A Drink With… Jeff Arnett, Jack Daniel’s

Jeff Arnett, master distiller for Jack Daniel’s, sits down for a sneaky glass of Jack with Becky Paskin, to talk innovation, rye whiskey and why white dog makes ‘financial sense’.

Jack Daniel’s isn’t particularly known for its innovation, but Tennessee Honey has been a big seller for you this past year. What made you decide to go down the flavoured whiskey route?

We’d seen a market for flavoured whiskey open up and with people really liking those brands we definitely thought we could do one; the question was, should we. We chose honey as a flavour because we are already a sweet whiskey and it would work, although the one criticism that people had was that it’s too sweet. We knew going into this that it had to be sweet to be successful. The point of this was to meet a new consumer and welcome them into the Jack Daniel’s family of whiskey.

How did you come up with making Tennessee Honey a honey-nut whiskey?

We looked at doing a cherry flavour but it was a forced fit. Honey just seemed more natural. I first thought that to do the honey thing we should look at honey and citrus. It’s well-known as a home remedy. But when you put the two in a bottle together it smells like furniture polish. Even if it tasted good I couldn’t get past the nose. I couldn’t be serving up Jack Daniel’s Pledge. We looked at using different types of honey with a universally appealing taste of nut, which has a semi-bitter finish. It works so well that we may even look at doing another Jack Daniel’s honey but with a different finish.

So after its success is Jack Daniel’s exploring new, innovative expressions now?

You’ll see more limited releases from Jack Daniel’s; we’re going to do some more offerings that are unique, one shot deals and we’ll see what the response to those is.

One of those unique offerings is Jack Daniel’s Unaged Rye, which you’re releasing in December. Why wait so long before releasing a rye whiskey?

We want to be really careful doing it because people will be looking at us. One thing we have to consider is if we do a rye, we become like everybody else and we are enjoying having this spot over here by ourselves. You don’t want to go and mimic the number two seller when you’re the first. We have to be careful what we do with the JD name because when we do something it’s going to mean more than if someone smaller did it. We don’t have to chase fads as a brand; we want to be very methodical and make sure we stick it out there and continue it and grow it and be committed to it. Three years ago we saw the emergence of people’s renewed interest in rye; we are producing a whiskey that’s more in the vain of bourbon today, but there’s no doubt it’s a different type of product. It gives us an opportunity to do something very, very different. It will not be much like Jack Daniel’s typical whiskey.

If you’re going to produce a rye whiskey, why release it as a white dog first?

We would all agree that white dog is not going to be the best thing to ever produce, but it’s a seller that can be offered as a teaser to say “Hey, we’ve got this new aged whiskey coming, do you want to try it in its raw state?” Ultimately I believe you can do a lot more with a mature spirit and there’re reasons why the barrel is there – it markedly gets better. White dog is a financial necessity when you’re maturing a new whiskey.

What do you think Jack himself would make of all these brand extensions?

Jack went through several business changes in his own life. He started out selling whiskey by the barrel but people soon wanted something portable. When it came to choosing a bottle, he said, “If I’m going to be forced into choosing a bottle I’ll choose a square one”, which was abnormal for the time. He said his whiskey should be made to the same recipe he created, and while there are things we’ve also had to do to adjust to the market, we are still making the same whiskey he wanted, so I think he’d be happy.

What would you say makes a good master distiller?

A great team; I’ve got 400 people in Lynchburg making every drop of Jack and I would put them up against any distillery in the world as far as commitment, knowledge and the love of what they do goes.

There have been six other master distillers at Jack Daniel’s before you. Have you learned much from your predecessors?

I learned from my predecessor Jimmy Bedford what makes a great whiskey and how to run the process, but we would differ on our view of the perfect barrel, but that goes to show that everybody’s palate is different. He liked a dark, oaky whisky where I’d choose something a little sweeter, more balanced and creamy in the centre. But I think part of being a good distiller is recognising what people want. When building the honey product I had to realise it wasn’t for me, it was for a different type of consumer that wasn’t as far along the whiskey journey as I. You have to recognise what people want and give it to them but do it in a way that keeps your core intact. With honey, what was most important was that No.7 shined through it.

You speak a lot about the Tennessee Honey launch. It must mean a lot to you?

It was the first product that entered the market under my tenure and is the highlight of my career. Whether it was a success or failure, I’d take it pretty personally. I cant take sole credit for it though, I had a lot of people helping me, but those who tried it received it well. That always makes you feel good.