For the last decade, one of the biggest trends in whiskey involved distilleries forgoing age statements. Spirits writer Fred Minnick offered a good overview of why this was happening in 2016, and while there are plenty of good arguments to be made for the quality of whiskey without an age statement, the absence of age statements in some corners of the spirits world has been sorely felt.
All of which is to say that a new announcement from Jack Daniel’s represents a move against the grain (no pun intended) of this movement in whiskey. Emily Price writing at Forbes has details of the distillery’s latest venture: Jack Daniel’s 10-Year-Old Tennessee Whiskey. It’s the first new whiskey with an age statement from the storied distillery in over 100 years. (We’ll have our own review up in the very near future.)
Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller Chris Fletcher explained that, five years ago, the distillery expanded its capacity somewhat — which, in turn, gave them the freedom to experiment with longer aging. He told Forbes that “innovation is a key focus going forward, not just for Jack Daniel’s but for all of Brown Forman.” (Brown-Forman is the distillery’s parent company.)
This particular whiskey was aged in oak barrels which were moved around in the distillery’s barrelhouse over the course of a decade.
And, based on what Fletcher said in the interview, the distillery seems primed to do more with aging. “My personal goal is to create the most diverse set of aging whiskey in the industry,” he told Price. This whiskey is set to reach stores next month.
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