Jack Daniel's Black @ 80 Proof Now On Shelves

[TNbourbon]

I noticed for the first time on the shelves of the store where I work a couple nights a week that our new Jack Daniel's #7 black label stock is the much-rumored 80-proof. Distributor says there may be a period of random deliveries of both 80- and 86-proof because they don't rotate stock. But, apparently, the 86-proof is about to officially become yet another JD collectible.

[kitzg]

Though I stopped drinking Jack Black maybe I'll have to get a bottle of the 86! OH, wait. I think I have one!

[tlsmothers]

Hmmm...interesting. I haven't sold through a case of JD Black since I opened. Guess that's what I get for turning folks onto George Dickel. I guess I should start a "craze" for my 86 proof. Just kidding, of course.

[cowdery]

NYC is where that silly craze for JD green label got started. Did you have anything to do with that?

[Paradox]

You are not kidding Chuck... I can buy the green label Jack at an army base in Brooklyn and people go nuts over it for some resaon, always asking me to pick them up bottles!

[TNbourbon]

Ah, New York! (I say it with affection, I assure you, Tonya). The JD folks told us that Green Label is just whiskey that wasn't good enough for the black label. (By the way, we're told that it will survive the latter being at the same proof both because the taste profiles are different and because the Green is only marketed in a handful of states. So, in most places, JD won't be competing against itself, anyway.)

[Paradox]

Thanks for sharing that, I have been wondering if they would drop the green label now that regular jack is 80 proof as well.

[cowdery]

Well, there was once a rumor that Seagram's gin was slightly yellow because it contained urine.

[Gillman]

Good point but I think Green Label is slightly younger than Jack Daniel Black Label. I once acquired some Green Label, and it was a quart so I had some opportunity to judge its character. I found it similar to Black Label, just a little more raw, a little more spare. A good whiskey - probably similar to a lot of the old-time, young whiskeys - but seeing as Gentleman Jack and JD Single Barrel are now in the range one wonders if Green Label will continue to be produced. I hope so: there is a lot to be said for tradition, and choice.

Gary

[bluesbassdad]

When I toured the Jack Daniel's Distillery sometime in the late 70's, my tour guide said that the black label product was from barrels stored near the outside of the warehouse, where greater temperature fluctuations caused a greater interaction between the whiskey and the wood. In contrast, the green label product came from the inner part of the warehouse. No mention was made of chronological age at that time. Of course things have probably changed during the last 25 years. My taste in whiskey certainly has.

Yours truly,
Dave Morefield