Jumpin' for Jack! Jack Daniel's 10 Year and Jack Daniel's 12 Year Review
Background
Want a fun exercise? Start on the Jack Daniel’s product page and try to find these two releases. Despite their growing profile of acclaimed offerings, from Barrel Proof Rye to Coy Hill, these offerings are buried at the bottom of the page, on a sub page under “Tennessee Apple” and next to the page for canned cocktails. As of this writing, Coy Hill has a secondary market value of ~$500-$550, this 12 year release ~$300 (but hopefully falling as more hits the market)... but there they are, a small tile page next to Canned Cocktails.
Is there a lesson to be learned here? Probably not! Though I'll hazard one all the same- maybe it’s a tacit reminder to our wildly exuberant community to just take a beat sometimes… these releases arrive like meteors to us, but still ultimately matter less to the bottom line of Brown Forman than the success of Jack Honey, Fire, and Apple. I mean DAMN, JD Apple really blew up last year! That’s not to say Brown Forman isn’t putting a lot of tender love and care into these premium product lines- they obviously are. It’s just nice to have a reminder that allocated releases will come and go, but long after we have all turned to dust Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire will burn eternal. Anyways, let’s drink.
Jack Daniel’s 10 Year - Batch 2 (10 Years, 97 Proof)
Nose: Banana! Banana pudding, overripe banana, pick your banana. Oh and some caramel.
Palate: Bananas foster, more caramel, oak, root beer.
Finish: Cola syrup, a healthy bit of oak on the finish, hints of banana still but oak is the dominant impression.
Good (5/10)
Overall: Look, this ain't bad. The nose itself is outright AWESOME. If it drank like the nose I'd be allllll in. But the palate is a little simplistic, a little too oak driven, and all in all lacking complexity. It then concludes with a finish that is outright dry. I don't dislike this, it's a good whiskey, it just fails to elevate above that in my opinion given those flaws.
Jack Daniel’s 12 Year (12 Years, 107 Proof)
Nose: Brown sugar, caramel, maple, yes some underlying banana but it's super subtle, especially compared to 10 year.
Palate: Werther's originals, butterscotch, again subtle banana, stroopwafel. It's rich, viscous, and delicious.
Finish: Toasted coconut! That's a fun note. It's actually more like Samoas, the Girl Scout cookies. The oak is there, but balanced with those sweeter caramel notes.
Excellent to Incredible (8.5/10)
Overall: Sweet caramel delights! What a delicious brown sugar bomb. It's remarkable the difference two years and a few extra proof points do. This is a dynamic, layered, delicious pour. It's wild to see the JD banana note take a back seat on this pour. I'm the weirdo who seeks out banana Laffy Taffy, I love banana in most forms, I honestly would enjoy it being MORE present here... but it's a lovely change of pace regardless.
