On this page I will share my vacation trip with you. I visited the distillery in 1998, on my birthday ! I've been there 2 weeks. Started in Memphis TN, went to Nashville TN and finally visited Lynchburg, my reason for this vacation! I can tell you , you will have NO trouble finding Jack Daniel's in Tennessee!! Everywhere you look you will see Jack! On the road, in liquor stores (and out side the stores on Billboards) in restaurants on the menu, in your cake and coffee! Everywhere.

When you arrive in Lynchburg, you will start the journey at The Distillery here:

Park your car in front of this building, the reception. Go on up the stairs and behind the door you will find a few nice ladies that will help you around.

Inside you can look at several open barrels with older Jack Daniel's bottles inside.

The very rare (again sealed !) Belle of Lincoln square bottle! (in the middle). The Light green label at the right is a experimental variation of color of Mr. Jack's earlier labeling. Detail text in Gold printing: "predominance is still given to his "old Time" designation". It's a 11" high, cork finished , quart size clear bottle. (c.1906)

1895 square bottles and original packing material! The bottle at the left is from c1910. On the side the words "Guaranteed by Jack Daniel's under the food and drugs act. June 30th 1906".

These black label bottles are all from around 1940 / 1960. In the middle you see the Pure "Lincoln County" Corn bottle. Still sealed and very rare (though very expensive expensive!). The label/whiskey was a experiment of two overlooked whiskey barrels in a warehouse which was allowed to over-age. The Lincoln County stands for a old Lincoln County process... now-a-days called...charcoal mellowing! Clear glass, 11' high, cork finished. There are a few different Lincoln County bottles made. There is also a 21 years old bottle made back then!

The other bottles where test bottles to see how a 21 years old, a 10 years old Jack Daniel's would taste. After the taste test I took in 11/2001 Mr. Joe Rossman, (director of marketing) told me that he had taste some older whiskey but it wasn't a succes....

At the right you see the only round black label Jack Daniel's bottle there is (as far as I know...). It's a quart size , 1953, clear bottle

When I took the tour again in 2001 they told me that all these bottles where "stolen" / "been taken home" by the employes/ workers that had to break down the old visitors center. This was in 2000! Unbelievable that the folks at the Distillery didn't know what they had displayed! ...unbelievable!....

I took my photo's with two camera's. One with color photo's and one with black and white photo's. It is nice to see black and white shots as well, try it one day!

On the next picture you will see some "old" tools used for marking the barrels.

These guys showed use around the distillery and told us many good stories and off course the history and the making of Jack Daniel's whiskey.

After a short movie from the urly days of Jack Daniel's we where asked to go on a bus for our visit at the Barrelhouse (the #1 ??) Inside this huge buiding the barrels where stacked 7 floors high! It is very hard to give you an idea of the building inside, but here is a picture of the first floor:

Then we walked to the burning place where they make there own Charcoal.

Sawing there own sugar maple wood, stacked into the famous ricks for a good controled burning of the wood. after this process you got the charcoal that Jack Daniel's is using for mellowing the whiskey.

From this spring Mr jack took his water to make his Whiskey. This water is still the most important ingredient for the Jack Daniel's whiskey.

In front of this spring was his old office. You can go inside the office and see the Killer safe!!

The statue and the water cave

The old office...

Inside the office it is all the same as it was back then, the desk, the books and all the papers etc.

The Killer safe !

The Distillery:

Making of the Alcohol:

The Whiskey beer (the mix of corn, rye and barley malt) On this picture the mash is fermenting for 4 days.

Then we went to the charcoal mellowing building.

Inside you will see the big tanks where the Whiskey will be mellowed. It smells nice inside!

This was the end of the trip at the distillery. They showed us a movie about the botteling because it is done at another place. After we viewed this movie they invited us at the White Rabbit saloon for a nice cup of coffee or a cold glass of the famous Lynchburg Limonade!

If you got time left visit Lynchburg down town, the squire. And you will find a bunch of old stores with al sorts of Jack Daniel's stuff inside. TIP: Leave you Credit Card at home!!