By Richard Thomas
Rating: B+
“Single barrel heritage barrel.” Try saying that one three times fast. The phrasing is a mouthful to be sure, but I was happy to receive this bottle of Jack Daniel’s for review. My book Whiskey Stories delved into Mr. Jack, his contemporaries and heirs, and I have another book wholly about the distillery in Lynchburg coming out next year. In fact, groundwork promoting that book is already underway.
Let us pull apart the meaning of that tangle of a title, so long in its formal language it could be Germanic (I think it best to refer to it as JD Heritage Barrel 2025 for short). As Jack’s Tennessee Whiskey, this is the same root whiskey as Old. No 7; the reason those barrels could never go to Old No. 7, in fact, is that the entry proof was lower. That started a distinctive chain of maturation. It is a single barrel offering, so no blending here. Barrels chosen as said to be 7 years old. It follows in the vein of the much lauded 2018 and 2019 Heritage Barrel releases, which leaned heavily into Lynchburg’s signature barrel toasting. Starting in 2025, this is now an annual release and intended to be available (at least in theory) throughout the year, as an extension of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Collection. The whiskey is bottled at 100 proof.
The Whiskey
The pour comes out as mid-amber, with streaming, chunky legs. The scent was mustier than was the case with the 2018 Heritage Barrel, but still with plenty of vanilla. The flavor has plenty of candy corn and vanilla, the nuttiness and mint from the earlier version, but the dill is absent and the trademark Jack banana note makes a very modest appearance. The finish ran with spearmint briefly, before coming down to nuts and faint oak.
The Price
Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Heritage Barrel 2025 is priced at $70 a bottle.