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If not for Lincoln County– a 571 square-mile backwoods on the border of Alabama-—Tennessee whiskey might be identical, at least by technical requirements, to bourbon. Both whiskey types share the very same basic rules: the mash requires to be a minimum of 51% corn, distilled to an optimum of 80% ABV, aged in brand-new charred American oak, have a barrel entry ABV optimum of 62.5%, and bottled at a minimum of 40%. Even with all those resemblances, some experts point to clear distinctions, with Tennessee whiskey typically thought about as softer and mellower in taste. One factor is the Lincoln County Process, which is important to Tennessee’s signature design.
This technique initially emerged (a minimum of by name– its real history returns countless years) in Tennessee throughout the mid-1800s and was then called charcoal leaching, when Nathan “Nearest” Green taught Jack Daniel how to make scotch in none aside from Lincoln County (which has actually given that been rezoned and no longer consists of Jack Daniel). For many years, the procedure hasn’t altered much except for the name: Unaged whiskey is filtered through barrels filled with charcoal made from sugar maple trees, with the final objective of getting rid of pollutants and smoothing (or “mellowing”) the tastes.
At Cascade Hollow, George Dickel whiskeys are filtered through massive, 14-foot barrels filled with charcoal that is first stuffed with the new make and then chilled– the cooling part being a Dickel special– before the bourbon drips through.”We lean very heavily into the charcoal mellowing, using it as a major contributor to the final character of the spirit,” states Nicole Austin.
“We lean very heavily into the charcoal mellowing, using it as a major contributor to the final character of the spirit,” says Nicole Austin. “Everything at the distillery was built around the idea that charcoal mellowing was going to play a major part. Sometimes in more modern production, people might default to a more traditional Kentucky-style of production, and their distillery might not integrate the charcoal mellowing process nearly as much.”
All Tennessee distillers need to utilize the Lincoln County Process if they want to call their items Tennessee bourbons, with the only exception of Prichard’s—which paradoxically is among simply 2 Tennessee distillers situated in Lincoln County. The distillery got an exemption from the guideline after owner Phil Prichard argued that charcoal filtering is not a method his forefather, Benjamin Prichard, ever utilized. Benjamin Prichard could not have actually utilized charcoal filtering, as he was making whiskey years prior to the procedure is even created.
Prichard’s was restored as a distillery by Phil Prichard in 1997; the very first legal distillery in Tennessee in almost 50 years. Its whiskey is made with white corn and Tennessee sparkling water, and is distilled through pot stills, instead of the column stills frequently utilized by much of its contemporaries. Nowadays, Prichard’s is more concentrated on rum, though Benjamin Prichard’s Tennessee bourbon stays important to its class.
H/T Whiskey Advocate
