274. Jack Daniels Bonded Tennessee Whiskey Review

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

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Hello everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Haya. This is the Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, it's another craft distillery Monday. We got this itty bitty teeny weeny little distillery we got on today.

Well, it could have been Tennessee's first craft distillery. That's true. It's the DSP, DSP Tennessee one.

TN one or. Yeah. We're talking about Jack Daniels. Yeah. Heck yeah. So today we finally got around to reviewing their bonded series, but we're only going to have one of the two on today. So they've got their Tennessee whiskey bonded and then they have a triple mash, which is another bottle that they've come out. So we'll get to that one. But today we're just looking at the Tennessee whiskey, bonded Tennessee whiskey from Jack Daniels. I think it's been a long time coming.

Yeah. Well, we both drink some Jack in our lives. Yes, we have. Probably getting some Coke too. Yeah. Which people... Jack and Coke. Jack and Coke. I mean, that's a standard guy drink to go. If you don't want to drink a white Russian in a bar, any of you young man, you don't know what else to order. You go in there and get a Jack and Coke, nobody's going to bat an eye at you. That's true. Nobody's going to bat an eye. Well, yeah, this is a, it's a surprise to see Jack changing. A lot more has been coming out of Jack. I'd say in the past, let's say five years. Yeah. Um, and it's pretty amazing. You know, they, they did come out with our gentlemen, Jack and, um, they had their rye come out and stuff, but they've just been, and their single barrels are, some of them are epic. Oh yeah.

Really good. Yeah. But today, you know, they've embraced the bottom bond. And they've got a couple of bottles that meet those requirements. We'll just go over those again real quick for people who may be just getting into whiskey and don't understand what the heck's a bottle and bond. It means basically that the whiskey is four years old. It's bottled at 100 proof and it was produced by a single distiller in a single distilling season at one distiller. Basically, it's not a blend of barrels.

Do you know the mash bill on this one, Jim?

I'm not 100% sure. I think it's a standard JD Mash Bill, but I think you've got it at your fingertips.

I do. It's 80% corn, 12% malted barley, and 8% rye.

So good, nice, good malted barley content. Now this bottle's got a little bit of color to it. It does.

I'd call that that, that, uh, dark amber to it. You know, um, you can see that barrel has says aged it and stuff. Now we do know, like you said, this is four years old. It's not age stated though. And the MSRP on this is $30 for that 700 milliliter.

Yeah. So that's a, that's a big deal, right? I mean, historically, in the U S bottles ship at 750 milliliters. They have for some time, but we're kind of an oddity here. You know, 700 mil bottles are pretty common outside the United States.

We're going to get into that question about that, about that topic on Wednesday's episode where we answer a bunch of listener questions. So listeners, make sure you stay tuned in on Wednesday and you'll get to hear that episode.

But just know that this one from Jack Daniels is in fact a 700ml bottle. It's 50ml shy of what you're used to getting around here. But you could count to pennies and figure out how much you have to shave off the cost of a bottle. Maybe a $32 bottle might be 750ml, but a $30 bottle might be 700ml. Something like that.

I got a hint that they cheapened it up. It's all about that money.

Yeah.

But we're going to get into that later. So $30 MSRP. You paid a little bit more, but at a store we've both been to.

Yeah. Yeah. So I bought this at Chuck's and, uh, In Bowling Green right there off I-65, exit 22 in Kentucky, just as you're coming up from Nashville or heading towards Nashville. Paid a little bit more, but I think that they were having trouble keeping it in stock because it's a wildly popular item right now. And they raised the price a little bit, I think, to try and slow the flow. Yeah. Well, you'd probably want to do that. Well, heck, Jim, let's get to this thing. All right. Man, that's got a pretty nice nose on it. Yeah. Nice and sweet.

Carbonly. Um, it does have that Jack nose to it, right? Yeah, it does. What you expect from Jack.

That brown sugar though, brown sugar and molasses. Yeah. Sorghum molasses. It's kind of a bold nose. It does have a little bit of ethanol on it is taking me, you know, get me opening up my nostrils a little bit, waking me up a little bit. but it's got some depth to it. It's a little bold. It's definitely not your everyday bottle of Jack.

Did your mom ever make those rolled up popcorn balls?

I mean, I've had them. I don't know that my mother made them, but you ever see anybody make those?

I haven't now. They take butter and that corn syrup.

Yeah.

Yeah. And they kind of brown that and you get your, you're poured all over your stuff. Then you form into balls and stuff. Well, I'm getting that whiff of that popcorn ball. Okay. Maybe that's a 80% corn on this.

Yeah. I'm getting a little bit of fruit in there. Um, And I'm not going to say it again, stewed fruit. No, I'm going to say it again. I'm getting a little bit of, of, uh, of cooked fruit, steamed fruit, stewed fruit.

He was in the store though, the J-Jim and I saw a can of stewed fruit and I almost grabbed it and bought it. And I was like, I'm gonna give this to Jim, give him a can of stewed fruit. I was like, I so happy to see that. Yeah, it does exist. It does exist. Fruit does exist people. Well, heck let's, let's taste this thing, Jim. Cheers.

That's an oaky sucker right there. It is very much an oaky sucker. I'm so, I'm going to say they're selecting barrels from locations in the warehouses that tend to introduce just a little more oak. You ever had a banana fosters before?

I have getting all the bananas.

Yeah. I'm getting a little bit of that banana in there too. I was wondering if you might mention that that's a, it's still got that. It's not a, it's not a sweet sticky kind of molasses. It's more of a, a kind of a bold dark molasses kind of a, and not super sweet.

It doesn't hit you on the front of the time with all that sweetness, but it attacks the back of the palette and your throat and that hug, that Tennessee hug starts working itself down. Um, it's got a little spice to it. That'll black pepper spice going on to it. A barrel spice, whatever you want to call it. Um, man, this is the way you'll want. I guess Jack to taste, right?

Yeah. I mean, oh my goodness. Jack's a great whiskey. Don't get me wrong. They've established themselves very firmly at the top of the heap with their Tennessee whiskey. This, this takes it up a notch and it definitely puts it into the sipping category instead of the Jack and Coke category. Most definitely.

This is, it is, it is sugary sweet. There is no doubt when I drink it, it's like drinking marshmallow, toasted marshmallow with some oak on it. It's got that little bit of hint of tobacco with it. This is like an old school sippers whiskey right here.

It gets a little tannic on the back end. I think it's all that oak because there's a lot of oak influence on this. It drinks It drinks beyond its age a little bit, I think. It's got a nice finish on it. It does. Almost that medium to long. Is this surprising you? It is. It does. Good Lord. There was a little bit going out of that bottle. I noticed. I noticed. You've been sipping on it for a little bit.

I did pour you a sample. I got a sample downstairs at the computer. Um, You know, Jim, this kind of reminds me of, and I don't know if Jack did this because of what I'm about to talk about, but. So you got Buffalo Trace that came out with their whole benchmark, right? Everything benchmark, you know, from bonded to foolproof. They had the whole lineup, single barrel. Is Jack going that route with this?

Well, you know, I don't know. They've got two in the series, right? At least as far as I can tell. There may be more in the works that I'm unaware of, but they may very well be looking at introducing a series of bottles, but they call this their bottle and bond series. So I think everything they're going to do would be bottle and bond if you're going to call it the bottle and bond series, right? Unlike Benchmark, which is not all bottom of the bottom, only one of those is a bonded whiskey.

Yeah. I just thought those two were kind of comparison and we liked the full proof and the single barrel. Right. We've been like the bonded to that. We were both very impressed, but Lord Jack Daniels knocked it out of the park. Yeah.

This is a, this is a little bit of a step up for them. No doubt about it. This is elevating that Jack Daniels line a little bit, giving us something that's a little more, um, a little more tuned for, you know, the discerning palates that exist now, bourbon and whiskeys, Tennessee whiskeys and bourbons. There's an awful lot of people who, um, who enjoy the hotter, higher proof whiskies. And this fits the bill.

That does fit the bill for me. Anyways, you know, Jim, I'd call this a, a, a super buy. This is something you should have on your shelf. If you don't have a bottle of Jack Daniel's in your house, because, because you just don't like Jack Daniel's, I say, go out, try to find this bottle right here. Um, that's what I would say.

Yeah, I tend to agree with you, Mike. I think every bar should have this on it. And here's the reason I'm going to say they should have it. Conversation is great when you're at your home bar and you've got somebody coming over to have a few sips with you. And the whole conversation surrounding bourbons and Tennessee whiskeys and why one is called one and the other, that whole conversation can get pretty lively sometimes. And it's pretty nice when you've got a Tennessee whisky that can hold its own. at bonded and you could put it side by side with a bonded bourbon, right?

It is nice. It is nice. What a conversation. All those, you know, we, we got good friends down at Leapers Fort that they make a bonded whiskey and stuff. Uh, I think they're, they do make a bonded rice. So, uh, this is just as nice. I, you know, heck this almost makes you think it's from a craft discovery.

Yeah. It's good to see the big boys continuing to innovate. And their bottle looks, this isn't the standard Jack bottle. You sure? Well, it's not because it's 700 mils, but it looks a little like it, right?

It does look a little bit like the neck and stuff.

So it's definitely a new bottle. No doubt about it.

Yeah. Well, heck, Jim, you awesome, awesome find. You know, I gotta say everything about this bottle is Jack Daniel's. Aged in select barrels for added depth and character.

Spot on, right? Yeah, spot on. They're picking their barrels for this. They're not just pulling off the shelf, right? They know exactly what they want this profile to be, and they're picking the right barrels to get there.

Well, hats off to you, Jack Daniels.

They've got a few barrels to pick from.

Yeah, maybe just a couple, just a couple. I think the only people that would. hang toe to toe would probably be Jim Beam. Yeah. I'm Jim Beam. But this is for you people that don't know the listeners out there that don't know. Jack Daniels is a Brown Foreman brand. Absolutely is. A lot of people don't know that. Yeah. Which would be the three big whiskey brands anyways. It's old Forester.

Yep. Woodford reserve. Yes, sir. A number of others, but let's just mention those to start with. And Jack Daniels. Yeah.

Well, Jim, another great review. Man, like I said, it's a buy. I think it's a buy for both of us. Obviously, it was a buy for you because you picked it up. But thanks for bringing this over and letting me sip on it on a Sunday afternoon.

It's a pleasure. I'm glad you gave us a pretty good pour there because I'm enjoying it. And I got a little bit left, so we'll keep sipping on this.

We're actually sipping out of these. Tennessee whiskey trail glasses also.

Oh, I just noticed that.

Yeah. I just figured they were, I got them down there at that Tennessee whiskey experience and I was like, man, well we're going to be drinking some Jack. Might as well drink, drink them out of Tennessee whiskey trail experience glass.

All right. Well Mike, where can people find us on the internet?

So you can find us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. I always forget about YouTube. If you're setting up your computer at work and you're, Board you're not doing you got your work completed. Hey look look at us up. Check us out There's not a whole bunch of videos on there, but you hear our beautiful voices Our main place is on Facebook though. We'd like you to go check out us on there Hit that like on there. And also if you would hit a review on there, you can review our Facebook page We'd appreciate that but we also have a private Facebook group Jim called the bourbon roadies.

Yes, we do so It's a spot for people who love the Bourbon Road, love to drink whiskey, like to hang out in a general chat area and talk about whiskey and fun times and getting together and sharing whiskey, and we do share whiskey in that group. Absolutely. But it's good people. Nobody's really judgmental on anybody else. We don't have anybody who's chopping somebody else off at the knees for drinking the wrong stuff because there is no wrong stuff. Whatever you choose to drink at your whiskey, your whiskey your way, right? Yeah.

Heck yeah.

Absolutely. So we invite you to come in that group. Three easy questions. Just go onto Facebook, search for The Bourbon Roadies. It'll ask you to join. Got to answer three questions. Do you like bourbon? Of course you do. Do you agree to play nice? We certainly hope you do. And are you at least 21? Because you've got to be drinking age to come in. If you answer those three questions, we'll get you admitted pretty quick. Come in there and join in the conversations and share your whiskey with others. It's a lot of fun. We don't sell any whiskey in there though. If you're coming to sell, Wrong place. We get booted out. That's right.

Well, Jim, we do two shows a week. Listeners out there. We got one show like we did today, 15, 20 minutes, a review of a craft, celery, sometimes a big boy, a giant worldview like Jack Daniel's bonded here. And then on Wednesdays we have our long episode, hour sometime last week, hour and a half, great conversations with great guests, or it could just be me and Jim sitting down sharing some pours, having a great discussion amongst two friends with some whiskey.

Like this week's coming up, right?

Yeah. You're not going to want to miss these questions I got to ask. There's some good questions personally about us and then our thoughts on some stuff that's going on in the whiskey world today. Good deal. So make sure you tune in. Well, Jim, I'm going to ask you, what's the next thing you had to do?

Well, you got to scroll on up to the top of that app, to the top of whatever it is you're using on your phone to listen to this and make sure you hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe button. Make sure that you get those notifications when an episode comes out from the bourbon road. When Mike and I put down a new episode, you want to get that ring, that bell, that alarm sound on your phone that says it's time to listen. And when you're done with that, scroll on down, scroll all the way down to the very bottom where it says, submit a review. We'd love to have you write a review for us after you listen to an episode. Let everybody know how much you like the Bourbon Road and whether or not those reviews They go a long way to helping us get into doors at distilleries, get guests on the show, get free bottles that we can sample and test and tell you whether or not they're good to drink. Those reviews are very important. And Mike, what in the world is going to happen?

I was hoping you'd tell, but I'll tell them. I'll tell them. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon will come to your house holding this jack in his hand, this Jack Daniels bonded. You and him are going to drink all night long. By the end of the night, I guarantee you give us that five star review and some comments. Like Jim said, those reviews are very important to us. They actually help us motivate us to get on down the Bourbon Road.

They absolutely do. But as Mike mentioned, we do two shows every week. We're always looking for content. We're looking for ideas. If you've got an idea for a show, if you've got a distillery in your hometown, if you've got a bottle that you've had on your bar, you've tasted it and you think it's just phenomenal, you think it's one we ought to review, jump onto our website. Go to our Contact Us page. Fill it out. Let us know. Mike and I are very approachable. We'll get back with you and we'll see what we can do about getting that bottle on the show or that distillery for that matter. Uh, we're also available through email. You can reach out to Mike and I through email. We will respond. I'm Jim at the bourbon road.com. He's Mike at the bourbon road.com. Like we always say, probably the best way slide into our DMS on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon 63. I'm big bourbon chief and we'll see you on down. Okay.