For more than 200 years Tennessee whiskey has been defined as simply whiskey made in Tennessee. That all changed in 2013, when the state passed a law specifically defining Tennessee whiskey as:<\/p>\n
This, of course, is the \u201cLincoln County Process,\u201d essentially the recipe for Jack Daniel\u2019s and imitated by the (distant) number two-selling Tennessee whiskey, George Dickel. As noted here<\/a> at TBH, a new bill <\/a>proposing to wipe this definition off the books was introduced in the legislature this year.<\/p>\n The 2013 definition was passed at the behest of Jack Daniel\u2019s, supposedly to protect the quality of the Tennessee whiskey brand. A surprising number of Tennesseans, including some new craft distillers, supported the definition and still do. No doubt many of them take pride in the notion that their booze is a Special Booze, codified into law just like bourbon and French cognac.<\/p>\n Leading the charge to overturn the law this year is\u2026 George Dickel, or more specifically their owner, booze giant Diageo, on the grounds that it oppresses small Tennessee distillers and stifles creativity.<\/p>\n You could easily question Diageo\u2019s motives here. Dickel follows the Lincoln County Process and benefits from its exclusivity. And by the way, since when did Diageo become the guardian and protector of startup craft distillers?<\/p>\n Likely enough,\u00a0Diageo\u2019s apparent high-mindedness is just a ploy. Diageo owns the best-selling whiskey in the world, Johnny Walker; but Jack (owned by Brown-Forman) is number two in the world and charging fast. Arguably, nixing the 2013 law would weaken the Tennessee whiskey brand and keep Jack off Johnny\u2019s neck for a while.<\/p>\n A better spokesman for the nix-it faction is Phil Prichard, owner of the number three-selling Tennessee whiskey. Prichard\u2019s Tennessee Whiskey does not use a charcoal-filtering process, but was granted an exemption from the law and allowed to use the name for the simple reason that Prichard\u2019s forbears never used charcoal-filtering, either. (As has been noted<\/a>\u00a0here, if you write a law and then immediately have to carve out a special exemption to it, maybe it\u2019s not such a great law.)<\/p>\n Yet when Pritchard opened a new distillery after the bill passed, he found that this second site didn\u2019t qualify for the exemption. Comically, the whiskey he makes at his original location is grandfathered out of the law, while whatever he makes at the new site is not:<\/p>\n \u201cIf I subscribe to this rule that Jack Daniel\u2019s has imposed on us all, then I would then be paying homage to Jack Daniel\u2019s and not paying homage to my grandfather Benjamin Pritchard,\u201d he said in a phone interview Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that I can\u2019t make whiskey according to my grandfather\u2019s techniques at the Nashville location is a bit of a slap in the face to me,\u201d Pritchard said. \u201cIt\u2019s still the same grandfather, and I\u2019m still Phil Pritchard.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jack\/Brown-Forman, of course, vigorously defends the strict definition. \u201cAs a state, I don\u2019t think Tennessee should be bashful about being protective of Tennessee whiskey over say bourbon or scotch or any of the other products that we compete with,\u201d Jack Daniel\u2019s master distiller Jeff Arnett said<\/a>. But I would ask: If you have such a unique and special process to make your product, why force your competitors <\/a>to use it too? Why not tout what makes your whiskey different from others and ridicule any imitators as knock-offs?<\/p>\n Having no special insight into Tennessee politics, I can\u2019t predict how this debate will turn out. But if it were up to me, I\u2019d trash this law — or any law — that amounts to a government mandate telling people what to do.<\/p>\n \u00a0Update:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Opponents of the law enacted at the behest of Jack Daniel’s in 2013 said they withdrew their repeal measure Tuesday to try to generate more support before next year’s legislative session. But Jack Daniel’s master distiller Jeff Arnett declared the proposal dead.<\/p>\n