Tourist Time: Jack Daniels Distillery

Last week I had a great visit with my friend from Virginia. She keeps a daily blog and loves to go on adventures so that the blog is fresh and interesting for her readers. As part of her visit, we decided to go to the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN before she caught her flight back to Virginia.

It was a cold day, but the sun was shining and the skies were blue when we left for the distillery. My handy GPS system completely lead me astray, but we used a smart phone app to find Jack Daniels and all was well in our world.

We toured the facility with a small group lead by a man who has an interesting Western Outlaw name. Jesse James! Or so he said... we started the FREE tour with a video about how this amazing young boy Jack Daniels bought a still from his employer, a preacher, and became the 13 year old entrepreneur. Then we boarded a bus to the distillery with two British young men and a family of three from Florida.

First we went to the outside burning area which created the wood charcoal the clear alcohol was "mellowed" through--big flames, heat and more. We walked by the cave of spring water that Jack Daniels has used to create its bourbon since its inception. Finally, we climbed a lot of stairs, saw and the mash, smelled the liquor and tasted it in the air, then concluded our tour in the bottling of single cask bourbon.

If you're ever in the Middle Tennessee area, I highly recommend taking a side trip to tour the Jack Daniels Distillery. And if you have Jesse James as your guide, tell him I said hello!