There is an axiom, said to Peter Parker by his uncle Ben, that has reached the status of an aphorism. “With great power comes great responsibility.” The concept is easy to absorb, to the point that it seems strange that no one has condensed it before. In fact, versions of the quote are much older than our beloved Marvel hero. Which, in no way, takes away his, or Stan Lee’s merit for the mention.
For example, in 1817, the future prime minister of England, William Lamb, said in a speech to parliament that “the possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility.” The new King James version of the Bible also has a passage that mentions something similar. “For everyone to whom much is given, much will be requested.” The concept was also approached by Chomsky, who, incidentally, is a contemporary and countryman of Lee. But, I digress.
With great power comes great responsibility. Which leads us to imagine that they also imply a huge ego, and an almost insurmountable inaccessibility. This is true for many folks. But not Chris Fletcher, Master Distiller at Jack Daniel’s. Fletcher is responsible for almost everything Jack. He takes care of standardization, creation of new expressions and production.
Fletcher is approachable and passionate about his work. He is especially enthusiastic when talking about technical matters at Jack Daniel’s, and about the legacy and authenticity of the brand. Values that seem to permeate all of the distillery’s decisions. During our trip to Tennessee, our group spent an entire afternoon with Fletcher. Including a tasting and an exclusive interview, which you can see below.
So your grandfather Fred Bobo was the master distiller right? Do you recall how Jack Daniel’s was when he worked? Did it change much?
Yeah, very much! So he started in 1957. And the brand was sold mostly just in the Southeast United States, that’s it. We didn’t export any Jack Daniels at all in the 1980s, and so it was actually all allocated, just the classic Old Number 7 was allocated in the United States until it was 1980. So it changed so much, with the growth, obviously. But you know, my grandfather and whiskey makers back in that time – what they were trying to do is make as much whiskey as they could and more and more and more while keeping the flavor the same one, so it’s amazing what they did.
Thank you, and you had no plans of becoming a master a distiller at first?
Yeah, you’re right. That’s right. I had no plans until I went to college and I was studied chemistry and I just thought “well, Hey, why not make whiskey that would be it’s a pretty fun thing to do right?” And I had my grandfather. He was still around, he passed away in 2020. He was certainly a wealth of information!
How was your 1st day in the job of master distiller? Were you excited? Were you anxious?
Um, no I wasn’t. I wasn’t anxious, it was interesting because it was in the middle of COVID! It was October 1st, 2020. This was my 1st day and we had a three month old little boy at home – our son. And so we’ve experienced all of that within the pandemic. So it was a bit of a stressful time, but not because of the job.
The job was actually the smallest problem.
Exactly, exactly.
On Jack Daniel’s Rye. Why 70% rye in the mashbill? Why not 90, or 51, as most big distilleries do?
Ultimately, the 70% is great for the balance of flavor and finish. But secondly, because we only rely on the malted barley for the conversion of starch to fermentable sugar. So, we couldn’t go above 90% you need at least 10% malted grain in the recipe to convert the starches to fermentables. Without that, you would have to add additional enzymes from an external source, and that’s not what we do here, and so we never really would consider anything above 90% out of unmalted grain. Um, we use a minimum 12% typically. So that was really what drove it.
Now, to drive it to 70%, there was actually a former distillery manager here. He was pretty adamant on the 70% rye for balance of flavor and I think he was exactly right. So I’ll give him the credit.
And about the Single Malt, when did the project start? How did it develop? What was the idea?
We started experimenting at the very end of 2012. And then really got more serious with it into 2013 and 2014 in the distillation of it. And then of course, with it only being in the new oak barrel – the new American oak barrel every single time – over the course of 5, 6 and 7 years of aging, we felt like we needed to add a layer of richness and sweetness, and that’s what led us to using some Sherry casks.
We have some partner distilleries within our company in Scotland that are very famous for their beautiful sherry scotches [Glendronach]. And so, you know, we were over there years ago. And we’re experiencing what the Sherri provides their whiskeys and we thought we should try it That’s what really led us down the road of sherry. And now we’re sourcing directly from Spain. Our brand new sherry butts!
I’ve seen a new expression in this trip. The Triple mash. What about it? What was the idea?
So we started down the path of bottled-in-bond whiskey. And so when we did that, we were also thinking of different ways to experiment and do innovation. So a blend was an idea! But I didn’t want to blend anything other than straight American whiskey.
We have been making the straight Tennessee whiskey, the Straight Rye whiskey, and the straight single malt as well. And I noticed that each of those spirits were meeting the regulations for American bottled-in-bond. You know, produced in the same seasons and of course, meeting all the requirements for the bonded barrel house and all of that.
I just thought it would be really different and new, if we could take three different bottled-in-bond whiskeys and blend them all together in the same bottle. It’s never been done before that I know of. And so, that was what led us in the path of triple mash.
And well, I think that if you could experiment freely and create an expression of Jack Daniel’s. What would you do?
Well, we’re continuing to do that. We’re going to continue to do things that represents our history. We’re doing that with our 10-year-old, 12-Year-Old, and there’s a 14-year-old coming. These are all age-stated whiskies that Jack did. So we are just recreating the past. That’s a lot of fun to be able to honor our past in that way. but then we also do things that have never been done before at any distillery, like triple mash.
I think it’s important to have a balance. Between old and innovation. What has never been done, and then, also, recreating our history and heritage.
We all hear about the Lincoln County process how it is it’s really important. Do you think that’s what makes Jack unique?
No! I think it’s our yeast. That’s the most important. Charcoal mellowing would be probably third or fourth on the list of what really drives our unique flavor. Our barrels, for example. It’s very important the way our barrels are toasted first, and then charred.
Our yeast strain, which is very impactful in the flavor of a whiskey, which nobody else has. We make it ourselves fresh every single week in our own lab at the distillery. That’s the same one we’ve been using since 1938.
Also, how we run our stills. Column stills followed by the little pot still or doublers. You know that is a fairly unique setup. A lot of people will use doublers, but they’ll do them in different ways. We run ours more like a Thumper. Meaning we’re not condensing the low wines in between the column and the pot.
And then I would say the Lincoln County process, That is not creating any flavor. That’s removing flake. So it’s taking a lot of the cereal grain notes out. While it is very important, It would probably be about fourth on the list.
And well, that’s the final one. You probably get this one a lot. Besides the Old No.7, what’s your favorite special expression of Jack?
I love all of our single barrels because each individual single barrel is bottled separately. And so you can get flavor differences from barrel to barrel, which is a lot of fun. Much of my job is focused on consistency. It’s fun to be able to try those subtle differences from mother nature!