Milliardo
Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Barrel Strength Tennessee Whiskey
Tennessee Whiskey — Tennessee, USA
Reviewed
April 1, 2021 (edited August 11, 2023)
This was technically a shortbarrel pick for Jax Beverage, but since I don’t have the bottle for a picture, this seems like the best place to put it. It was 65%.
I am not a Jack fan. I’m anti Jack. I could not possibly have lower expectations going into this. I’m expecting: bananas, wood, dust, leather. Basically all the notes I could do without.
Nose does betray the heritage. There’s yeast, bananas, sugar cookies, cedar. Not enticing to me, but to its credit, one of the better Jack’s I’ve sniffed.
Body is heavy on sugar, caramel, and lemon. There’s some cherry there. The yeast and banana standard with Jack are present but not dominant on this body.
Finish goes off the rails, in a good way. I get Dr. Pepper, licorice, Fruit Soda, grape juice. There’s some bold after flavors that I’ve never before found on a Jack product. I actually have a “fizzy” mouth feel, akin to the 2019.01 Bookers but with far more flavor. This finish is by far my favorite and most interesting part of this drink.
I am not a Jack fan. But I can respect well made whisky nonetheless. I genuinely love the spin they put on the Jack profile here, and the flavors were so bold, it only took a few sips of my 2-ounce sample to get those notes. I poured the rest over ice, and as suspected, it shines here. It’s basically a Jack and coke (no coke required). If I had more, I’d also try it as a mixer, because I think it’d have a shot at “best on show” in the Jack and Coke category.
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I've had a number of the barrel pick JD's now and they have some amazingly good ones, the sweeter profiles are really nice but they also deliver some very standard tasting Jack that is little or no better than a #7 bottle off the shelf. Sadly the marketeers and snobbery of JD have led many to expect ALL Jack to be great, which simply is not the case, at least for me.
I must confess, I don’t mind Ol #7 if that’s all there is. Sometimes when I travel I end up in some fairly far flung places where the J gang dominates (Jack, Jim, Jose, Johnnie, Jameson). That being said, this is for all intents and purposes a completely different whiskey, and delicious at that. My current bottle has so much brown sugar gingerbread notes!
Welcome to the secret JD club...nobody knows this stuff kicks serious ass