A Visit to George Dickel
George Dickel is often thought of as the “other” Tennessee whiskey maker. Yes, Jack Daniel’s is king of Tennessee whiskey, at least in terms of production, sales, and name recognition. Dickel has nowhere near the profile of Jack, which is a shame in my opinion—the little distillery in Tullahoma, TN makes some damn fine juice. I recently took a trip down to Cascade Hollow (where the Dickel distillery resides) to take a tour, so I thought I’d share a few photos and thoughts about the experience.
If you’ve previously toured the Jack Daniel’s distillery, one of the first things that strikes you upon arriving at Cascade Hollow is just how much smaller George is than Jack. Visiting Jack is almost like Disneyland for adults… big and commercialized. George Dickel leaves quite a different impression—from the time you step out of your car to the time you leave the grounds, it’s evident that things are much more laidback at the Hollow. But that’s not to say that Dickel isn’t without its commercial side… it is owned by Diageo (the massive multinational alcoholic beverages company) after all. And the Diageo marketing engine revs up quickly.
The tour begins with a brief explanation of why George Dickel Tennessee Whisky is spelled “whisky” instead of the more common American spelling of “whiskey.” According to the folks at Dickel (or more likely, according to their corporate overlords), George Dickel himself consciously chose the “whisky” spelling because he believed that his whisky was every bit as good as scotch whisky. I don’t want to get too hung up on this point, but… this is utter nonsense. Marketing gibberish. For one thing, when George Dickel first started selling whisky in the 1860s, scotch whisky had not yet obtained its world-wide reputation as the pinnacle of whisky making. Mr. Dickel wasn’t sitting on his porch sipping Lagavulin and thinking “I can make whisky better than this!” Besides, Irish whiskey was actually more popular at that time than scotch and generally had a better reputation. The reality is that the whiskey and whisky spellings were both used in the US (as they were in most English speaking countries), just like many other words were spelled in multiple ways until dictionaries became more common and spelling became more standardized. Eventually whiskey became the more accepted spelling in America (more recently than you’d think too—around 1960), but whisky is still used in some places and by other US distillers too (for instance, Maker’s Mark). George Dickel didn’t choose to spell his product as whisky because it implied higher quality, it was simply how he knew to spell the word. Anyhow… although the tour gets off to a rocky start from my whisky and word geekery perspective, the rest of the tour is mostly free of misleading marketing mumbo jumbo.
The first main part of the tour takes place inside the Dickel still house, which is just across the street (and stream) from the gift shop where the tour begins. Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the still house, so I have no photos of the still, mash tun, or any other such equipment in the whiskey-making process (they say that this prohibition is due to potential fire hazard). One thing that surprised me is the fact that Dickel only has one still—yep, Dickel really is a small whiskey maker. Our tour guide informed us that they are in the process of adding a second still, which will be used only for making rye whiskey (currently Dickel sources their rye from MGP in Indiana). So once the new still is installed, they’ll have one still devoted to a bourbon-style mashbill and one to a rye mashbill.
Next the tour stops in a nearby warehouse where a relatively small number of aging whiskey barrels are stacked five rows high. This is not one of Dickel’s primary rickhouses—those are located a bit further down the road—but rather just a small version of one, presumably placed to give tourists a glimpse of the wonderful sight (and smell) of whiskey aging in barrels, and perhaps to give the distillers something close at hand to work with. Just like the still house, photography is prohibited inside the warehouse, but they do allow you to take pictures of the inside if you are standing outside the warehouse doors.
The final part of the tour is perhaps the most fun—tasting. We move back across the street to the Dickel tasting room, which is attached to the gift shop. All participants on the tour (age 21+) are given a guided tasting of four of George Dickel’s offerings—their unaged white whiskey (which isn’t really whiskey, since it’s unaged), Dickel No. 8, Dickel No. 12, and the Barrel Select. As you would expect, the whiskey improves as you move up the product line (although I will confess I’m a fan of the No. 12 perhaps a bit more than the Barrel Select).
Dickel makes some really good whiskey. The best whiskey in Tennessee, in my opinion. Unfortunately a lot of their best whiskey is sold outside of the Dickel label. Although Diageo doesn’t publicly acknowledge it, it’s a well-known secret that they sell barrels of aged whiskey to many independent bottlers—or non-distilling producers (NDPs), as we usually call them in the US. If you find a bottle of whiskey that is sold by an NDP which states that is was distilled in Tennessee, there’s a good chance it’s actually Dickel whiskey (especially if it has an age statement of 7-8 years or higher). And it can be very good. Diageo doesn’t allow NDPs to acknowledge that they are actually selling Dickel whiskey—more marketing mumbo jumbo about protecting the Dickel name. The stupid thing is that if they did allow it, I believe it would actually elevate the Dickel name. Aged cask strength Dickel is a wonderful thing. The distillery itself currently releases no such product (they do have some age-stated products, but not at cask strength)—Diageo is too busy releasing gimmicky versions of Dickel to notice that Cascade Hollow is making some world class whiskey. Hopefully one of these days, Diageo will actually treat George Dickel the way it deserves to be treated and give us some higher quality Dickel releases under the Dickel name. Until then, if you want cask strength Dickel, you’ll have to find it from an NDP.
Anyhow, if you happen to be passing by Tullahoma, TN, I wholeheartedly recommend a stop by Cascade Hollow for a George Dickel Tour. For tour booking and directions, visit Dickel’s website.
