Pritchards Tennessee Whiskey

[silverfish]

I was visiting a whisky forum and someone posted an image of PTW.

I checked Pritchard's website but didn't see it listed (their Double

Barreled Bourbon is shown).

Anyone have any info on this?

[sku]

I believe that this is one they distilled themselves, unlike their Bourbon, which they sourced from elsewhere.

[cowdery]

Considering everything else the label says they do, if they had distilled it, the label would say that too.

They entered a malt whiskey in the last ADI competition (it won silver) which I was told they made, but I believe that's the only whiskey they've distilled themselves.

So what makes it "Tennessee Whiskey"? As far as the labeling rules go, it has to be whiskey made in Tennessee. Whiskey is a controlled term and when a place-of-origin is included it has to be true. That's probably why they went to such lengths on the label to show that they 'made' the product in Tennessee, even though it wasn't distilled there.

The whole charcoal mellowing 'Lincoln County process' is what distinguishes Tennessee whiskey as most people understand it, but there's nothing about charcoal mellowing in the Standards of Identity or TTB rules. Legally, Tennessee whiskey is just whiskey made in Tennessee, and even 'made' appears to be subject to interpretation.

This got me poking around a little on the net and I found this article. It doesn't illumimate the question above but there were some other interesting points, in particular that his bourbon-based Sweet Lucy liqueur is his biggest seller, accounting for 50% of his business, and that the business itself did close to a million dollars in sales last year.

Color me impressed.

[sku]

Chuck, so under TTB place of origin rules, you could take a Kentucky Bourbon, bottle it in TN and call it "Tennessee Whiskey"?

[cowdery]

Chuck, so under TTB place of origin rules, you could take a Kentucky Bourbon, bottle it in TN and call it "Tennessee Whiskey"?

Yes, and you've just seen the evidence. The key is what does "made in" mean? If they bought white dog and, as the label says, "barreled, aged and bottled" it in Tennessee, then it wasn't technically anything except spirit distilled from a bourbon mash when it left Kentucky. It wasn't bourbon, therefore it wasn't Kentucky bourbon, because it was still innocent of oak. Since it became whiskey only after it touched wood, in Tennessee, then it would be Tennessee whiskey.

[harshest]

I have been wondering about this ever since I saw it show up on the MI liquor controls list.

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/lcc_code/dt_lccc.asp?code=07087

[boss302]

Hi Guys,

I spoke to Mr. Pritchard this past year about some of the new stuff coming up in his lineup, including a single malt whiskey (think Bushmills Single Malt, with more oak, according to my palate). He did talk a little bit about his Tennessee whiskey...

He mentioned a tour of Jack Daniels where you see Jack's old office, with his original mash recipe on the desk-- JD doesn't use this recipe anymore, as it calls for White corn. JD, IIRC, currently uses Yellow Corn.

Mr. Pritchard was ruminating "...someone oughtta' put Mr. Daniel's original recipe back to work..."

Whether or not this is what actually happened, I don't know. This was back in February, and he was pretty tight-lipped about it (well, tight-lipped for Mr. Pritchard, that is...).