Dive Brief:
- The maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey has opened a barrel-making shop outside Decatur, AL, to supply its distillery across the state line in Lynchburg, TN.
- The shop, known as a cooperage, will produce about 700 barrels per day and employ some 200 people.
- Tennessee law requires that whiskey be aged in white-oak barrels if it is to be called Tennessee whiskey.
Dive Insight:
The law requiring the use of oak barrels is a new one. It passed just last year, with the major supporter of the legislation being Brown-Forman Corp., the owner of Jack Daniel's. Smaller distillers, led by Diageo's George Dickel brand fought the law, but lost.
Efforts to roll back the law have also fallen short. In the meantime, a separate battle developed over rules requiring distillers keep those barrels in Tennessee.
