Lynchburg

Lynchburg is a small town in Moore County, in southern Middle Tennessee, and the home of the Jack Daniel Distillery. The distillery tour costs 35 dollars, taxes and fees included, lasts about 1.8 hours and ends with a tasting for guests aged 21 and over. Shelbyville, home of the Nearest Green Distillery (Uncle Nearest), is about 30 kilometres away.

Practical notes

• Nashville International Airport is the main airport for the area. From there, plan on a car.
• Bring a photo ID if you want to taste.

What makes a Tennessee whiskey

State law sets the rules, as summarised by the Tennessee Distillers Guild: a Tennessee whiskey is made in Tennessee from a grain recipe of at least 51 percent corn, filtered through sugar maple charcoal before ageing, a step known as the Lincoln County Process, then aged in new charred oak barrels and bottled at no less than 80 proof. The Guild dates the state's dry years from a decade before federal Prohibition until 1939, and counts the growth from three distilleries to more than thirty since the law changed. In 2017 they formed the Tennessee Whiskey Trail, which lists more than 30 brands and 42 destinations.

The distillery and the town of Lynchburg

• Jack Daniel's dates its founding to 1866 and calls itself the first registered distillery in the United States. Jack learned the craft from a preacher, Dan Call, and from an enslaved man, Nathan "Nearest" Green, whom he later hired as head distiller.
• Its water comes from Cave Spring Hollow, a limestone spring in a cave the company describes as two miles deep, and every drop of whiskey drips through 10 feet of hard sugar maple charcoal that the distillery makes itself.
• Old No. 7 won a gold medal at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, the first of seven.
• In town, Miss Mary Bobo's Restaurant has served Southern meals since 1908, and Company Distilling has a tasting room in downtown Lynchburg.