Brand of whisky produced in the State of Tennessee
This article is about the brand of whisky. For the distributor for whom the brand is named, see George A. Dickel. For the EP by Winnebago Deal, see George Dickel (EP).
George Dickel is a brand of Tennessee whisky produced in Tullahoma, in Coffee County, Tennessee. Today owned by Diageo, the modern brand was introduced in 1964, though the distillery has a longer history. Whisky production and aging takes place at the Cascade Hollow Distillery, which offers tours to the public and is part of the American Whiskey Trail. George Dickel operates the second-largest distillery in Tennessee, selling 130,000 cases in 2013, while the largest is Jack Daniel's, which sold 11.5 million cases the same year.[2]
The brand's labels use the traditional Scottish spelling of whisky, instead of the more common American English spelling: whiskey. According to the company, this is because Dickel believed his product to be as smooth and high in quality as the best Scotch whiskies.[3][non-primary source needed]
History
George A. Dickel was born in Germany in 1818, and immigrated to the United States in 1844. He founded a retail business in Nashville, Tennessee, in the 1850s, and began selling liquor in 1861. After the Civil War, he operated a liquor store on South College Street in Nashville.[4] In the late 1860s, he founded George A. Dickel and Company, a wholesaling firm which bought whiskey from regional distillers and distributed it in barrels, jugs and bottles.[5] In 1871, Meier Saltzkotter, who had worked as a superintendent for Dickel, became a partner in the company. Victor Emmanuel Shwab (1847–1924), a brother-in-law of Dickel who had initially worked for the company as a bookkeeper, became a partner in 1881.[4]
George A. Dickel and Company was selling whiskey produced in Cascade Hollow, near Normandy, Tennessee, by John F. Brown and F.E. Cunningham in the 1870s. In 1879, Matthew Sims, a local businessman, bought Brown's share of the operation. In 1883, another local businessman, McLin Davis (1852–1898), joined the partnership. Davis became the operation's distiller, and is credited with the whisky's recipe. By the early 1890s, Cascade Whisky was one of the more popular brands in the region. The Cascade label included the phrase, "Mellow as Moonlight", which was rooted in Davis's method of cooling mash at night.[4]
Cascade Pure Whisky ad from 1915
Following an accident in 1886, Dickel's health declined, and Shwab gradually took control of the wholesaling firm's daily operations. In 1888, Shwab purchased Sims's share of the Cascade Distillery, whose whiskey Dickel and Company had been selling for years. The terms of the purchase made Dickel and Company the sole distributor of Cascade. Shwab also purchased the popular Climax Saloon in Nashville, and afterward advertised the saloon as the "headquarters" of Cascade Whisky. After Davis's death in 1898, his son, Norman Davis, briefly ran the distillery, but was sued by Shwab and forced to sell his share in the operation.[4]
Following Dickel's death in 1894, his share of Dickel and Company was willed to his wife, Augusta. Though he had advised her to sell out, she retained her share of the company, but did not participate in its operations. Upon her death in 1916, she willed her share to Shwab.[4]
Throughout the early 1900s, Shwab fought vehemently against the rising calls for prohibition, spending thousands of dollars on lobbying campaigns in Nashville, and thwarting legislation aimed at curtailing the sale of alcohol on at least one occasion. In spite of his efforts, Tennessee enacted prohibition in 1910, forcing the Cascade operation to relocate to the Stitzel Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky. It was produced here until Kentucky enacted statewide prohibition in 1917. The operation shut down altogether with the onset of nationwide prohibition in 1920.[4]
In 1933, national prohibition was repealed. Four years later, Shwab's heirs sold the Cascade brand to the Schenley Distilling Company. The recipe had never been written down, and had to be obtained from two former distillers at the Cascade Hollow site.[4] In the 1940s and 1950s, Schenley's product, produced at the OFC Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, was marketed as Geo. A. Dickel's Cascade Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky.[6]
In 1956, Schenley attempted to buy the Jack Daniel's brand.[citation needed] After its offer was refused, Schenley decided instead to return one of their own brands to its roots and compete against Jack Daniel's. In 1958, after the passage of enabling legislation making it legal to produce liquor in Coffee County, Tennessee, Schenley's Ralph Dupps reconstructed the Cascade Hollow distillery.[7][4] The new distillery is located about a mile from the old distillery site, but still utilizes the waters of Cascade Branch and the Lincoln County Process for mellowing. The first mash was produced at the new distillery on July4, 1959,[4] and George Dickel Tennessee Whisky was first bottled in 1964. Schenley opted to use George Dickel's name as the trademark because of Cascade's reputation as a value brand. Various mergers and buyouts have resulted in Diageo owning the Dickel brand.
The Cascade Hollow distillery was reopened in 1958, and the present building dates from this era.
Increased production of George Dickel in the 1990s caused supply to exceed demand. In response, the distillery closed to allow the whisky's value to rebound and mitigate some wastewater issues at the distillery. The original site of the distillery at the south end of Cascade Hollow was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.[8] The distillery reopened in 2003, almost too late to prevent a shortage of Old No.8 in the market by 2007. Diageo introduced a younger, three-year-old version branded Old-Fashioned Cascade Hollow Batch Recipe to meet demand. It was discontinued in 2013, after aged stocks rebounded sufficiently.
George Dickel Rye, introduced in 2012, is the only Dickel product not produced at the Cascade Hollow Distillery. It is produced under contract by MGP Ingredients in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and is mashed, distilled and aged there before being trucked to the Diageo facility in Plainfield, Illinois, for charcoal filtering and bottling.[9]
In early 2014, Diageo introduced a Dickel No.1 Foundation Recipe, using an unaged version of its standard mashbill of more than 80% corn, allowing for its sale as "corn whisky".[10] Also around 2014, a new bottling line was installed at the distillery.[11]
From 2005 to 2015, Cascade Distillery operated under the supervision of Master Distiller John Lunn. In March 2015, the company announced Lunn was leaving to become the master distiller for Popcorn Sutton microdistillery.[12] Nicole Austin took over as general manager and distiller of Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. in March 2018.[13] Prior to joining the Dickel team, she spent two years in Ireland serving as Tullamore D.E.W.'s commissioning engineer at its grain distillery in Offaly. Austin began her distilling career in 2010 as a master blender for Kings County Distillery.[14]
Production process
The mash for George Dickel is composed of 84% corn, 8% rye, and 8% malted barley. Distillate is chilled to 40°F (4°C) and mellowed in vats filled with 10–12 feet (3.0–3.7m) of charcoal for several days (their implementation of the Lincoln County process) before being placed in barrels at 55 proof.[15]
The distillery's barrel warehouses are one story high, minimizing variation in barrel aging.[15] Whisky is aged for at least five years before it is considered for bottling. As of 1995[update] all products were further chill filtered and calcium imparted by the barrel aging is removed.[16]
Products
Old No.8
Several whiskies are produced under the George Dickel brand:
Old No.8 Brand with a black label, at 80 proof[17]
Superior No.12 Brand with a beige label, at 90 proof[17]
And others.
They also produce a very small selection of George Dickel Hand Selected Barrel aged at 9 years, solely produced for barrel purchasing members.[citation needed]
Reviews and awards
Food critic Morgan Murphy said "Distilled twice, the white dog (No.1 Foundation Recipe) at Dickel is chilled then filtered through wool blankets and maple sugar charcoal before it is put into the barrel and the result is smooth, sweet (but not overly so), and peppery."[18]
In 2015, several George Dickel brands won awards at the 15th Annual San Francisco World Spirits Competition. George Dickel No.12 was named "Best Tennessee Whiskey" and won a double gold medal. George Dickel Rye Whisky also won double gold, while George Dickel Barrel Select Tennessee Whisky earned a gold designation.[19]
Related Research Articles
Canadian whisky is a type of whisky produced in Canada. Most Canadian whiskies are blended multi-grain liquors containing a large percentage of corn spirits, and are typically lighter and smoother than other whisky styles. When Canadian distillers began adding small amounts of highly-flavourful rye grain to their mashes, people began demanding this new rye-flavoured whisky, referring to it simply as "rye". Today, as for the past two centuries, the terms "rye whisky" and "Canadian whisky" are used interchangeably in Canada and refer to exactly the same product, which generally is made with only a small amount of rye grain.
Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from fermented grain mash. Various grains are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden casks, which are typically made of charred white oak. Uncharred white oak casks previously used for the aging of port, rum or sherry are also sometimes used.
Bourbon whiskey is a type of barrel-aged American whiskey made primarily from corn (maize). The name derives from the French House of Bourbon, although the precise source of inspiration is uncertain; contenders include Bourbon County, Kentucky, and Bourbon Street in New Orleans, both of which are named after the House of Bourbon. The name bourbon might not have been used until the 1850s, and the association with Bourbon County was not evident until the 1870s.
Rye whiskey can refer to two different, but related, types of whiskey:
Tennessee whiskey is straight whiskey produced in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Although it has been legally defined as a bourbon whiskey in some international trade agreements, most current producers of Tennessee whiskey disclaim references to their products as "bourbon" and do not label them as such on any of their bottles or advertising materials. All current Tennessee whiskey producers are required by Tennessee law to produce their whiskeys in Tennessee and – with the sole exception of Benjamin Prichard's – to use a filtering step known as the Lincoln County Process prior to aging the whiskey. Beyond the perceived marketing value of the distinction, Tennessee whiskey and bourbon have almost identical requirements, and most Tennessee whiskeys meet the criteria for bourbon.
Jack Daniel's is a brand of Tennessee whiskey. It is produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee, by the Jack Daniel Distillery, which has been owned by the Brown–Forman Corporation since 1956.
Maker's Mark is a small-batch bourbon whisky produced in Loretto, Kentucky, by Beam Suntory. It is bottled at 90 U.S. proof and sold in squarish bottles sealed with red wax. The distillery offers tours, and is part of the American Whiskey Trail and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
Jim Beam is an American brand of bourbon whiskey produced in Clermont, Kentucky, by Beam Suntory. It is one of the best-selling brands of bourbon in the world. Since 1795, seven generations of the Beam family have been involved in whiskey production for the company that produces the brand. The brand name became "Jim Beam" in 1943 in honor of James B. Beam, who rebuilt the business after Prohibition ended. Previously produced by the Beam family and later owned by the Fortune Brands holding company, the brand was purchased by Suntory Holdings in 2014.
Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. is a private, American family-owned and operated distillery founded in 1935 and headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky, that produces and markets the Heaven Hill brand of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a variety of other distilled spirits.
Alberta Premium is one of the few remaining 100% rye grain rye whiskies produced in North America. The brand is owned by Suntory Global Spirits, an subsidiary of Suntory Holdings of Osaka, Japan.
American whiskey is whiskey produced in the United States. American whiskeys made from mashes with at least 51% of their named grains include bourbon whiskey, rye whiskey, rye malt whiskey, malt whiskey, wheat whiskey, Tennessee whiskey, and corn whiskey.
Small batch whiskey is whiskey produced by mixing the contents of a relatively small number of selected barrels. Small batch whiskeys are commercially positioned for the upper-premium market. The term is most commonly used for American whiskey but is sometimes used for other whiskeys as well. For example, the Bowmore distillery in Islay, Scotland, has produced a single malt Scotch whisky labeled as "small batch".
Nelson's Green Brier Distillery is a whiskey distillery located in downtown Nashville, Tennessee that produces different varieties of Tennessee whiskey and bourbons. The distillery offers daily public tours and tastings as well as a large mercantile shop with bottles, barware and apparel available for purchase. In July 2023, Nelson's Green Brier Distillery opened a newly renovated distillery restaurant and full-service bar at their 1414 Clinton St. Nashville, TN 37203 location. The same facility also now offers four new private event and dining spaces available to rent for corporate functions, weddings and celebrations of varying sizes.
Willett Distillery Ltd, is a private, family-owned-and-operated company that produces bourbon and rye whiskey. Over the years, the company has bottled whiskeys that range from two years of aging maturity up to 28 years. The company was named Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD) between 1984 and 2012.
Glenmore Distillery Company was a large distillery company based in Owensboro, Kentucky best known as a producer of bourbon whiskey. In 2009, the company was acquired by the Sazerac Company, and is still operated under the name "The Glenmore Distillery".
MGP Ingredients, Inc. is a distilled spirits and food ingredients producer with headquarters in Atchison, Kansas, United States.
George Augustus Dickel was a German-born American businessman best known for his namesake brand of whiskey, George Dickel, one of two major brands of Tennessee whiskey. Though he was not the distiller of the whiskey, which was originally sold under the brand name "Cascade", his wholesaling firm played an important role in its distribution and marketing, and his name appeared on its labels throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When Cascade's new owners reopened the original Cascade Hollow distillery in the 1950s, they renamed the whiskey for Dickel.
James E. Pepper is an American whiskey brand. The brand is named after a historic American whiskey maker with that name who built and operated a distillery in Lexington, Kentucky, and marketed his whiskey under his family's brand name "Old Pepper" and under his own name. The brand's distillery, known as the Henry Clay distillery and later as the Old Pepper distillery and James E. Pepper distillery, was shut down in 1958 and was left abandoned for more than 50 years until Amir Peay purchased the historic distillery site and relaunched the brand name in 2008. Distilling resumed at the site in 2017.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to whisky:
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