Well Dam.
I'll start by saying that we didn't even know this place existed until we did a quick google on distilleries in the area. It looks on the map like it's closer to Chattanooga than it actually is - about 15 or 20 mins away.
We were headed back in that direction anyway, so we hit this as our last stop "out of town". Once we got there, we parked in the parking area available (also looks like this is a parking area for the marina and guests there as well). There's a big sign that says "Dam Whiskey" on the largest building, but no signage to let you know to head over to the right and go through a fence, then turn immediately right into the first open door to find the ticketing area, tasting room, and gift shop. Not hard, but we did have to figure it out since it was our first time.
Upon entry, we were met by a rather rude, shorter, bossy girl who seemed put out to have to tell us what ticket options/tours/pricing were. Tickets are actually quite expensive for this type of event - (we're comparing it to a similar distillery experience you can find about 2 hours north in Petros, TN).
After deciding to forego the tour this time and just do the tastings, we received the absolute world's DINKIEST "pours" for tasting of all time. Not to mention that to add a tasting onto a tour ticket is an additional $5, but there's an upcharge to do just tastings by themselves (which is ridiculous) of $7.50/pp.
Not only is this quite EXPENSIVE compared to almost any other distillery's tasting charge in the whole state of TN, but we felt SUPER gypped that we spent $15 for two tastings and literally didn't even get enough of any of their "samples" to truly know what their alcohols even tasted like.
The Vodka I think was the worst offender for multiple reasons:
(1) I literally counted when it was served, I only got 6 drops. That's right SIX LITERAL DROPS of vodka to sample.
(2) When I attempted to sample the vodka... and I stress 'attempted'... all I could actually taste (from the only 6 drops) was straight nasty - tasted like pure rubbing alcohol.
To clarify, we've been to a ton of distilleries all over the country, not just TN. We've done the entire KY Bourbon trail, and been to distilleries, breweries, and other alcoholic's aficionado's spots across the U.S. We've done hundreds of tastings and sampled from places big and small throughout (craft and corporate).
This place was the biggest joke of a tasting (and one of the more expensive ones we've done anywhere). Yes, the samples are only $5 as an ADD-ON if you want to do one of their expensive tours as well, but to up-charge folks that literally just want to do a tasting is, by itself, absurd - but to then not even provide your customers (that you've just badly overcharged) hardly ANY alcohol in which to taste your products... which is necessary to determine whether or not we'd even like them enough to buy a bottle or two (which you'd assume is the end-goal of a tasting)... is even more absurd. They told us that the weekend we were there (the first weekend in December) was their last weekend operating until the spring. With what dinky portions (if you can even call them that) we were provided in our 'tastings', we left thinking they were trying to conserve/ration their remaining bottles b/c maybe the employees got to take home any open leftovers until the spring.
At the end of the day, this place looked super neat and we drove a little out of our way to specifically go here, but we completely wasted our time and money and will not be back. read more