MANY YEARS AGO,
THE FATE OF OUR WHISKEY RESTED IN THE HANDS OF ONE MAN. AND HE WASN’T NAMED JACK DANIEL.
What do you do when Mr. Jack
Jess was Jack’s nephew, and he about a decade. But in that time,
himself leaves you in charge?
learned everything he needed to he guided us through the biggest
In 1911, our distillery faced two know about distilling Old No. 7
challenge our whiskey ever faced.
serious challenges: Jack Daniel from Jack himself. How to tell if
So on our 150th anniversary, we
was in failing health, and liquor the corn, rye and barley were up
raise a glass to Jess. If not for him,
prohibition had come to the state to snuff. How to pack the ten-foot
what’s in this glass would never
of Tennessee. These were dark mellowing vats full of charcoal
days indeed, and the skies grew so the whiskey dripped through
even darker with the passage of at precisely the right rate. And
national prohibition ten years later. most importantly, how to tell
have ended up there.
when the whiskey had rested in its oak barrels just long
enough to become Jack Daniel’s. So with the repeal of Prohibition,
while the rest of the nation was
celebrating, Jess was hard
at work, rebuilding his uncle’s distillery and
OUR FIRST TWO MASTER DISTILLERS. remaking Old No. 7
EVEN OFF HIS PEDESTAL, JESS MOTLOW’S MENTOR CAST AN AWFULLY LONG SHADOW.
from nothing besides
memory and water from the Hollow’s
But eventually, reason prevailed. cave spring.
In 1933, Prohibition was repealed By this time,
and it was time to get back to Jess Motlow
work. After a prolonged dry spell, was getting
the nation was thirsty. on in years,
So it fell to our second master and he was
distiller, a quiet man named Jess only able to
Motlow, to pick up making the make Jack’s
whiskey that Jack was known for. whiskey for
L Y N C H B U R G , T N P L E A S E D R I N K R E S P O N S I B L Y
© 2 0 1 6 J A C K D A N I E L ’ S . A L L R I G H T S R E S E R V E D . J A C K D A N I E L ’ S A N D O L D N O . 7 A R E R E G I S T E R E D T R A D E M A R K S .