noboundries ur right of course i just told the tail i was...
To start the new year right, let’s put to bed the ‘Is Jack Daniel’s bourbon?’ argument once and for all.
Jack Daniel’s is not bourbon. That is the correct answer. Although it is made almost exactly like bourbon, and pretty much tastes like bourbon, Jack Daniel’s is a little bit different so its makers prefer to call it Tennessee whiskey.
That is all true; undisputed, in fact.
It only gets murky when people try to guess why Jack Daniel’s is not called bourbon. They usually assume it cannot be called bourbon. They further assume that the pre-barrel charcoal leaching process that makes Jack Daniel’s a little bit different is prohibited in the rules that govern bourbon production.
It is not.
The assumption that the so-called ‘Lincoln County Process’ prevents Jack Daniel’s from being called bourbon isn’t just wrong, it is perfectly wrong. Jack Daniel’s doesn’t want to be bourbon, not now, not ever. To its makers and legion of fans, Jack Daniel’s is everything bourbon is and more. ‘The Lincoln County Process’ is the extra step that makes Jack Daniel’s better than bourbon, so they say.
The makers of Jack Daniel’s have believed this back to and including Jack himself. Many years ago, the company took steps to prevent the Federal government from forcing them to call their whiskey ‘bourbon.’ That is why some people insist that Jack Daniel’s is bourbon, because it meets every legal requirement. ‘Bourbon in all but name’ is another way of saying it.