Le Tour De Jack - A visit to the Jack Daniel's distillery

There are plenty of reasons to visit the US at least once in your life, for sure. It may be to visit New York, Florida, Disneyland, Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyons, Monument Valley of California… in the country of McDonalds, Nike and Coca Cola there’s more than enough to see and do. But to fly from Europe to America and visit a distillery for whiskey over there, has to go hand in hand with some suitable insanity! That’s exactly our motivation to gather at the airport of Frankfurt, Germany one early September morning. The 500 residents counting village of Lynchburg in the state of Tennessee was our destination. Place of birth of the most famous whiskey in the world - JACK DANIEL’S!

First Day
Because the biggest part of the group flew form Frankfurt to the US, we could immediatly introduce ourselves to the rest of the collectors and fans who travelled to America for this whiskey brand. After a while we were sitting on board of the plane that brought us via Atlanta (Georgia) to Nashville (Tennessee). During our flight we could enjoy ourselves with the few usual questionnaires that a traveller gets served on a trip to the States. Containing questions like: ‘Are you a wanted war criminal from World war II’ and ‘Were you an active participant of the terrorist attacks on September 11?’, they were quite hilarious to us anyway. To avoid possible problems I answered all questions with no, jus in case! After we could leave the over exaggerated saftey procedures of the Americans on the airfield behind us, we instantly checked in at our hotel in Nashville (TN).

After the check in we went looking for a real American liquor store to buy our first Jack Daniel’s. Arriving there you nearly fainted when you found out how cheap the ‘black gold’ is in America. For a regular bottle of Jack Daniel’s one had to pay approximately $13.00, which is about € 9,00. After we regained consciousness and had a few Jack ‘n’ Coke’s back at our hotel, it was time to hit the sack because, according to our tour guide Andreas Julius, we were in for some pretty rough days.

Second Day
The day after there was an extensive visit to Nashville planned on our schedule, which mainly was intented for us to buy as much Jack Daniel’s memorabilia as possible, and in extreme large quantities for sure. The Indian Summer had just started in Tennessee and that meant temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius were no exceptions. Still we all had to take our jackets with us because the Americans have an habit of putting their air conditioners on ‘blast frozen’ so everybody in each shop had the feeling your limbs would freeze off… In the evening at the hotel there was a huge collector’s fair on the program at which a whole battalion of special (and expensive) Jack Daniel’s bottles were displayed to be auctioned. For example a Riverboat Captain Decanter from 1988 that switched owners for 400 euro. The drinking that night was, apart from 15 dollars for expenses, totally free, which was a sign for everybody to have a blast.

Third Day
With a slight hangover we went to the main purpose of our trip, the Jack Daniel’s distillery
in Lynchburg, which is almost an hour drive to the South East of Nashville. The world championships barbeque took place there this weekend, which drew almost 20,000 people from all over the world to Lynchburg. Lynchburg is a small hamlet with one traffic light and 500 inhabitants… tops! The first shock we were confronted with wasn’t the large amount of people, but the prohibition of consuming alcohol in Lynchburg. So you weren’t allowed to dispatch any alcohol in this small town and also no Jack! For real, I’m not kidding! It would be the same feeling as if you were in Amsterdam and you weren’t allowed to smoke in the coffee shops, or if there wasn’t any beer on the October fests in Munich (München, Germany). So we found ourselves drinking sweet lemonade and eating all kinds of grilled products until it was time to go visiting the distillery. Once there, next to the storehouse No.1 , we were shown and explained, the production process of whiskey step by step.

Like the special producing procedure with charcoal, the so called Charcoal Mellowing, with this process the freshly distilled Tennesee whiskey flows through huge tanks, that are filled with home made charcoal, by which Jack Daniel’s creates his trademark taste. The end of the tour meant a visit to the original White Rabbit Saloon, where we got our alcohol free beverages served again, with the necessary apologies I might add. But we were given the chance to buy all kinds of collector’s bottles at giveaway prizes. That evening would become the highlight of our journey. Our travel guide, Andreas, indebted us to some fun after the long alcohol free day on the sacred grounds of our friend Jack. He arranged for us to attend the after party of the BBQ championships, which took place just a little outside of Lynchburg in a giant converted farmer’s shed, property of Jack Daniel’s master-distiller Jimmy Bedford. It was here that we finally could enjoy a Jack Coke in an exceptional strong mix and completely for free to everyone (estimated 1,000 people). The ‘alcoholic losts’ were quickly compensated and one could speak of an alcoholic delight at a high level.

Fourth Day
Today we went to Lynchburg once again to loot all the present Jack Daniel’s souvenir stores. Main attraction was the original Lynchburg Hardware and General Store of course, where one could find literally anything with a Jack Daniel’s logo on it, all spread over two stories. From clothing and glasses to golf equipment and model cars, it all could be found there. What we thought was very special also, was a shop that’s specialized in wooden furniture, made from the wood of Jack Daniel’s barrels: really unbelievable what was available over there! Unfortunately a sign on the door said that the furniture wouldn’t be shipped to Europe. A pity really, but after the shopping spree we endured the last couple of days, our wallets were empty and our suitcase already took shapes of ‘serious concerns’. Some folks even had to buy an extra suitcase to transport all the bottles, glasses and other JD stuff safely home.

Fifth Day
This day was planned to take an excursion of Lynchburg and environment. Our travel guide was an offspring of Lem Motlow, a cousin of Jack Daniel’s. He showed us all the places JD had lived and worked and at the end of the tour was a visit to the grave of Jack Daniel’s on the programme, at which two chairs were placed a long time ago. That leads us back to a wish of Mr. Jack Daniel’s, he wanted his numerous friends, that came to visit him, to sit down with him so they could take a rest for a moment. After that we were allowed to watch the largest private JD collection in the world! Next to numerous, partly unopened, bottles Jack Daniel’s, there were also a few stone bottles (jars) from the 19th century, from which whiskey was poured long before there were any glasses. In the evening another acquaintance was visited, Andreas, where we could buy even more JD titbits. There’s were I treated myself on a Jack Daniel’s Monogram bottle of 60 dollars, a bargain because in Europe you’re considered lucky if you can find a bottle cheaper than 100 euro.

Sixth Day
After a marvellous, adventurous and expensive journey of almost a week, it was time today to say goodbye to Jack Daniel’s, Lynchburg, Tennessee and America. This week we’ve come to know the Americans as decent and friendly people, who have far more problems and issues with some things in contrast with Europe, like the public consumption of alcohol and the topless pictures of pin ups in magazines. Of which we in Europe aren’t concerned, but to the Americans they are huge issues. Anyway, it has been an unforgettable time for everyone, and I’d like to thank the initiator of this trip, Andreas Julius very much! The booking of the flights, the hotels, the travelling busses and many other things that he took care of as if they were the most normal things in the world. But we know now that if you want to organize something like that from Europe, you spend a large amount of time with rules and stuff that one comes across. For all that; CHEERS!

Additional information on the website of Andreas Julius

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