breaking it, the infection would never have occurred.
4| The distillery... where no whiskey is sold
Jack Daniel's was officially registered in 1866 and is the oldest registered distillery in the US However the world's best-selling whiskey cannot be purchased at the distillery itself as it is located in Lynchburg, a "dry county". Lynchburg in Moore County has been a dry town since prohibition, even after repeal. Lem Motlow, Jack's nephew and successor upon Jack's death, became a state senator shortly after Prohibition. Under his tenure, he passed a law allowing whiskey to be made in Moore County, but not sold. While you can visit the distillery, tour the facilities, and sample the whiskeys, you cannot purchase Jack Daniel's whiskey. Well, just a bottle, but as a souvenir, not as a whiskey. You can also buy your own barrel, select it yourself or have it selected for you.
5| They make... their own barrels
The Jack Daniel's distillery is one of the few in the world that manufactures its own barrels, made of American white oak and used only once to mature whisky. These barrels are then sold to other distilleries, brewers, or sauce makers.
6| Number... 1 in the US and 4 in the world
Jack Daniel's is the fourth best-selling spirit in the world and the No. 1 best-selling American, followed by Bacardi and Jim Beam
7| The number 7... is a mystery
7 is not the years of aging for Jack Daniel's whiskey. No one really knows why the No.7 is in the brand's most iconic bottle, although there are different versions. In one version it is said that Jack Daniel had seven girlfriends, in another that the number seven train was the one that carried his barrels, and finally that he lost one of his precious barrels of whiskey and that it took him seven years to recover it. Unfortunately, the only one who knows the truth is Jack himself.
8| Jack and Frank...Sinatra
Dean Martin (on the left in the image next to Sammy Davis Jr. -center- and Frank Sinatra -right of the image-) once sang: "I love Las Vegas, like Sinatra loves Jack Daniel's". It's not an urban myth. Frank Sinatra was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey , along with a pack of Camel cigarettes, a Zippo lighter, and a dollar in dime. Jack Daniel's released its Sinatra Special and Century whiskey in his honor. In January, he did the same to Motörhead singer Lemmy Kilmister, who reportedly drank a bottle of Jack Daniel's a day for 30 years.
9| Distillery and... tourist attraction
More than a quarter of a million people a year visit the Jack Daniel's distillery, which features a limestone cave through which spring water flows. This clear, iron-free water is used to make the brand's whiskeys.
10| Not just whiskey... lives Jack
Jack Daniel's parent company (Brown Forman) also sells a large amount of Finnish vodka under the brand name FINLAND Vodka of Finland.
11| Jack Daniel's is whiskey...not bourbon
If Jack Daniel's is a Tennessee whiskey Compared to a Bourbon, it's because whiskey, unlike bourbon, goes through a carbon softening process while it's still alcohol. For ten or twelve days the liquid drips through the sugar maple charcoal. It then goes to the barrel to age.
12) There's no rush... Jack
Instead of maturing the whiskey for a certain amount of time, at Jack Daniel's several factors help decide when: its taste, appearance, smell,... Its expert tasters determine when the whiskey is ready to be poured. be bottled
13) Jack Daniel's is the king... of Duty Free
Jack Daniel's is the second best-selling whiskey among travelers in duty-free shops in the world (889,000 cases/year!), and the third most popular overall, behind only johnnie walker and Absolute Vodka . Today, Jack Daniel's fame extends beyond the bottle: it is also used as an iconic flavor in other products or as a gift.