Chris Fletcher: If I can't look people in the eye and say, “We make the same quality of whiskey my grandfather made,” you know, what's the point?

 

Lucas Hendrickson: Consistency, quality, family. Life in Lynchburg, Tennessee doesn't change all that often. And even when it does and the world shifts with it, while roles may change, the goals remain the same: consistency, quality, family. 

 

On this episode, we talk with Jack Daniel’s new Master Distiller and longtime friend of the pod, Chris Fletcher, about his new roles both on and off the grounds of the distillery, the team being put together to lead the company into the future and everything new that still has its roots firmly anchored to what came before Around the Barrel.

 

Welcome to the season four premiere of Around the Barrel, the official podcast from the makers of Jack Daniel’s. I'm your host, Lucas Hendrickson. 

 

When Chris Fletcher makes his way into work at the Jack Daniel Distillery, it's a very familiar path, one he's been aware of since childhood. Chris’s grandfather, Frank “Frog” Bobo, was Jack's Master Distiller when Chris was growing up, a title Chris attained in October 2020 after working as an Assistant Master Distiller since 2014. 

 

Chris occupies the same office his grandfather used while in charge of the distilleries operations and so shoulders the responsibility of maintaining the quality expectations set forth not only by family, but also by his mentor, previous Master Distiller Jeff Arnett, not to mention the guy whose name is prominently featured on every bottle that departs this tiny Middle Tennessee town. 

 

Mesh that with the duties of new fatherhood, and it's been a challenging time for Chris, but one he's been training for most of his life.

 

Chris: Hey, it's Chris Fletcher, the Master Distiller at the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. 

 

Lucas: Chris Fletcher, welcome back to Around the Barrel. 

 

Chris: Thank you. Thanks so much. 

 

Lucas: It’s good to see you. We've talked with you a couple of times across the course of this show, but have not yet had the opportunity to say congratulations. Welcome to the top of the table on that kind of thing. 

 

We did an event for the Tennessee Squires back in October, the Virtual Jack, where I got to say this, but I'll recount it for our listeners. I met you for the first time 6 or 7 years ago, 2013, 2014. I can’t remember. They kind of roll together, but you took a bunch of international media folks around touring the weekend of the Jack that year. 

 

And I remember thinking, “This guy is on it. He knows his stuff.” He knows not only history, cause you'd been a tour guide here and growing up and been around the place, obviously, pretty much from birth, but just the way you handled their questions – and some of them were deep. Some of them were, you know, pretty superficial as they can be. 

 

I remember thinking, “They better hang on to this dude, because he is super smart and super on top of it.” And here we are, you know, X number of years later, rising to the role of Master Distiller. So, congrats again. Congratulations on that.

 

Chris: Thank you. I appreciate it. You know, it's – I had a pretty good tutor for most of my life with my grandfather, and he was certainly a walking encyclopedia when you think about his experience here. Of course he grew up – he was born and raised here in Lynchburg and knew so many people. 

 

And his father ran the local grocery. And so, you know, everyone came to town and shopped for their groceries in their store. And then my granddad and his brother were waiting on everybody in town. So, you know, he was not only a wealth of knowledge for whiskey making, he was also – just the history of this town and this community and the connections in a way. 

 

He could remember people and how, you know, the town is so intertwined between the distillery and the community. So, he was something else. He was certainly a special guy and, you know, certainly taught me so much.

 

Lucas: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, the simplest question is how has this past, what – it was mid-October, so we’re looking at for close to five months now by the time this rolls out. How's it been? You entered the role at a very different time than somebody else kind of coming into this normally. 

 

Not that we know what normal is anymore, right, at this point, but, you know, how has it been what you expected? How has it been – challenges that you couldn't possibly have seen and kind of give us an idea of, you know, a general state of the distillery at this point.

 

Chris: Sure. Yeah. I mean, 2020, as for everyone, just threw curveball after curveball, right? And no different for me. We lost my granddad in January 2020. Welcomed the birth of my son in July. And, you know, came back from paternity leave and found out that I was the next Master Distiller here at Jack Daniel’s. So, it was a heck of a few months. 

 

Lucas: Yeah. It was uneventful for you, you know? 

 

Chris: So, but hey, rip the bandaid off, right? Just jump right into the deep end and start swimming. As far as the role, obviously with the pandemic and the things that globally people are having to struggle with, you know, you had to pivot and everyone got really good at Zoom and dealing with working as remotely as possible.

 

And then, you know, trying to connect with people, and that's one of the hardest things. Even in my role as Assistant Master Distiller, I was able to travel quite a bit and meet people and globally travel. It's – I'm so blessed that Jack Daniel’s is loved all over the world in so many countries. 

 

And, you know, I have great friends, I can say, in so many countries all over the world and got so many congratulatory emails and text messages from people and just such a humbling experience to know that people all over the world are kind of rooting for you and pulling for you. 

 

And, you know, I guess there is a little pressure that comes with that, but it certainly makes you proud to be able to do what we do here in Lynchburg and kind of be the face of many great distillers that we have here.

 

That's one of the things Master Distiller – you know, we probably, definitely get too much credit, I’ll say. We have a great team of people here making our whiskey. You go back generations and the people that have been working here and have family connections here – certainly not just me. Just one of many. 

 

So, I think it's been maybe a little frustrating as everybody is ready to get back at least closer to some form of normal. You know, I can't wait to get back out there and meet people and be able to shake people's hands and look them in the eye now. I really do miss that. You know, that's one of my favorite things, is to be able to get out there and meet people that love Jack Daniel’s, love our whiskeys and even people that maybe they don't, I can just talk to them about how we make our whiskey anyway. 

 

Lucas: Got to convert them somehow.

 

Chris: Well, you know, that's the thing, is people – a lot of people have preconceived notions about what we do here in Lynchburg or maybe they've heard through other avenues what we do. And it's one of the things that I really love is, you know, I'm so confident in our process and the history of what we've done over the years that I want everybody to know how we make our whiskey. 

 

There's nothing secret here. There's no – nothing proprietary. I want them to know everything about it, every little detail. If you think about it, this is a product that people are going to consume and put in their body. I feel like they're owed the right to know exactly what we put in our whiskey.

 

And so I want them to know, because I truly believe that the more they know about our process on how we make a product, they're going to love it that much more. And so that's the big thing. You know, I really miss that. It's just hard to recreate a lot of that over a Zoom call or something. And I've done some for people in Africa and all over Europe and Asia, and then, you know, since October, but I really miss being able to have that connection face-to-face.

 

Lucas: Sure. Again, kind of talking about process and the state of how you do what you do right now, you know, we talked to a number of people in season three of this show about the different pivots that had to be made due to circumstance and also due to opportunity, adding that component of creating pure grade spirit for a couple of hand sanitizer companies, the cleaning product companies. 

 

Where is that project? Is it continuing on? Is it phasing out? And then, you know, I'm sure there are probably a handful of fans out there that go, “Am I going to see the same whiskey that I saw leading up to 2020 in 2024, ‘26, that kind of stuff?” Help reassure them that they're going to get their Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 a few years down the road.

 

Chris: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So, we have phased, you know, most of that out if not all of that out. So, it was kind of a two-part process for us. Number one, we're not really set up to formulate and package sanitizer. We did a small amount of that though. 

 

We were able to repurpose, you know, some folks, like say at our visitors center, because tour shut down last summer, obviously. And so we were able to shift them over to packaging sanitizer that was purchased and it was pre-formulated, right? 

 

So and then the bigger thing that we did that you were talking about was, you know, converting some of our distillation capacity over to higher proof spirit. We weren't able to get it all the way to what we consider a neutral grain spirit. You gotta hit at least 190 proof on that, so it was 95 percent. 

 

Our stills – the whiskey still design is not – it's just not set up to do that. I mean, you would be pushing a lot of whiskey out the bottom of the still to even get close to that. But we were able to make some tweaks and some modifications, you know, slow the stills down a little bit, but it was only just a couple of our stills that we were using out of six. 

 

So, we were still continuously making our whiskey during this process. So, have no fear. Whiskey production never stopped. And certainly the quality of the product was not affected whatsoever. It was just, you know, we can make alcohol, and we were able to get it to a higher amount of ethanol in that distillate to where it was acceptable for sanitizer formulation. 

 

So, that was the piece that we were really good at, right? The formulating it, the packing it is not something that we were really set up to do on a scale. However, we were able to get that in the hands of folks that are able to set up and package, you know, what we all know and see when we go to the store and we see those bottles of sanitizer.

 

Lucas: Sure. And that was certainly a great stopgap measure for those companies that were just – that was their biggest hiccup at that point, was just trying to get, you know, alcohol onsite to be able to do that sort of manufacturing and packaging. So, it was seemingly a great thing to be able to contribute to that effort as well moving forward. 

 

So, you used the word quality just a second ago, and I did want to kind of touch on that because now a part of your title moving forward continues to be director of quality as part of that. What is – how important is that designation or that kind of director of quality segment of it?

 

Chris: Personally, I think it's the most important part. If I can't look people in the eye and say, “We make the same quality whiskey my grandfather made,” you know, what’s the point? So, when I started here part-time, as you were saying, in 2001, I was a tour guide so that really – I started to appreciate the history. 

 

And that's where I first just started getting the tip of the iceberg of the process and the science behind the process. And then, once I finished up with school and started work as a chemist, you know, that's where eventually I worked my way into distillery quality focused types of analysis, whether it was incoming grain or byproducts, the DDG that we’re selling as feed for livestock and things.

 

And then of course, process samples all along the way. So, you know, fermentation analysis, distillation, charcoal mellowing here as well, and then also barrel samples that we were working on. And so that's really where the bulk of my career and focus has been on, is the quality of what's coming out of the distillery. 

 

And I've been able to also work with a lot of other great people that kind of helped shape me and that I learned from. And, you know, learned how to really taste whiskey for quality as well, which is of the most important checks that we have. I mean, the flavor and the aroma of the whiskey is the most important. 

 

There is no test. There is no chemical analysis that tells us that, “Okay. It's okay to release.” No. I mean, it has to be tasted. You have to have a person make that call. And it just can't be replicated. It can't be replaced. So, you know, to me, it is the most important thing. 

 

And the consistency of No. 7 – like I said, we're in 170 countries now all over the world, and it has to be the same quality of what we're selling here in Tennessee. It has to be the same that's going all the way across the planet.

 

Lucas: Yeah. Aside from the actual taste and aroma and those individual tests, what do you think is the most interesting human test as part of that? What do you think may be most surprising to somebody, to a layperson kind of looking in on that process? What do you think would be the thing that may be not so super technical, but the one thing that they may not think of as a part of the quality assurance process for Jack Daniel’s?

 

Chris: The thing is, it really is good in, good out. And so what I mean by that is, you know, we have to make sure what's coming out of the distillery is top quality. That's where, you know, you think Master Distiller, the person in charge of making that whiskey, we know going into the barrel that the barrel is just going to make it better. 

 

And so I think a lot of people get focused on the barrel and just tasting barrels and that's all about – that's the big thing, is, “Well, this barrel might not be good.” That's not really true. If the whiskey is going in with that consistent flow, you know, and the whiskey is clear as water, if it's going in with the consistent flavor that we expect, aroma that we expect, we know that barrel’s going to work. It's just a matter of time, right?

 

Now, some barrels may move along quicker than others. And then, you know, it may take others longer. And then of course, obviously depending on the final color, flavor and aroma we want in the bottle, that's going to also dictate barrel location, length of time in the barrel and all that stuff. 

 

It became so, so evident, that is, you know, good in equals good out. And so I'll say if you put bad whiskey in the barrel, the barrel is not going to be a miracle worker. But you put good whiskey in the barrel, and you're pretty much guaranteed eventually, that barrel is going to get it right.

 

Lucas: Yeah. You talked a little bit about, you know, the team that's been here and also you've helped to kind of assemble and reshape. Lexie Phillips, who we spoke with – she was recently announced as the Assistant Distiller. Talk about her new role and importance to what – both of your plans moving forward with the products.

 

Chris: Yeah. Absolutely. One of the most important things here is, you know, that continuation of quality in what we do here in Lynchburg. And you look back on it and my grandfather and of course also working for Jeff, and there's so many people and families that have been a part of this thing. And I think it's only right that we continue to look for the future in developing the next generation of distillers as well. 

 

Lucas: Sure. 

 

Chris: And Lexi has done such a great job in her time here in the last several years at the distillery. She's got experience in quality control and in our labs. She spent the last 6 years in the distillery. Literally whiskey maker. She is legit. She is the real deal and has done such a great job. 

 

So, I couldn't be more excited for her to kind of come into this role and she and I to work together very closely on the consistency and the quality of the current products that we're making, but also as we turn towards innovation and look at other things as well. So yeah, she's going to be fantastic. She's going to be awesome. And, you know, I can't wait to continue to work with her in the future.

 

Lucas: Sure. You're leading me right into great questions. The word innovation – and it gets bandied about in a lot of different aspects, in a lot of different industries, but you wouldn't necessarily think that a 150 plus year old company is going to be leading the world in innovation. 

 

But there's a lot of ways in which the distillery is. You've certainly been a part of a lot of that with all the different styles of brands and the new expressions and stuff that have come out over the years, be it the flavored line, be it the Single Barrel Select stuff, the Tennessee Tasters line. Where are we with the universe of Jack Daniel's brands at this moment?

 

Chris: Honestly, we're just getting started. We are. One of the most exciting things about coming into this role is what we have been preparing for over the last several years. You know, this has been a work in progress, but we are absolutely looking to kind of flex our muscle. We have the most capable distillery in American whiskey. I truly believe that. 

 

I've worked in a bunch of distilleries across the country, and what we do in our process, you know, the traditional aspects of our process, the quality of our incoming grain, obviously our water source, our own yeast strain that we – it's completely done in house. Cultivated, grown in our own lab here in the distillery. You know, nothing is outsourced. Everything is done in an extremely traditional way. 

 

And then to be able to take that process that is over 150 years old and throw unique things at it, right, throw different grains in the situation, throw different wood in our barrel-making operation in our own stave mills and working with the teams there in obviously our own cooperage, which is also a massive thing for us as we look to innovate. 

 

The Tennessee Tasters – you know, I would tell you that is truly our experimental line. And it's only sold in Tennessee, because we just don't do a lot of that. I mean, that's really kind of our, for lack of a better term, our test kitchen kind of thing, where we're looking at unique and different things. 

 

And we've got stuff, you know, brand new that has just been put away in barrels in the last few months. It is truly a test kitchen and we'll see. And so that's the thing about distilleries is you gotta have that forethought of, “Where do we think this is going to go?” Mother nature is going to throw us a curveball, right? 

 

Lucas: Always. And she always wins. 

 

Chris: Right. She always wins. And so it's just for us to kind of hang on to the reins and hope we can help steer it in a direction we want it to go in. And so, you know, we have our Twin Blend that's coming out late winter or early spring 2021. It should be coming out. And that really was just scrolling through and looking in our inventory, I noticed that we had an entry date. So, an entry date is what we would refer to basically as a batch, right? 

 

So, typically one day’s production would be considered a whole batch. And so it would go to multiple barrel house locations, maybe two, maybe three. But what made this date really, really interesting – it was in May of 2014 – is we had produced both Tennessee whiskey and rye whiskey on that same day.

 

Lucas: Oh, okay. Wow. 

 

Chris: Yeah. And so that's a little risky. 

 

Lucas: And that was early on. That wasn't even – the rye wasn't even in full production at that point. Or was it? 

 

Chris: Oh, yeah. It was in full production, but it wasn't on the shelf. 

 

Lucas: Wasn’t packaged. So, that was right about the time that it was getting started with the Tennessee rye. Okay. Gotcha.

 

Chris: Yes. We had first distilled rye – it was early in the year of 2011 that we had first distilled rye. So, yeah, our oldest rye barrels at that time, three years old. Nowhere near ready for release at that point. And so in looking at that, it just kind of struck me as interesting. I thought it would be interesting to go back and look, because that is a bit unusual. 

 

Even though we will enter those two whiskey streams in different locations getting them into the barrel, you know, just for quality purposes, we can't mix those streams. And then we've made blended whiskey by accident.

 

Lucas: If we learned anything from Ghostbusters, it's never cross the streams.

 

Chris: That’s right. Exactly. And so I was talking to Jessica Hartline, who is our taster for this coming release, the Twin Blend. And I said, “Jessica –” and she works in our quality control lab. And so she's the one kind of helping us set up tasting panels that we do, quality panels, our master panel for Single Barrel picks and things like that. Super talented whiskey maker. 

 

And I said, “What do you think about some blending?” And she said, “Sounds great.” She's so positive and just was so excited to dig in, and I said, “Let's see what we can come up with with rye whiskey and Tennessee whiskey.” 

 

And so she dug in and did some work and, you know, long story short, we picked – I think it was 20 barrels of the Tennessee whiskey and 30 barrels of our rye whiskey on those same exact days, same birthday, hence the name Twin Blend. And I think the product is just dynamite. I think it's a really, really unique combination of spice and sweet. You get both grain bills. They both come through. Neither one dominates, and I think it's just a really, really well-balanced whiskey. And honestly, I mean, that balance is the art. 

 

Lucas: Sure. Right. 

 

Chris: And it's easy to make a one flavor product.

 

Lucas: Right. Sure. Well, for you, it's easy, you know, but there's probably some others out there who've tried their hands at a small batch and went, “Oh, maybe not so much.” But yeah, that actually sounds fantastic. And I'm looking forward to trying that. When’s that one going to drop?

 

Chris: It should be coming really, really soon. I would say late winter or early spring 2021.

 

Lucas: Okay. Gotcha. So, I mean, obviously with that and with things like the High Angel’s Share version of the very first release out of that Tennessee Tasters series, those are things that, happy or unhappy, maybe a little combination of both – accidents that can never truly happen again, maybe. 

 

And again, that test kitchen idea really works well with that Tennessee Tasters ideal. But do you ever see any of those kinds of things that you can maybe replicate on a larger scale become a much more available offering in the future, or you'd still want to just kind of really, truly keep it to that small batch idea? 

 

Chris: Yes. 

 

Lucas: Not tipping the hand on anything, but yeah. 

 

Chris: Certainly the goal of Tennessee Tasters is to find these things that really strike a chord. And you mentioned the High Angel’s Share, and, you know, that was probably one of the most well-received of our releases. Could we recreate that exact thing? No, we couldn't recreate it perfectly. 

 

However, you know, it tends to go in cycles that we see yield that gets a little bit better over the months or it gets a little worse over a few months. You know, there's probably a lot of things going into that. You know, certain barrel houses are just more extreme than others when it comes to temperature changes and air flow and things, for one. 

 

Second thing – you know, the barrel, even though we control the making of the staves and the making of the barrel, mother nature, again, is the one actually making that wood, right? And so, you know, wood quality is something that even though we hold ourselves to extremely high standards in the wood that we source and in how we're drying it before it's even possible to make a barrel from it, you know, there is natural variation, right, and things like that. 

 

And seasonal, even, variation. If we have really, really rough winters, really wet, and loggers can't get in there to get those trees, that puts a constraint on that whole process flow. And it's something that we have to figure out and deal with. You know, number one, to deal with it from a consistency and a quality standpoint and make sure that we're certainly not going to have a shift in what we expect for our Old No. 7 and Gentleman Jack and those products.

 

But when it gets to the experimental line, you know, sometimes those changes and extremities are good things, right? And so that's the fun part of the Master Distiller hat, is where can I dig into these circumstances that typically we would want to really minimize – where can I dig in and say, “Hey, let's see if we can push this and just see what happens”? 

 

And I'm not going to lie, Lucas. I mean, sometimes things might not work. We may say, “You know what? We're going to learn a lesson, and we're going to move on.” That hasn't happened yet, but it's not to say that it won't at some point in the future.

 

Lucas: Yeah. It really is kind of, you know, all the parts of the buffalo kind of thing, where you're able to – I don't want to say rescue, but certainly in the case of the High Angel’s Share one, it was one that maybe in years past you thought, “Well, that's just a total loss.” You were able to take that and turn it into something spectacular, so. 

 

Chris: Yeah, full transparency. You know, if I'm gonna preach it, I'm gonna back it up, but you're right. So, what little that was left in those barrels, it would have been rolled up into an Old No. 7 batch most likely, right? I mean, that was where it was destined. You know, people talking about this idea of, “You know, it'd be really interesting if these barrels, that maybe these barrels were a little flawed.” I mean, not from a quality standpoint, from a yielding – you know, evaporation, cause certainly you have some barrels that evaporate completely that we lose. 

 

It doesn't happen very often, right? We make really great barrels. We don't typically lose an entire barrel, but every now and again, it will happen. And so it just was the timing of the fact that, you know, I had been in a barrel house a few weeks before and I had drilled two barrels that were empty. And again, that's very unusual. The odds of you finding two in the same barrel house are pretty shocking. And I found two on the same floor. 

 

So, I mean, you know, as soon as that thought came out in the interest of, “Hey, it'd be really cool to try what's left over in those barrels,” I said, “Hey, I got our spot. Let's go find them. Let's go get them.”

 

Lucas: So, you threw your detective hat on and went through that process and got a great kickoff in what ended up being a cool series. I always feel a little bad, though, talking about Tennessee Tasters, because not everybody can get it. You know, you gotta be in the state of Tennessee pretty much to be able to latch that down. So, that's just an encouragement for when the world is available to us all again. Come on down. Come grab some of that stuff, cause it's so much fun to try those.

 

Chris: And that's where we landed, Lucas, is, you know, let's have something that is a reward for folks that do find Lynchburg. Because it's not easy. 

 

Lucas: It’s not easy.

 

Chris: You know, even if you're in Nashville, you better have a good GPS.

 

Lucas: Yeah, exactly. We may have touched on it a little bit before, but what do you think has been your most unexpected challenge in this new role? Again, above and beyond just the working in not normal times?

 

Chris: That's a really good question. I think, you know, a lot of people, just around the holiday times – a lot of people want a signed bottle. That kind of surprised me. I tell people, “You know, just cause I sign this bottle, the whiskey is going to taste the same. It’s not going to make it taste any better.” I guess maybe I'm not a collector of whiskey. A lot of folks love to collect it, and that's great. It's fantastic.

 

Lucas: You got a little one running around right now, so a lot of bottles around – probably not not the greatest thing in the world. 

 

Chris: Yeah. Not a good thing.

 

Lucas: Eventually. He’s a little young to be running around yet. Yeah. Very soon.

 

Chris: I got a gift for some folks in our company, and our marketing team gifted me an engraved bottle with Payne Thomas, our son, and the birthday. And then 21 years later, in the year 2041, we will have that. So, that's something to look forward to.

 

Lucas: Wow. Sure. How much of the distillery really being part of your family history do you think has helped with this transition for you?

 

Chris: Yeah, I think it has. I think just – maybe not even so much around the transition of it, because to me, you know, a lot of this is – the work is the same, right? And so working for Jeff, and innovation was still a huge part of my day to day. The wonderful thing was I had Jeff there as that sounding board, and I had him there. He would even say at times, “If Chris and I are nodding at the same time, we got it right.” 

 

And so you miss having that, and it's – Jeff is just a really great friend of mine and somebody that I admire very much. And then, you know, really enjoyed working for for seven years and not having that is a change, but the thing is we've got Lexi now coming into her role.

 

We've got – like I said, we've got a great team of distillers. Jessica Hartline with the new Tennessee Tasters coming out in the spring, the list could go on and on and on. And so we still have the most talented people, I believe, in the industry and people here that take so much pride in making our hometown product. And everybody puts a little bit of themselves in that bottle. That's what makes Jack Daniel's what it is. 

 

And people around the world connect to our brand through different ways, right, through music, through old movies and Hollywood, you know, classic American brand that Jack Daniel’s is certainly known for. But at the end of the day, there's an authenticity that goes out the door with every case, with every bottle, that people know it only comes from one spot in the world: the second smallest county in the state of Tennessee. Town with one stoplight. And it's those people of this community that makes the product what it is.

 

Lucas: Yeah. What can we point folks at, though, for 2021? What are the interesting things that they will be able to get their hands on, continue to get their hands on, as we go through this new year?

 

Chris: I think one of the most exciting things are what we're doing with our Single Barrel lineup. We started looking at it – if we go back to 2016, when we really celebrated our 150th anniversary and when we released the special batch of barrels for that 150th anniversary, the idea was that slow, toasted barrel to kind of drive those kind of sweet, toasted caramelly flavors that we get from the wood. 

 

And so we had some barrels left over for that. And a couple of years later, we released that as our Heritage Barrel, which, to be honest, I don't think anybody really saw it coming. We knew the whiskey was fabulous. I just think it was folks that got their hands on it – they realized that Jack Daniel’s is not just Old No. 7. 

 

You know, even though we do have Gentleman Jack and things like that and really great things, but this really unique spin on the classic No. 7 – because the DNA of that whiskey, it's just Old No. 7 Jack Daniel’s. Not just, but it's a classic recipe. 

 

And then to take that and just put a twist on it with our ability in our cooperage to drive unique flavors. And so that kind of put us on this path with Single Barrel. And if you look at it, in my opinion, it's the most diverse, unique lineup of single barrel whiskeys in the States, in the industry. 

 

And you've got, you know, the standard Single Barrel Select 94-proof Tennessee whiskey, you've got the rye, you've got Barrel Proof, full on Single Barrel, completely different proof from barrel to barrel. Truly whatever mother nature finishes out at is what we're putting in the bottle.

 

Lucas: That was my New Year's Eve present to myself, was a nice portion of that. It was amazing. 

 

Chris: Right. Yeah. And again, another spin on the old classical No. 7 recipe. I mean, again, the DNA, the roots of that whiskey is Old No. 7, the same whiskey my granddad made every single day, you know, obviously, that Jack's family held true to after prohibition. And so that is where it all starts with us. 

 

And but now you look at those different expressions within our Single Barrel lineup and now we've thrown in this sort of experimental lineup, which is a bigger release. It's a nationwide release. So, with them, we do roughly 5000 cases, depending on how many barrels we have available through Heritage Barrel releases. 

 

And then we came back this past year with a Barrel Proof Rye Whiskey, which is something that a lot of people were asking, “Hey, if the Tennessee whiskey is this amazing right out of that barrel, we really want to try the rye whiskey recipe at the same expression.” So, that's where we went to with this past year’s. Already have some barrels that I'm keeping a close eye on for this year, so I'm really excited for our Single Barrel whiskey.

 

Lucas: Well, I hope I speak for a lot of folks out there. I think we all feel like the history of this brand is in fantastic hands with what you're doing right now and what you're going to do with it in the future. So, like I said, I'm excited about you stepping into that role and wish you nothing but luck and want to talk to you many more times across the years. 

 

Chris: I’m sure we will. I'm sure we’ll have many, many conversations. And thank you for that. I couldn't be more excited, again, to be able to be in this role. It's a really special thing for a lot of reasons, but the big reason is to be able to make the type of whiskeys that we make here. 

 

Lucas: Yeah. Thanks for joining us Around the Barrel. 

 

Chris: Thanks. Appreciate it. 

 

Lucas: Thanks for checking out this episode of Around the Barrel. If you want to hear our previous conversations with Chris Fletcher, check out episode five from season one and episode three from season two. 

 

You can find all our archived episodes on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and more, plus on the web at www.jackdaniels.com/podcast. And if you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate and review while you're at it. Cheers, y'all, and join us next time for more conversations Around the Barrel.

 

Your friends at Jack Daniel’s remind you to drink responsibly. Jack Daniel’s and Old No. 7 are registered trademarks, Copyright 2021 Jack Daniel’s. Tennessee whiskey, 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof, distilled and bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around the Barrel is intended for listeners 21 years of age and older.