Jack Daniels was the first destination on our trip. As soon as we got off the plane we got food,…read morecoffee, and then got on our way to meet Jack. His distillery is about an hour and a half from Nashville. Once you're out of the city, it's a beautiful drive, but there is not much between the two. Except of course, Uncle Nearest. We'll get back to that in another review.
I don't know what I was expecting, but this place definitely exceeded my expectations. They have a pretty largely laid out property. We parked across the street and a lot and had to walk over and bus back. Walking in. We were slightly early for the next tour time, so we went to there establishment aptly named Happy Hour, and pre-gamed. One thing you can learn in the lobby is that Jack Daniels was not a tall man. In fact, he was quite short, though it would seem that his presence exceeded his physical height greatly. The tour started us on a bus driving us to the top of a hill close to one of their warehouses and we walked our way down to see parts of the property before we got into some more buildings. Our guide, Danna, was excellent! A former navy instructor, she was both incredibly knowledgeable about the business and very passionate about working their and teaching the history of the distillery. On the way down we had a stop at a drink trailer. And had our tour beverages. We also got to see some of what they were doing out there making charcoal for their distilling process. As we moseyed along further, drinks in hand, we learned about the history. We passed by a really old fire brigade station. And landed in a cabin that had a lot of interesting pictures in it and quite a bit of history. I won't go word for word in my review, then you would have no reason to visit. I'll just add some tidbits as we go. Unbeknownst to myself and my companions, Uncle Nearest and Jack Daniels are very closely related. In fact, Jack's first master distiller was Nathan "Nearest" Green, and Jack Daniel distillery has continuously employed members of the nearest family ever since. Their relationship was not only unique, but that Bond has not broken since this distillery was put in place. Very cool things I did not know, and there's plenty more of that. If you go on the tour. Treat yoself to some knowledge.
We then wandered through the distilling area, and barrel House. Our tour ended at The tasting area, where we got to try a number of things. Now. Jack Daniels, like Uncle nearest, is in a dry county and they can't serve things outright. So they have to come up with ways to do it and stay within the laws. So you might notice in my pictures that the tastings have just a wee bit in each glass. If you want more, you'll have to go to the bottle shop. And if you want to buy a barrel, or anything else, you have to go to the hardware shop. When you go on the tour you'll understand what that means and why it's important.
At the conclusion of the tour, you can go to the happy hour bar, the bottle shop, or the hardware store. There's a shuttle to take you wherever you want to go on the property or back to your parking spot. It's a very interesting and enlightening tour. We weren't aware how much history was here and all the things we didn't know yet. Very cool tour. Highly recommend going!
