Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.” – Mark Twain
As I drove on I-24 between Nashville and Chattanooga, I saw the brown sign announcing what I was looking for.
It was out of the way, and while it was true that I still had hundreds of miles to go before I arrived home – many hundreds in fact – I felt compelled to take the extra time.
I turned off sharply at the exit, spraying gravel on a tractor-trailer, who wished me good luck with a long blast from his air horn. I waved goodbye to him through my sun- roof, and was soon turning onto the overpass, back to the southwest, down the road known as the American Whiskey Trail.
When Jack Daniel was only seven, he was hired out to work for a Lutheran minister by the name of Dan Call, who also, as it turned out, liked to make a little whiskey on the side. Over the next several years, young Jack learned more about moon shining than preaching from Call, who in 1863 was finally pressured by his congregation to stop selling spirits and begin lifting them. Call agreed, and sold his still to Jack, who was only 13 at the time. And an American legend was born.
Jack Daniel, like Dan Call, believed that the way to make the best whiskey was through a mellowing process using hard maple charcoal. It purifies the alcohol – a kind of purgatory for bad booze if you will. He perfected it over the years, and in 1904 entered his product in the World’s Fair in St. Louis.
Of the 20 other whiskeys that had been entered from around the world, Jack Daniel’s “Old No. 7” was the only one awarded the gold medal, along with the label as the “World’s Best Whiskey.”
A year later, Jack, who wasn’t known as the most patient man, got angry when he couldn’t open the safe in his office, and gave it a swift and hard kick. He broke his toe, and the infection turned to gangrene, which eventually killed him.
A century later, the distillery he founded in Lynchburg ships “Old No. 7” all over the world. In 2005, they shipped some seven and a half million cases.
Why is it called “Old No. 7?”
Years ago, according to Jimmy Bedford, CEO and current Master Distiller, the company would ship all their whiskey by railroad. One time, one of those shipments got lost at the terminal. When the barrels were found, orders were given to ship them on down the track. But first, a new shipping ticket was created and “Old” was written in front of the original shipping number - “No. 7.”
Requests soon began coming in for more shipments of “Old No. 7.” The full title printed on the label reads: “Jack Daniel’s Old Time Old No. 7 Brand Quality Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey.”
Today, after the whiskey is put in barrels, it is moved to one of the 74 barrel houses that are scattered among the hills surrounding Lynchburg in Monroe County. Each house holds over 20,000 barrels.
Monroe County, incidentally, is dry.
My tour guide at the distillery that day told us that there are 400 employees that work for Jack Daniel’s. She said that on the first Friday of every month each one of them is given a pint of “Old No. 7.”
“It’s known around here as ‘Good Friday,’” she told us with a smile.