You can't give booze t' baby - or anyone else

Our final stop in Tennessee was one of the main reasons for coming to the US. Lynchburg is quite a quaint little town with a population of approx 361, set around a town square in southern Tennessee, midway between Nashville and Chattanooga. A very pretty place and a simpler way of life, sort of the American equivalent of a country village back home, but with one very important cluster of buildings – the Jack Daniel’s Distillery.

Moore County, like most of Tennessee, is dry – which basically means you can’t buy liquor there and can only consume liquor in the privacy of your own home - so this also meant no tasting. However the tour was fantastic, mainly due to our guide, David. This guy looked like Uncle Jesse from the Dukes Of Hazzard but with a proper southern accent and some of the most amazing facial expressions & articulations of what he was telling us. The distillery itself is set near a cave opening to the natural springs, from which all the water used in JD is taken, and there were even 2 JD fire engines (one of which was an REO Speedwagon, from which the band took their name) in case the charcoal burning got out of control. We got to see all stages of the process, even getting to smell the sour mash as it reacted with the yeast (Tash said she could have eaten it!) and then the smell of the pure liquor dripping through 14ft of maple charcoal. We only got a quick whiff but it was like sticking both nostrils over a bottle of JD and inhaling for an hour. There was a slow meander through the barrel house where all the oak barrels of booze are left to mature for years before bottling. It’s because of this process that JD is the only liquor worldwide that can use the title of Tennessee whiskey, of which the UK is the 2nd largest consumer. If only I’d had a horse and cart so as to pinch a couple of barrels from the corner.


BTW; Jack wasn’t actually his name, it was Jasper Newton Daniel, but I’m glad he changed it cos it would sound a bit daft asking for a Jasper & Coke. Although Jasper & ginger does have a certain ring to it, don’t you think?

On our way out of Tennessee we did venture over towards the Smoky Mountains to get a glimpse of Pigeon Forge. Another town in the sticks I hear you cry, and yes, that’s what we’d expected, but this is the birthplace of Dolly Parton. Tash will back me up and say that outside of country circles, Dolly is hugely underrated and stupidly only thought of in the UK for 9 to 5 and Jolene, but she did write & produce so many other great tunes. We genuinely had no intention of visiting Dollywood, but just wanted to have a glimpse at the gates. However the day we chose to drive through was also the start of Christmas shenanigans in Pigeon Forge, so traffic was stacked. As with Nutbush, we tried but failed.