Jack Daniel’s hits back at Russian investigation

Jack Daniel’s owner Brown-Forman has hit back at the Russian government for proposing the ban of Tennessee Honey in the country.

Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel’s Honey, claims the product’s recipe and labelling has not changed since it launched in Russia

The US-based drinks group claims to have been selling Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey in Russia for 15 years and has “been in compliance with all regulatory and labelling requirements throughout this period of time”.

Its honey-flavoured spirit drink, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey, is a newer addition to Russia, but became the subject of an investigation by Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor last week.

The agency claimed to have found potentially hazardous chemical substances in Tennessee Honey, and found fault with the label’s lack of “spirit composition” in the Russian language, the producer’s location or the spirit’s age.

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey, which was the first flavoured whiskey to reach one million case sales in 2013, has not been formally banned in Russia yet, unlike Sazerac’s Kentucky Gentleman Bourbon.

A spokesperson for Brown-Forman said that since Jack Daniel’s has not changed in the last 15 years, any compliance issues in Russia are “because the Russian authorities have changed the regulations without informing us and giving us time to comply”.

The group said in a statement: “Regarding Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey, it is a liqueur (or “spirit beverage” in Russia), so it is not registered as a whiskey and therefore should not and cannot comply with whiskey specifications. But it does (or has until recently at least) complied with Russian specifications for liqueurs/spirit beverages.”

Rospotrebnadzor did not respond to a request for comment.