GENTLEMAN JACK WHISKEY FROM BROWN FORMAN
- Parent Category: News and Stories
- Posted in: Product on Thursday, 24 March 2011 00:00
“Gentleman Jack” a exquisite creation from the house of Jack Daniels is charcoal mellowed “twice” (instead of once), the whiskey is first aged for 4 year like JD No. 7, and then it is mellowed again before bottling.
Gentleman Jack is hearty, medium and dark amber in color. When you open the bottle and let the whisky's aroma gently waft over to your nose, you're met with tones of immensely pleasant caramel and almost even light honey. The key here is to ease the aroma towards you so that you can just barely start to perceive it, then back off. Taking a direct whiff is too harsh... After all, this is good old Tennessee firewater we are talking about.
The double charcoal filtering process that Jack Daniels applies to Gentleman Jack unquestionably smoothes the impact of this whisky on your palette. The difference is fairly obvious if you are a regular consumer of Old No.7 and have that experience as a comparative reference point. There is a light sweetness to this spirit. And, you can definitely taste muted charred oak from the barrel maturation time.
THE MELLOWING
Jack Daniels runs their distilled bourbon drop by drop down 10 feet of packed, charred sugar maple. This “charcoal-mellowing” takes approximately ten days but it helps filter out the harsh impurities and tastes associated with “moonshine.”
The Gentleman’s extra step of mellowing it a second time helps remove even more impurities not first removed and any oils developed during the aging process. Gentleman Jack is less known because it costs more than Jack Daniel's No. 7. It is also less known because the distillers in Lynchburg, Tennessee, only started producing the more-mellow product in 1988. Even though Mr. Jack Daniel experimented with the double charcoal mellowing in the 1900s, the process took too long to justify its production. The Gentleman still is 40% ABV like JD, but much smoother.
THE POUR
Gentleman Jack pours a dark coppery color. I did not notice any major difference in color between the two brother whiskies. I could not guess which was which by their look. You can differentiate by the following senses easily, however:
THE NOSE
Gentleman Jack is made with corn, rye, and barley malt, so there is more of an earthy nose to this whiskey than a scotch. I can only describe the Gentelman nose as “less harsh” than JD. If you had only the Gentleman Jack to nose, you would probably name JD as your guess. When you actually have both of them side by side, however, you can tell the Gentleman Jack does not have such a burning nose that turn most drinkers away from straight whiskey. The nose is woody in addition to the barley and rye coming through.
THE TASTE
The whiskey has a prominent woody taste and the charcoal, burnt tastes come through as well. There is a slight spicy burn and the finish is quite pleasant. There is a balance between a very subdued fruit sweetness and the woody, charcoal flavors.
THE AFTERTASTE
Unlike aged Scotch whisky, Gentleman Jack burns little more going down than a gentle warming associated with some finer whiskies. Like I mentioned initially, the Gentleman Jack is more pleasant than JD. The whiskey regardless of the mellowing process with always taste like a 4 year aged whiskey. The Single Barrel Jack Daniel's is much more pleasant because it is aged around 7 years. I am going to have to consume the Single Barrel again to do a review and proved that the aging process has a lot to do with the quality of whiskey.