Firstly, there will be no blog next week on account of us being out of town. GM will be closed Monday and Tuesday next week. We look forward to seeing you Wednesday to tell you all the funny stories about our travels and misadventures.
Gatlinburg is the destination for both Marty’s locations. We plan on partying until its time to come home. Expect us to be very hung over on Wed when we return.
So I had the opportunity to take a few of our staff on a very special tour (not available to the public unfortunately) of the Jack Daniel Cooperage (where they construct the barrels). Jack is the only whiskey that makes its own barrels and we had the chance to take a tour of how and it was amazing!
They had everything there. Even branded disposable safety glasses.
A short 65 minute drive north east with a couple van loads of service industry people brought us to the place that would teach us about so many tings we didnt know. and then they wow’d us with wood and fire.
there may have been 25 people on the production floor and they were set to crank out just over 1600 barrels yesterday.
I have loads more videos and a great panoramic picture of the majority of the facility if you want to see more and you catch me at the bar. Hopefully they will open this place up for public tours at some point in the future, becaure you will be amazed at what they do here all to make whiskey taste better. Jeremy, who does not even drink whiskey came along to learn about the process. He then walked away impressed and educated and with a smile. I also managed to get the rare photo of him standing before a litteral ton of wood.
The facility is quite large and just when we thought the process was over we saw yet another stage to the process.
Those barrels are on their way around to get their bunghole drilled. Nope, not a joke. Litterally what its called. A bunghole. That they drill. The jokes practically write themselves here folks.
And after all that edutainment, we did a tasting of the single barrel line of Jack Daniel’s products and the Jack Apple, and they served us a delicious lunch of a tasty salad with goat cheese, cheese grits, shrimp, pulled pork, steak medallions and Pecan pie.
Really couldn’t have had a better day off that I spent with my staff and coworkers (excluding vacation) .
Jack Daniel’s and United Johnson Brothers have been the best hosts and always provided me and my staff and friends with the absolute best experiences, education and company that I could ever hope for in a distributor.
If you haven’t made it out for one of our pasta twosdays, you’re really missing out. This week we had a baked spaghetti special that would kept you grinning all the way to bed and when you woke up too.
In honor of Mardi gras this week, we are doing a red beans and rice special with optional andouille sausage.
Though we will be out of town, Spud and Laura will be your trivia hosts to take you into the second half of the season and Kendra and I will be back on March 2nd, to host a 15 question double point game.
Thats about it for the week. Hopefully we have some family friendly fun on vacation that I will be able to post on the blog in two weeks. If my sharing is sparse then know that we were being adults doing immature things because its fun to play and act like a kid sometimes!
Thank you again for everything you do for us and never hesitate to give us feedback or practical jokes to play on each other.
Ever your servant,
Berkley