Travel with Neil does a US Road Trip - Pt 4. Lynchburg
Oh… I guess we’re not in the city any more.
Driving directly, Nashville to Atlanta is approximately four and a half hours. But who wants to drive four and a half hours with no stop offs en route? Luckily a little place called Lynchburg is along the route and anyone who’s been in a pub or walked along a liquor aisle in the supermarket will have seen the name Lynchburg many a time. It’s the home of Jack Daniel’s distillery, and the contents of every bottle, in every part of the world is still made in this little Tennessee town. In the very same place that Mr Jack Daniel’s distilled his first batch of Tennessee whiskey, they now produce approximately 11 million barrels per year. In fact his original office still stands in the grounds, a whole 30ft from the new head office of Jack Daniels distillery.
Tours around the working distillery are available and you can choose the ‘dry county’ tour, or a tasting tour. Now as I was driving, I obviously chose the dry tour, and anyone with children will automatically be put on this tour due to state laws involving alcohol. This option is just over an hour and costs $20. There are two tasting options, The Angels Share tour or The Flight of Jack Daniel’s, both are about an hour and a half and cost $35 and $30 respectively. You’ll need ID showing your age to book these options.
Our guide, Jon T., had worked there for 8 years and had no intention of going anywhere else. He had an excellent delivery, with plenty of jokes and tall tales thrown in. At no point did the tour seem slow or uninteresting.
Among many of the interesting facts, one that stood out to me, is that there has always been a traceable descendant of the original master distiller, Nathan ‘Nearest’ Green, working at the distillery, even to this day.
There’s two options for buying souvenirs from the distillery. At the distillery there’s the bottle store, which sells gift bottles. These ‘gift bottles’ are conveniently filled with various Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey options… (another quirk of the alcohol laws there). This is where you’ll find standard and special editions of the whiskey, but who really goes there to buy a standard bottle of Old No.7??? I chose a small bottle of master distiller single barrel. It comes with a metal plate on a chain around the bottle neck stating it’s a ‘Single Barrel, Barrel Proof, selected by Chris Fletcher, Master Distiller 2021’.
Just a very short walk from the distillery is the Lynchburg Hardwear and General Store. This is the official Jack Daniel’s gift store where you’ll find every conceivable Jack related merchandise. Spend $10 there and show them your tour ticket and you’ll receive a free Jack Daniel’s shot glass.
Leaving Lynchburg, I still had at least three hours ahead of me and if time and traffic had been kinder (you lose an hour with the time zone change) I was thinking of stopping off in Chattanooga and seeing the trains… However, traffic wasn’t kind to me and it was going to be later than hoped that I arrived in Atlanta. But on a slightly scary note, if you’re heading to Atlanta from Lynchburg, you drive along some backroads before you hit the highway again. Disturbingly, I drove past a small roadside house with the Confederate flag proudly flying on the porch. Then further along, there was a large billboard advertising a store for ‘All things confederate!’ I didn’t stop to investigate. It’s a strange feeling, as someone so open to anyone, that there are places and people in modern society, still happily associating with a symbol that represents darker times for humanity. It also didn’t make any sense that these were so close to the Jack Daniels distillery, considering it’s absolute diversity, from it’s very foundation.
Just one of the many barrel houses Jack Daniels have. This little one only stores 11’000 barrels.
Now, as you’ve probably guessed, I have no problem driving in different countries, and their cities. I’ve driven though many big cities, London, Berlin, New York, Chicago, no to mention much of the State of Florida, and let me tell you, Florida drivers, woo boy!… But none of them scared me as much as arriving in Atlanta at evening rush hour! It was like the ultimate game of Frogger and Asteroids at the same time. Lanes and lanes of commuters and big rigs seemingly with no fear of an insurance claim weaving and darting for the smallest of spaces in another lane, just in case that one would get them home quicker. Then there were the very last minute dashes across multiple lanes to reach their off ramp. I held my breath more than once, but thankfully reached my hotel without incident. I definitely earned an end of day beer after that one.
The finished product. This one a special edition that, although possibly justified, wasn’t opened that evening.
