Whenever I share my post about Tennessee Whiskey, I get a lot of comments claiming that Tennessee Whiskey is Bourbon. One person quoted the Master Distiller at Jack Daniel stating that Jack Daniel’s whiskey is Bourbon. When I started in the industry in the early 1990s, those would have been fighting words. They were proud of the fact that they were not Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey was different than Bourbon. Have they lost that pride in the uniqueness of Tennessee Whiskey?
When Jack Daniel started making whiskey in the 19th century, he called his whiskey “Tennessee Whiskey”. I have never seen a label from that period in which they used the word “Bourbon”. Other Tennessee distillers did the same. George Dickel’s Cascade and Nelson Greenbrier also called their whiskey Tennessee Whiskey. When Lem Motlow applied for label approval in 1941 under the Bourbon category, his application was rejected. He in turn, made a point that they were not a Bourbon, but a Tennessee whiskey. He took a lemon and made lemonade.
Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 grew quickly in popularity. It was so popular that in the 1960s they had to allocate their whiskey as they expanded the distillery. It was a Tennessee Whiskey distillery and they were proud of that fact. By the time I started in the whiskey business, it was the most popular American whiskey in the world, second only to Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky. Jim Beam was the most popular Bourbon and the sales of Beam lagged behind Jack Daniel by several million cases a year. Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 is still the largest selling American whiskey in the world, so it puzzles me as to why they would start calling themselves a Bourbon.
Even when Bourbon became a product of the United States in 1964 and Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 was categorized as a “Bourbon” for the international market, the distillery still insisted that they were a Tennessee Whiskey, not a Bourbon. It was in fact this same period when Jack Daniel’s whiskeys became the largest selling American whiskey in the world. They did not need the moniker of “Bourbon” to reach that height. It has only been in the last ten years that some have decided to call it a Bourbon.
The fact is it is a Tennessee whiskey. Like Bourbon, Tennessee Whiskey is a subcategory of Corn Whiskey. They both grew out of the corn whiskey style that was being distilled in America in the 19th century. I would say that it is cousin of Bourbon, related to Bourbon, but distinctly different. The people who make Tennessee Whiskey should be proud of that difference and once again, to call Tennessee whiskey Bourbon should be fighting words.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller
December 1, 2023 at 11:22 am
I am new in the bourbons, whiskys and scotchs world!
It is always a pleasure to read you!
Louis Rivard from James-Bay, Québec, north of the 49th parralel!
December 1, 2023 at 1:25 pm
It’s beyond annoying for those that say that; up to the point before they pour it through a charred bed of maple it could be so considered but thereafter, no.
December 7, 2023 at 3:51 am
OFFICIAL BOURBON REQUIREMENTS
Made with at least 51% corn in the mash bill
Aged in charred new oak barrels
Made in the United States
Distilled to a maximum of 160 proof (80% ABV)
Barreled at a maximum of 125 proof (62.5% ABV)
Bottled at a minimum of 80 proof (40% ABV) and a maximum of 150 proof (75% ABV)
No flavorings or colorings may be added
Charcoal filtering doesn’t prevent it from being a Bourbon by nature.
August 25, 2024 at 1:52 am
Why would charcoal filtering make JD “special”…it’s hardly the and certainly not the only bourbon to be charcoal filtered…
Nearly any bourbon you can think of either uses charcoal filtering now, or has at some point in their past…non-filtering is a fairly recent phenomena that has grown in popularity with the rise in popularity of cask strength and higher proof releases…because filtering is not required when proofs are high enough to keep volatile compounds dissolved, making separation at lower temperatures highly unlikely…
Also, filtering is a removal process, NOT an additive in ANY definition or sense of the word…There is no prohibition on filtering bourbon that exists in any regulation.
August 25, 2024 at 1:56 am
It is different than normal charcoal filtering. Jack is filtered before being put in the barrel and filtered through maple wood charcoal – about 15 feet worth of charcoal. This changes the ph of the new make, making it less acidic.
December 1, 2023 at 3:14 pm
Why were they rejected in 1941? Was it to do with the Lincoln county process?
December 1, 2023 at 3:15 pm
Exactly. They were altering the flavor.
August 25, 2024 at 2:40 am
My understanding is that Jack Daniels was required by the Treasury Department to classify their whiskey as Bourbon Whiskey until they petitioned the government to specifically drop the Bourbon name and classify themselves as simply “whiskey”…which was ultimately approved! They maintained that designation until 1964, when it became legally advantageous to classify their whiskey as Bourbon because of Bourbon’s new protected status…while “whiskey” was not protected.
Tennessee Whiskey was simply a marketing term for any whiskey made in Tennessee until 2013 when the term was legally defined by the Tennessee legislature…which now REQUIRES Tennessee Whiskey to meet the federal standards of identity for Bourbon with the additional provisions that it be distilled in Tennessee, aged in Tennessee, and filtered specifically through Maple charcoal…Prichards is the only exception and is not required to use Maple charcoal filtering…it just has to be Bourbon made and aged in Tennessee.
Many common bourbons use charcoal filtering, it doesn’t add anything to the flavor…it is a REMOVAL process…Tennessee Whiskey requires that filtering to be done with Maple charcoal…It’s no different than any other state designation that requires some state specific provision, i.e. to be called Missouri Bourbon, Missouri Bourbon Whiskey, or Missouri Whiskey, it has to be distilled in Missouri, must use corn grown in Missouri, and must be aged in Missouri using barrels manufactured in Missouri.
August 28, 2024 at 12:43 pm
It is worth reflecting charcoal and bourbon is legally bound together as production partners since FAA Reg 5 in July 1936, when charred new white oak containers defined straight whiskey in Federal law. The charring of internal barrel staves and heads enclose the whiskey inside a charcoal membrane where atmospheric changes and other fluid movements gently modify, ergo, rectify the bourbon. Other methods of charcoal filtration, i.e., Tennessee whiskey, employ a bed of granulated charcoal that additionally and more assertively filters the new distillate under gravity feed, removing undesirable fusel alcohols and congeners. The same principle applies to charred barrels, which uses a slower rectification process aided by oxidization and chemical interactions over longer maturation conditions.
Since the 1980s, most bottled bourbon has been chilled and filtered through activated carbon to remove long-chain fatty acids that naturally flocculate under frigid temperatures. This is another example of charcoal intervention before whiskey is presented for public consumption.
Commentators describe American straight whiskey is a product of corn, rye, and white oak. By law and by sensory effect, charcoal can also be included in this definition. However, Tennessee whiskey gets special mention due to a historical accident traceable to 1938, 1941 and 2013, resurrecting and codifying an old and ubiquitous process widely used in North American whiskey manufacture in the 19th century.
December 4, 2023 at 12:48 am
Historically, Jack Daniel never marketed his whiskey as a Tennessee whiskey. The legal and marketing term ‘Tennessee whiskey’ first appeared in 1946, ‘Jack Daniel’s Old Time Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey’ when the distillery released its five-year-old Black Label whiskey.
Since the late 1880s, Jack Daniel branded his barrels ‘Jack Daniel’s Whiskey’ or ‘Old Fashioned Whiskey.’ When he began bottling in 1895, the paper label and embossed bottle stated, ‘Jack Daniel’s Old Time Distillery Whiskey,’ with ‘Lynchburg., Tenn.’ as the place of manufacture. On the distillery’s printed collateral material in the late 1890s, the masthead described ‘Jack Daniel distiller of Pure Sour Mash Lincoln Co. Whiskey.’ When his nephew Lem Motlow took over, he changed the label design to state ‘Jack Daniel’s Pure Lincoln County Corn’. Label iterations of 8, 10, 14, 18, and 21-year-olds repeated this until State (1910) and National Prohibitions (1920). When Motlow granted permission to Schenley to use The Jack Daniel’s trademark during Prohibition for medicinal whiskey, ‘Jack Daniel’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey,’ appeared in 1930, a 100-proof bottle-in-bond bottled by James B. Beam Distilling at Clermont, Kentucky. Motlow immediately look legal action against Schenley for this product traversty.
Lem Motlow restarted distilling in Lynchburg in October 1938, releasing a standard Jack Daniel’s Green Label four-year-old whiskey in late 1942 – 83% white corn mash, matured in 40-gallon barrels. To generate cash flow after commencing distillation in 1938, he released in late 1939 one-year-old Lem Motlow whiskey and Topaz Corn whiskey. Motlow realised his distillery was the only whiskey distillery in the U.S. using charcoal rectification, filtering through sugar maple to minimise fusel alcohols before barrelling. Manufacturing by the charcoal rectification process also resulted in the whisky having a different organoleptic taste. The distillery lobbied the Treasury Department in January 1941 for charcoal-rectified whiskey to be officially recognised as whiskey, as this technical specificity was not clarified in the FACA 1935 and FAA 1938 classifications. On March 28th, 1941, a letter from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue concluded, after laboratory and chemical analysis, ‘that the whiskey neither has neither the characteristics of bourbon or rye whiskey and is a distinctive product which may be appropriately labelled whiskey.’
The historical irony is that charcoal rectification of rye and corn-mashed whiskey had been standard practice since the late 18th century. The Congressional Globe in February 1868 reported on the widespread use of charcoal filtration, also known as charcoal mellowing or leaching: ‘It is the system in all States south of Kentucky and at least in one-third of Kentucky’. ’Good whisky, either Bourbon or Robertson County whisky (sic), must be run through coal (sic, charcoal) for the purposes of rectifying it of its impurities’. It was the preferred method by distillers, especially the large rectifiers from Pennsylvania to Illinois and Canadian whisky distilleries, through the latter part of the second half of the 19th century until Prohibition.
The Government’s 1941 decision gave the only distillery in Tennessee and the only distillery in the U.S. using charcoal rectification unique geographic indexation – a dual marketing claim and product sensory discrimination for Jack Daniel’s whiskey to differentiate from Kentucky bourbon, American rye and malt whiskey. While the 1946 Black Label stated Tennessee Whiskey, Jack Daniel’s Green Label (patented March 15th 1940, perhaps printed before the Government’s verdict) and launched December 1942, did not state Tennessee Whiskey, only Made in Tennessee on the side of the label. Probably due to cost and Wartime rationing, surplus stocks of this printed label appeared on three and four-year-old bottles until 1950. During the U.S. war years (December 1942 – September 1945), the Motlows recognised the commercial benefits of marketing Jack Daniel’s as a unique Tennessee whiskey. After 1946, it became the Lynchburg distillery’s consumer brand and product point of difference on the label, in merchandising and advertising.
While Tennessee distillers, since the 1850s, attempted to differentiate Tennessee whiskey from Kentucky bourbon by using terms ‘whisky’ versus ‘whiskey,’ the ironic twist that the once near-universal use of charcoal filtration in North America became the defining factor that permitted Jack Daniel’s to separate Tennessee whiskey from other classes of American whiskey officially
December 10, 2023 at 12:15 pm
Excellent comments and very informative.
December 11, 2023 at 10:41 pm
Nice bits of information here. I’ll add that through my research, it looks like Jack Daniel’s started using “Tennessee whiskey” when they started selling whiskey across the border from Hopkinsville, KY into Tennessee in 1909 (after Tennessee went into Prohibition)…but in ads and not on bottles) That would have been after Lem took over operations.
I can pretty firmly state that Jack would never have called his whiskey “Bourbon.” Lincoln County distillers were so picky about the use of natural processes in the 19th century that they called Old Robertson and Old Bourbon sweet mash, not sour mash. In other words, they had a different definition for sweet mash than we have today. To them, sweet mash was any sour mash that was sweetened with chemicals or added yeast. Of course, this is an over generalization (or basically 19th century marketing). There were plenty of Kentucky distillers who used wild yeast and five day fermentations, like Lincoln County distillers. But to them, Kentucky’s reputation became large, industrial, and shortcuts – so Lincoln County distillers believed it was an inferior product. Thus, Jack wouldn’t have called his whiskey Bourbon.
It is refreshing to hear Michael Veach bring up this topic. Tennessee whiskey does need to have pride in its heritage. Unfortunately, it lost touch with that heritage, thanks to 99 1/2 years between the manufacturer’s bill that killed Tennessee distilling and the legislation that opened it up to more than 3 counties in 2009. To me, seeing something labeled Tennessee Bourbon just looks odd. But after doing research into Kentucky Bourbon’s heritage, its actually strange to see any state’s name on Bourbon besides Kentucky. I’d like to see Kentucky claw back their heritage.
December 12, 2023 at 7:48 pm
I am a firm believer that Tennessee whiskey is not Bourbon, but a related spirit.
December 7, 2023 at 1:54 pm
Legally it’s a bourbon but identifies as a Tennessee whiskey…no big deal 🤷
December 10, 2023 at 5:05 am
I visited the distillery yesterday and they most certainly referred to it as Tennessee whiskey.
December 10, 2023 at 8:39 pm
I just bought a bottle of good Ole #7 yesterday, the label says nothing about Bourbon, in fact none of the various types of JD say anything to the affect of bourbon on their labels.
December 14, 2023 at 8:46 am
I’m in Mike’s camp that Tennessee whiskey is not bourbon – it is bourbon charcoal filtered in Tennessee, granting in specific provenance and a distinctive manufacturing process under U.S. Federal jurisdiction (1941) and Tennessee State regulation (2013). Bourbon only received Federal jurisdiction as America’s native spirit in 1964. Previously, bourbon could be produced in Canada and Mexico. Before the 1964 resolution, the federal government, after national prohibition, enacted the first manufacturing standards for bourbon, but there was no geographic protection.
Drew, to the two important points you raised. When Jack Daniel’s Distilling Co. set up a distribution center in Hopkinsville, as Kentucky enacted no prohibition on the manufacture or sale of liquor, the Hopkinsville labels and merchandising never described the whiskey as Tennessee whiskey. Stocks of whiskey also arrived in Hopkinsville from their distilleries in Alabama, although most of the whiskey was bulk shipped from Lynchburg, Tennessee, and presumably all bottled in Hopkinsville. 1903, Lem and Frank Motlow built a distillery in Birmingham, Alabama. After Tennessee went dry on January 1st, 1910, the Motlow brothers renamed their Motlow & Company the Jack Daniel Distilling Company. As Lincoln County corn has the highest reputation nationwide as superior cereal when Tennessee was the leading national cultivator of corn, the Motlows also described their Alabama whiskey as ‘Lincoln County.’ This had nothing to do with the Lincoln County Process and did not exist as a vernacular term or as a proprietary process for many decades. When the Motlow’s charcoal filtered their rye whiskey in Alabama, they called it Jefferson County Whiskey. Whiskey marketed from the Lynchburg distillery (outside Tennessee) was labelled ‘Jack Daniel’s Lincoln County Corn’, White Lincoln County Whiskey, ‘Red Lincoln County Corn’ and ‘Yellow Corn Whiskey’ as different variants of corn sourced from local farmers. In trade circulars, the whiskey was sometimes described as ‘Straight Lincoln County Whiskey’ after 1912,’ trading on the higher standard of whiskey President Taft defined in his December 1910 judgment.
The other matter is sour mash. By 1870, the few Tennessee distilleries to re-emerge after the Civil War all practised sour mash, as it had been the tradition for half a century in the State. In Kentucky, the IRS did not audit fermenting methods, or if they did, it is unlikely any gauger records reported the mashing options to qualify the sweet and sour mashing ratio accurately. Observations by Government officials looking at proof yield and other factors at the time estimated it was likely 50:50, with sour mash gaining increasing usage as investment and demand for corn-based whisky saw investment in larger distilleries in the 1870s. By the 1890s, most Kentucky distilleries used variations of the sour mash method.
April 15, 2024 at 1:48 pm
By legal standards it meets the bourbon requirements. It ends there their process hasn’t changed much from its inception as Tennessee Whiskey.
April 19, 2024 at 3:50 pm
When they so proudly coin the term “Tennessee Whiskey” it was clear and obvious shot over the bow at Kentucky and their “Kentucky Bourbon”; this resulted from state pride.
April 19, 2024 at 3:53 pm
The term Tennessee Whiskey date back to the 1800s and it was designed to show that it was different than Kentucky Bourbon.
April 22, 2024 at 12:08 pm
Just a thought: Jack Daniel’s mash bill would qualify it as a Burnon, however the moment it begins the charcoal filtering process, it begins its journey to become a Tennessee Whiskey! A delightful difference!
August 25, 2024 at 2:45 am
So…how is it different than any of the many, many other Bourbons that use charcoal filtering?
Charcoal filtering is a pretty common practice within the bourbon industry.
May 22, 2024 at 2:56 am
Unfortunately Jack Daniels has just gone down in quality since 1987. 90 proof is low to begin with but 86 then down to 80 proof, well it makes it just another mediocre whiskey.
April 27, 2025 at 3:12 pm
Thank you for sharing the article “Has Jack Daniel’s Lost Its Pride?” from bourbonveach.com. The piece offers a comprehensive historical perspective on Jack Daniel’s branding evolution, particularly its adoption of the “Tennessee whiskey” label in 1946 and the legal recognition of its charcoal mellowing process in 1941. This context enriches the discussion on recent corporate decisions, such as Brown-Forman’s 2024 rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives amid political pressures. The article provides valuable insights into how these contemporary actions intersect with the brand’s longstanding identity and heritage.