Exploring the Middle and West Tennessee regions
I was six years old when I had my first taste of Tennessee Whiskey. I had wandered into the garage while my father worked in the backyard. Sliding open a cabinet beneath his workbench, I discovered two bottles. I was old enough to recognize the name Jack.
“Take a drink,” he said, catching me mid-curiosity. A bittersweet brush fire engulfed my throat. A coughing spasm rattled through my body. I thought my toes had fallen off.
“Remember that,” he said. I’m of the generation where corporal punishment in schools was accepted and lawn darts were harmless. I remember my father’s cautionary lesson as I crest Monteagle Mountain.
Jack Daniels is one of the first stops west of Chattanooga along the Tennessee Whiskey Trail, a self-guided journey into the history and craft of whiskey. The trail, created by the Tennessee Distillers Guild, boasts more than 30 distilleries in East, Middle, and West Tennessee.
Last November, I explored the East Region. This day-trippin’ jaunt propels a libation-seeking traveler through the Middle and West sections of the trail.
Nashville Craft Distillery
To bear the title Tennessee Whiskey, by law the product must be filtered through maple charcoal, a step known as the Lincoln County Process. Tennessee Whiskey, like bourbon, must also be 51 percent corn.
Nashville Craft Distillery launched its first product, Naked Biscuit Sorghum Spirit, in 2016. Head distiller/owner Bruce Boeko describes the spirit, sourced from local sorghum cane, as essentially Tennessee rum—but legally, you can’t call it that.
“You can’t call a sorghum spirit rum because rum, by law, can only be made from sugarcane,” Boeko says. “Sorghum cane is a species of grass closely related to sugarcane that produces a sweet juice from the stalk that can be cooked into a syrup, fermented with yeast and distilled.”
Prior to opening Nashville Craft, Boeko spent 20 years as a forensic biologist and director of a DNA testing laboratory. Today his laboratory is his distillery.
“I look at it from the perspective of a biologist. One thing we try to do is be complementary to the other tours people experience by giving them a little different angle but in a way anybody can relate to,” Boeko says. “We have a particular focus on the biology of the fermentation, the chemistry and physics of distillation.”
Boeko also notes how distillers help each other out, calling attention to their peers’ distilleries along the trail. If biologist, distiller, and guitar/mandolin picker weren’t enough, Boeko has the distinction of being the first person to complete the Tennessee Whiskey Trail in its inaugural year.
Old Dominick Distillery
Near the banks of the Mississippi, a roof-top-strutting neon rooster is the lone beacon of the West Region, marking the Old Dominick Distillery, a family-owned business whose spirit-producing roots date back to 1866.
Head distiller Alex Castle, a Bluegrass State native, studied chemical engineering at the University of Kentucky and cut her teeth at Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company where beer could have been her muse.
“For me there was a kind of artistry to distilling,” Castle says. “The stills themselves are beautiful. And there was a finesse you had to have while distilling that I didn’t see in the brewing world.”
Under Castle’s direction, distilling returned to Memphis in 2016.
“It’s interesting being in Tennessee and seeing such an old industry be very new,” Castle says. “There’s definitely a balancing act of making sure we honor the tradition and history of this product but at the same time we want to have a little fun and experiment.”
Just 31 years old, Castle is not only one of the youngest distillers, but as a woman in a business traditionally dominated by the bearded set, she is among a growing voice carving a new path upon the trail.
“Because of a male dominated industry the focus was a male consumer,” she says. “Finally there are more and more women in the industry who are saying, ‘No, women do drink bourbon, women do drink gin. You’ve got to start paying attention to them.’ I think we’re finally acknowledging a consumer that has been neglected for too long.”
Castle laughs when I share the story about my father. Ironically, it was Castle’s mother who encouraged her to take her love of science into the world of alcohol.
“The funny thing is,” Castle says, “she doesn’t really drink.”
Jason Tinney is the author of “Ripple Meets the Deep” and co-author of the play “Fifty Miles Away”. He's also an avid fan of lawn darts.