LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — Jack Daniel’s is putting a bottle once reserved for international travelers into stores across the country, and the timing has as much to do with Washington as it does with Lynchburg.

The Jack Daniel Distillery announced this week that its American Single Malt Whiskey — until now sold only in select duty-free shops overseas — is going nationwide this fall. The 1-liter, 90-proof release will carry a suggested retail price of $74.99 and will be available in limited quantities.

The whiskey is built from a mash bill of 100% malted barley, ground, fermented and distilled at the Lynchburg distillery, then charcoal mellowed through sugar maple charcoal before aging in new, charred American oak barrels and finishing in Oloroso Sherry casks, an oak barrel used to produce a dark, dry, and nutty fortified wine from Spain.

“At Jack Daniel’s, we strive to be at the forefront of creativity and experimentalism when it comes to crafting great whiskey, and helping lead the way as American Single Malt becomes an officially recognized whiskey category is an incredible milestone for the distillery,” Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller Chris Fletcher said in a press release. “We’ve seen a fantastic response from international travelers in recent years, and we’re now thrilled to bring this special whiskey to friends across the country.”

A category five decades in the making

The nationwide launch lands as American Single Malt Whiskey completes its first full year as an officially defined category. The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau issued a final rule establishing the category on December 13, 2024 that went into effect on January 19, 2025 — the first new whiskey category the agency has recognized in more than 50 years.

The standard, pushed for years by the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, requires the whiskey to be mashed, distilled and aged entirely in the United States and produced at a single U.S. distillery, among other rules governing proof and grain bill. It also created a “Straight American Single Malt Whiskey” designation requiring at least two years of aging.

American Single Malt Whiskey Commission President Steve Hawley called the ruling validation for “years’ worth of work by American distillers to define American Single Malt,” noting it had been more than 52 years since a new whiskey type was added to federal regulations. Westland Distillery Master Distiller Tyler Pederson likened the recognition to the legal protection separating Champagne from ordinary sparkling wine.

A 160-year-old distillery that still moves like a startup

Jack Daniel’s is no upstart. Registered by the U.S. government in 1866, it’s the oldest registered distillery in the country and, by Interbrand’s accounting, the most valuable spirits brand in the world. But the single malt release fits a pattern the distillery has leaned into for years: treating its own production floor like a test kitchen through the Distillery Series, an experimental small-batch line Fletcher has overseen since 2022.

The connective tissue between that series and this week’s national launch runs directly through Oloroso Sherry casks. Distillery Series Selection #12, a Sherry-cask-finished Tennessee whiskey released in late 2023, grew directly out of Jack Daniel’s single malt experiments.

“We first used Oloroso Sherry casks with our American Single Malt, and it was only natural to continue experimenting with them to craft innovations that only Jack Daniel’s could,” Fletcher said at the time.

Other entries in the series show the same instinct: a twice-barreled rye finished for an extra two and a half years, a rye rested in barrels that previously held table syrup, and this month’s Selection #17 — a batch-proof “High Angel’s Share” whiskey aged on the top floor of a Lynchburg barrelhouse to concentrate its flavor.

“Our Distillery Series has experimented with every step in the whiskey making process from grain bill to barreling,” Fletcher said of the line.

Part of what makes American Single Malt fertile ground for that experimentation is the category itself. Unlike bourbon, which is bound to a specific grain bill and barrel type, the new federal standard leaves room for regional variation. Seattle’s Westland Distillery has built its whiskey around the cool, humid climate of the Puget Sound region; Santa Fe’s Colkegan ages barrels through high-desert swings from freezing to sweltering; Arizona’s Wolves Whiskey matures its spirit in the state’s dry heat before a French oak cognac-cask finish. Jack Daniel’s new release shows what happens in Tennessee’s hot summer and cold winters with an interesting barrel.

That built-in latitude for climate and cask experimentation is part of what Jack Daniel’s is now selling nationally — a Lynchburg-distilled expression finished in Sherry casks, backed by a distillery with a track record of using its new innovative releases to test the same techniques before committing to a wider release. •

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