Jack Daniel’s is the best-selling American whiskey in the world. Despite that fact it can legally be categorised as a straight bourbon, it has always shunned this title, preferring to market itself as a Tennessee Whiskey. These are similar to straight bourbons but have the additional requirement of having been filtered through maple wood charcoal, a practice known as the Lincoln County Process. History has not always given the distillery an easy ride though. Tennessee was an early adopter of Prohibition in 1910, and one of the last to repeal it in 1938 (five years later than the repeal at Federal level). Even today the distillery is still located in a “dry” county, meaning none of its products are sold in its hometown or those around it. The distillery was then only operational for four years before being forced to close again during the second world war. Ten years later it was purchased by the Brown-Forman corporation and its fortunes turned for good. Its classic black-labelled Old No.7 brand (named after the distillery’s original DSP number) is now a globally recognised product.

A limited bottle of Jack Daniel’s released in 2016 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Jack Daniel distillery.