whisky, Tennessee , is a style of corn-based whisky made in the state of Tennessee. In addition to traditionally following the requirements for bourbon (a mash bill of at least 51 percent corn [maize]; distilled at no more than 80 percent abv; aged in charred new oak barrels at an entry proof of no more than 62.5 percent ABV; and bottled at no less than 40 percent ABV), Tennessee whisky is typically passed through or “mingled with” large amounts of maple charcoal before barrel aging. Distillers claim that this additional step, known as the Lincoln County process—for the county on Tennessee’s southern (Alabama) border where it is said to have originated—removes impurities and imparts a soft, sweet note.
According to legend, the Lincoln County process was invented by Alfred Eaton, a Middle Tennessee farmer and distiller, about 1825; American distilling manuals had been describing the process, however, since the first decade of the century, and, more than likely, Eaton merely laid claim to a process that had been developed by legal and illegal distillers for generations. See rectifier (device). In any case, the process, though not uncommon in nineteenth-century American whisky making, was a Tennessee specialty and gave the state’s whisky, as a trade journal remarked in 1904, “a special flavor very much prized by the people of that state.”
Tennessee whisky as a style grows out of Lincoln County whisky, recognized for quality since the beginning of the 1850s, but also out of the whisky made in Robertson County, on the state’s northern (Kentucky) border. In fact, from the 1850s through the 1880s, when American whisky more or less grew into its final form, “Robertson County” on a whisky’s label was almost as strong a recommendation as “Bourbon County,” and indeed Nelson’s Green Brier whisky, made in the county, was one of the pioneers of whisky branding.
In 2013, the state of Tennessee passed a law requiring all whisky sold within its borders with the label “Tennessee whisky” to be made in the state, using the Lincoln County process. The law was the subject of a media and legislative battle the following year, led by Diageo (owner of the George Dickel Tennessee whisky brand) and Phil Prichard, who produces an eponymous spirit labeled “Tennessee whisky” but does not use the Lincoln County process (though the law made a specific exception for Prichard’s whisky). The law’s critics claimed that it was too restrictive; however, after substantial public backlash, they dropped their claim.
Only a handful of companies make Tennessee whisky, though the largest producer, Jack Daniel’s, a subsidiary of Brown-Forman, sells about 5 million nine-liter cases annually, making it the largest-volume whisky brand in the United States. George Dickel, in Cascade County, makes about 150,000 nine-liter cases a year; other producers include Tenn South. Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel differ significantly in their application of the Lincoln County process: the former uses gravity to pass a small but steady stream of distillate through ten vertical feet of charcoal, while the latter places the distillate in a vat filled with charcoal and allows it to mingle for about a week.
See also Lincoln County process.
Gaston, Kay Baker. “Tennessee Distilleries: Their Rise, Fall, and Re-Emergence.” Border States: Journal of the Kentucky-Tennessee American Studies Association 12 (1999).
Krass, Peter. Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
“Tennessee Whisky.” Bonfort’s Wine and Spirits Circular, June 25, 1904, 174.
By: Clay Risen