Chasing Our Dream: Staycation

Jack Daniels Distillery - the tasting tour.

We went to Lynchburg today for the tour, and they had a tasting tour available, so of course we took that. It adds tastings of three Jack Daniels varieties during the tour.

If you've never been - it's pretty interesting.

They start by bringing you to the Rickyard

and talking about the wood they burn which turns it into charcoal. That charcoal is used in the distilling process. Here, the maple is stacked, allowing it to be 'seasoned' before burning.

We then walked by the Fire Brigade - there was only one truck there today, but he said they have a second one - it was just out doing promotional stuff today.

Then we saw the spring where all the water to make the whiskey comes from. It's the same place they've been getting the water from for more than 140 years.

Then we saw the grain mill, where the actual process of making whiskey begins.

Followed by the Still House

and the Mellowing Room

Then we went into the bottling house. This is the amount of whiskey you get if you purchase a barrell of whiskey

It is about 53 gallons of whiskey. Wow!

Then we went into this little house for the tasting. We tasted Gentlemen Jack, Black Label and Single Barrel. Gentlemen Jack was the definite winner in my book!

Then is was onto the Barrel House. It used to have a really strong aroma of whiskey as soon as you walked int. Disappointingly, the barrel house didn't smell like that at all today. There are only 200 barrels of whiskey aging today. I don't know where the rest are, but they are going to transform that area into tasting rooms.

Then it was back to the Visitors Center.

Af the distillery we went down the street to the town of Lynchburg.

Or rather, the Historic District in Lynchburg. It's not so much a District as a Town Square. There is one building - which I believe houses municipal offices in the center