Jack Daniel's

The Jack Daniel's distillery, known worldwide as the symbol of Tennessee whiskey, is based in Lynchburg, a small town in Moore County. Although it is home to one of the world's most famous distilleries, it is one of the American 'dry cities' where the sale of alcoholic beverages is strictly prohibited.

Jack Daniel's has a long history behind it, full of legends that have been cultivated over more than 150 years. It began when Jasper Newton Daniel - known simply as 'Jack' to his friends and family - created the world's most famous Tennessee Whiskey. Mr. "Jack" Daniel, who was born in 1850 to British immigrants, began the art of distillation as a child, learning from a Lutheran pastor. Jack was not even 16 years old when he became the owner of the first distillery and, starting with a base of corn, rye and barley, he created his first bottles of bourbon. The young man soon proved to be an absolute prodigy, thanks to the invention of a new and ingenious production system that today is the foundation of the difference between Tennessee whiskey and all other American whiskeys. Applying the traditional ''sour mash'' system (which consists in the permanence of a must that is rich in live yeast in the bottom of the fermentation vat), Jack introduced a new feature to the end of the production process. This involved the drop-by-drop filtration of the final distillate through maple wood charcoal, an operation that made the product softer and without blemishes even before it was aged in casks. This innovative production method for the time, called charcoal mellowing, guaranteed an unparalleled quality to the product which, even after Mr Jack's death, has continued and still remains unmatched, creating an unprecedented range of Whiskeys. When he died in 1911 as a result of gangrene caused by kicking a safe whose combination he could not remember, the distillery, which had already received important awards, passed into the hands of his nephew who managed it until after the war. It was then acquired by the Brown Fordman group in the 1950s, who started production on an industrial scale. The original still was replaced by a series of column stills, the best grains were imported from different parts of the USA, the yeasts were selected and produced by the company, and new water sources were harnessed. Today, the company is considered a bourbon legend, with annual production of 72 million litres.

The worldwide success of Jack Daniel's is due not only to an intense and extraordinary marketing campaign (initiated by its founder), but especially to the intrinsic qualities of the distillate produced, which even today rank it in the top tier of the best bourbons. In addition to the most famous and marketed bottle, which is the square one with the black label, Jack Daniel's also offers more sophisticated bottles, in which the finest features of the famous brand stand out.