TN Tours?

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Does anyone have input regarding which tour is better: Jack Daniels or George Dickel? Are there any other distilleries in TN anyone knows about?

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Jack Daniel's has the better tour, but that's mainly because George Dickel are no longer offering tours.

There are plenty of other distilleries in Tennessee, but they most certainly do not offer tours... if ya catch my drift ;-)

I'm afraid the REALLY bad news, however, is that even at JD (whose tour is actually a pretty good one, by the way, even if it they do take a bit of "dramatic license") they probably won't be doing any whiskey-making in August or early September. In summertime the livin' ain't easy for heat-sensitive things like yeast, and working in a fully-enclosed building with steam-heated mash-cookers and a live-steam-driven continuous still isn't much fun either. Most distilleries use summer for tearing down and cleaning stuff, repainting, and like that. Of course bottling goes on year 'round, but you'll miss most of the good stuff. And at Jack Daniels, you can't visit the bottling line anyway. By later in September you might find some activity, but November/December is better.

-John Lipman-

http://w3.one.net/~jeffelle/whiskey

[Chris]

John,

Is Dickel not offering tours at all anymore or is this temporary?

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

John,

I was under the impression that Dickel was just closed for a year and would be open again by this time.Do I need to call my friends at U.D. to check if this is a permanent situation? I hope not because they have a great tour and distillery, but it would not surprise me if U.D. screwed this up like they did so many other things.

Mike Veach

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Mike,

Oh please do see if it's only temporary. I had only heard that touring had stopped, nothing about a year's hiatus.

I learned this from a very "inside" source. On the back page of the Fall 1999 Cascade Hollow Courier (a good-old-timey self-promotional fan magazine published by George Dickel) is a sober (some might even say bitter) article by Dave Backus, apologizing for his company's abrupt abandonment of the brand's fans' loyalty. In the article, Dave says,

"As some some of you are already aware, we are no longer able to give distillery tours to the public. Although we hope to be able to offer those tours again at some point in the future, the company which owns the distillery made that decision, and though we may not necessarily agree, we must abide by their direction... "

The article makes it very clear that the decision was not popular among the people at George Dickel, and goes on to suggest that fans have "every right to make your opinion heard". It ends with sincere, if somewhat hollow, assurances that George Dickel will continue to be available and that "[t]he time-honored way in which we make George Dickel will never change no matter what. That is our promise to you." He didn't explain what "no matter what" might have meant.

The bulletin board at Dickel's website (www.dickel.com) is a little more upbeat. But the last entry was Aug 25, 1999.

And as for the Cascade Hollow Courier, I'm afraid I don't recall having received a Winter 1999, or Spring or Summer 2000 edition. :-(

-John Lipman-

http://w3.one.net/~jeffelle/whiskey