Culture
10/2/25 Proof Positive: Jack Daniel's Heritage Barrel Toasted Barrel
In this episode of Proof Positive, the hosts dive into the Jack Daniel's Heritage Barrel Toasted Barrel, sharing personal anecdotes and insights about their bourbon adventures. The conversation e...
10/2/25 Proof Positive: Jack Daniel's Heritage Barrel Toasted Barrel
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Interactive Transcript
Speaker A
This is the Warmaster, Josh Barnett, the man behind Warbringer and Warmaster Edition. A smoky old hit you right where it hurts kind of guy, but in such a way that you want some more. You listen to the Bourbon podcast. Get your glasses up. Cheers with us.
Speaker B
Something got you dragging yourself in here tonight, darling. Let's get you.
Speaker C
Okay, let me warn the audience now. This is the third episode we've recorded today, so I. We may not ever release this episode.
Speaker D
People in the bunker, we don't know what's happening.
Speaker E
And there's actually one of those episodes was a double barrel, so that's actually like four.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker C
Well, that was so good at math.
Speaker D
It was low, slow proof.
Speaker C
Thanks for tuning in. We've got a. We've got a cool episode. So we've got. Thanks to our buddy Dr. Patel, who brought us a bottle of Jack Daniels Heritage Barrel, toasted barrel. And I think he picked this up in Hilton Head, South Carolina and brought it back so we could check it out. I have been looking for this bottle for probably a month or so now. Finally found it. And it looks incredible. Just the collar is exactly like what I like.
Speaker D
It's like Brown Foreman.
Speaker E
I know.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker D
Brown Foreman vibes over here because you.
Speaker E
Could spend a whole episode just talking about everything you're smelling and.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker E
Looking at.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker E
And not even going through the history. But like, Ben, I want to apologize because Karen and I's goal here was to leave you with plenty of this bottle. But because there's like 25 people in the bunker here recording, and we've poured some very hefty pores, there's very little whiskey left.
Speaker C
Well, now, now, wait. So one day we're going to do this on video and I can actually throw some truth bombs out there because when they arrived, there was only like a third of the bottle left. So I don't know what happened. I suspect Joe was guilty. Dr. He's guilty too. I can just tell.
Speaker E
Yeah.
Speaker C
They won't even look me in the eye right now. But looking away, I am thankful for what I have. And what I have is a nice healthy pour of a bottle I've been trying to get for a long time. So, Joe, tell us all about it.
Speaker E
Yeah, a couple weekends ago, my. We had the privilege of visiting Karen Patel and his family in Hilton Head. And so while we were there, I don't. If you go to Hilton Head, whenever there's a lot of extreme weather, like a lot of. A lot of rain, it's always inland getting the rain. And it seems to Be like shelter from the extreme weather. But this one weekend, because it was the hurricane, which hurricane was going through.
Speaker D
Yeah, I don't. Yep.
Speaker E
The weather bands hit and I'm. And I hadn't been there for 10 years but before that I went for 10 straight years. But long story short, I have never seen so much rain in a 48 hour period. Particularly that all day we were only there for two nights. And so that Saturday, which supposed to be the prime day to go play tennis, go fish, go whatever you want to do, go to go bicycle ride, it rained like cats and dogs for literally 48 hours. I mean it was massive amounts of rain. So we got up Saturday morning in Hilton, had this beautiful house that Dr. Patel and his family have. And we didn't know what the heck we were going to do. So we had pajamas on and essentially we wore those pajamas all day while it was pouring rain out. But he has a beautiful view from his house so it was kind of nice. But in the end we. We're watching a movie and we were thinking about. We started, we opened it, cracked open a bottle that we went to a liquor store about an hour earlier. So what the hell, we might as well go get a bottle bourbon. And we found this heritage bottle and we opened it and we're like holy shit, this is really.
Speaker D
What is this like 10am Now? What time are we in time?
Speaker E
Are we talking say like 2 o'. Clock.
Speaker D
Okay, it's afternoon 2 o'.
Speaker E
Clock.
Speaker C
Little late.
Speaker E
But the bottle, the bottle was purchased probably like 11 or 12 o'. Clock, right?
Speaker D
All right, solid.
Speaker E
But so we' good. So you know, he gets on the phone, Dr. Patel and he starts calling all the liquor stores locally and sure enough, it was the day that it dropped. Oh, in South Carolina. So what did we do? He's like, we gotta go get this stuff. I'm like, okay, well let's go change. It's like, no, no, we're all just going to pajamas. We had brought a minivan with us because it was my mother in law. It's only vehicle we had for Myrtle beach to try and drive down there. So all six of us, his son, son's girlfriend, his, his wife, him, me and aunt, we're all in our pajamas and we're literally decide we're going to make a run for a liquor store that supposedly has this. We go there, make friends, they do have it and they tell us, oh, the other liquor store just a couple miles up probably has it too. So anyways, we did one of those crazy bourbon Hunts in our pajamas. And we wound up with five bottles. Five bottles of this, of the. That's how much we loved it. And we spent the whole day laughing, giggling, buying single barrels from one store to the Next. And so Dr. Patel is really excited to bring this tonight for us to kind of do this.
Speaker C
And let me just say, if any of the liquor stores in Hilton Head, South Carolina can check your video surveillance from September of 2025, and you send me the video of Joe going in your store in pajamas, I will give you a massive shout out on social media when I post it.
Speaker E
Why? Because my hair is always perfect. And it wasn't probably perfect that day, Joe. It was true. My hair was. I. Who the hell knows? It was just sticking up everywhere. It wasn't. It was supposed to be a simple run to a store to get one bottle.
Speaker C
Joe. I've just got this image of Joe, his hair crazy in pajamas, in a hurricane, running around the liquor stores in Hilton Head.
Speaker E
Yes, pretty much what happened? Literally, we, you know, you got out of the van and you're. Even though you're like 12ft from the door because there's nobody insane enough to be out there driving around. You're soaked by the time you get inside.
Speaker C
And folks, that's how you score a bottle of Jack Daniel's heritage. All right, Toasted barrel. That's the only.
Speaker D
Get it.
Speaker E
All right, so Jack, I kind of feel like we can almost bypass most of the history here. So let's just say 1850, Jasper Newton, Jack Daniels is born. He's the youngest of 10 kids. He's taken in by a guy named Dan Call, who's a local lay preacher and a moonshine distiller where he learned from Call and his master distiller, Nathan Nearest Green, how to distill whiskey. So Jack founded the first registered US distilling business with Dan Call. Jack took over the distillery after Call quit for religious reasons. I got you love that, right?
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker E
So passive aggressive, right? So in 1895, they began bottling at the distillery at Jack Daniels. The square shaped bottle that we all love was actually introduced in 1897.
Speaker D
It's crazy, I know.
Speaker E
In 1907, one of my favorite stories, if you ever go take the tour, you'll see like this old safe and it's like all rusted and just looks like. Why is this sitting in a room that they're giving you a tour of? Old, old like house he lived in. And Jack passes away. He. Where the heck could I put that there? But essentially he, he Stumps his foot on this safe, developed an infection. Ultimately he dies from this infection. Like it was like a, a fight he couldn't win. In 1933, Prohibition repealed the state prohibition laws in Tennessee. Even though Prohibition was repealed, the state laws in Tennessee remained in effect and wanted to kind of make that clear. And Len Motlau, who was a Tennessee state senator, led an effort to repeal the Tennessee prohibition law. And. But Moore county, where it's located, remained dry, was allowed produced whiskey to only be sold in other states. So it's amazing they survived it.
Speaker D
When did that, when did that change?
Speaker E
It never did because it's still dry.
Speaker D
It's still a dry county.
Speaker E
Yeah.
Speaker D
That's wild.
Speaker E
So in 42 to 46, they cease operations due to a US government ban of whiskey producing during World War II. You had to have the, you know, certain heights on the column. Still, they, they resume. In 1947, they get purchased, most importantly by Brown Foreman in 1956, Brown Foreman also has Old Forester Woodford Reserve. They are placed on the natural National Register of historic places in 72. In 1994, finally, there's a special act of the Tennessee legislature that allows the distillery to sell one commemorative bottle to each guest on site. The visitor Center Opened in 1999, Jack is the most valuable spirits brand in the world today. They are the number one exporter of US Whiskey. And I'm sure they're getting pummeled by the tariffs. All right, let's talk about the heritage barrel. This is what we're here today for. So the heritage barrel was originally introduced as one of our guests, insightfully remembered in 2018 and 19 as a limited special edition bottle. It starts with their old number seven mash bill, which is distilled and mellowed through a ten foot, you know, ten feet of sugar maple charcoal. The standard barrels are toasted. Their jack standard barrels are toasted for 12 minutes and charred. But these heritage barrels are toasted for 24 minutes and flash charred. And it's a technique that basically is inspired by some of the earliest barrel making traditions. They make all their own barrels on site at Jack Daniels. Now their distillate doesn't go in at 125 like the industry standard, but for these barrels they did a low barrel improve entry proof of 100 into the barrels. And this one, I'm sure Kyle and Ben, you're getting the nose. It's a crazy nose. It's that Brown born and Shively knows almost. Right now, most jacks are aged less than five Years. This is aged at least seven years at some of the highest elevation barrel houses on Jack's property. So you start thinking about Coy Hill and stuff like that. The whiskey proof points typically reach in this 104 to 110 range. So it kind of rises to that particular level and then they re bottle it at 100. So it's pretty close. It's non chill filtered also. Which is I find very interesting that actually at the end that they don't do any not the final process is non chill filtered. So the barrel unlike Elijah Craig toasted barrel and Michter's toasted barrel that is finished in a toasted barrel. Right?
Speaker D
Like a secondary finish.
Speaker E
Correct?
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker E
The heritage barrels are aged in a toasted barrel from the onset. So you're going to get your first shot at a toasted barrel that's been in the. Where the whiskey's been in for seven years. Not finished, you know, for a certain number of years. All right. This has been released. This particular batch in June of this year just hit obviously South Carolina. And here's what's interesting. They've decided after the first two limited releases this will be a permanent line.
Speaker D
Cool.
Speaker E
And it's an extension of their current. So you should be able to see this offered year round on shelves and hopefully the pricing will drop down to those levels. It uses the. It's a Tennessee whiskey is the classification. Although we all know it qualifies to be bourbon. It's 80% corn, 12% malted barley and 8% rye. So very low rye, very high corn. At least seven years aged. It's $70 is what the MSRP secondary is probably hovering around 125 ish to 150 and we'll go from there. But I will say in the back of the sheet I put probably extensive review of all the various products. Now I didn't realize about Jack once I got started on I kind of went overboard. But not you imagine this isn't just the old number seven anymore. I mean they are.
Speaker D
It's crazy.
Speaker E
There are like 30 or 40 different releases here that they have done and they. What they do is they categorize it in these core categories but then they have their flavored series. Everybody knows about the honey and the fire and the apple and they just released BlackBerry. They've experimented with the bottle and bond series. They did. We've covered the 10, 12 and 14 year releases. And the single barrel series is what we're having today. This is a single barrel and the single Barrel series. Typically they would do these limited releases and they did it for like the barrel proof rye. And if the public loved it, it became a main product. Barrel proof whiskey, same thing. So what you've seen here is kind of a pattern for them. Let's throw something out. And there is one I think is kind of interesting. And then we'll call it quits. Here it is, the twice barreled single malt. It's 100% malt finish in oloroso sherry cask. A special release that was put out with. I wonder if that will.
Speaker D
That's interesting. I didn't. I'd never even heard of that.
Speaker E
And I. It's a special limited release they do. The question would be, will they do another special and then drop it as a permanent line? But it may be one of those that. You know what, we'll move on from that.
Speaker D
So the. The 1819 Heritage barrel. When they say heritage barrel, that is this process. It's the toasted. Okay.
Speaker E
This is a follow up. They released it two years and then this year they decided to make it part of the permanent line. So we should see this really hit the.
Speaker D
You got this, this bottle. This barrel is eight years.
Speaker E
Is that.
Speaker D
Yeah, it's. It's like a touch over. Eight years.
Speaker E
That's pretty nice.
Speaker D
Nose is ridiculous. It's. Yeah, like.
Speaker E
Well, why don't you guys like. I mean the color is just beautiful. Deep dark, dark mahogany, copper brown. It's wild. We have a guest here, Ravina, and she drank her whole glass already.
Speaker D
Yeah, Follow the protocol, Ravina.
Speaker E
The nose is like crazy, right? Doesn't it remind you Ben and Kyle like the. That all the shively. Yeah, it's super creamy.
Speaker D
That is like classic brown forma Foreman.
Speaker E
I know.
Speaker D
Yeah, it's like all that caramel.
Speaker E
We're drinking Tennessee whiskey too though.
Speaker D
I know.
Speaker E
Unbelievable, right? Gosh, Ben, you're a toasted guy. What do you think?
Speaker C
All right, so I'm now about 3 ounces in. And so I. I really like it and I like that. I like the flavor, but it doesn't taste like a toasted barrel to me. And when I do that, I'm comparing it to Elijah Craig toasted and I'm comparing it to Michter's toasted. It doesn't have the sweetness that I would typically get out of a toasted barrel. Now it's great. You know, it's not JD14, but it's very, very good. But it doesn't taste like a toasted barrel.
Speaker E
So the toasted barrel would be the finish correct, which is what micters is. And it's a very brief finish to impart some honey flavors. What? This is a new class of whiskey that nobody's doing. It's eight years in a toasted barrel by barrel makers that are premier in the industry. Right. Like in terms of what they've been doing for 100 years.
Speaker D
It. Yeah, it's wild. It's. So first of all, up front, I get a, like a brief hint of cinnamon, which is super interesting. And then the back is like really dark, like char dark chocolate long finish. Holy smokes. It's like that.
Speaker E
The oak doesn't dominate too much.
Speaker D
No.
Speaker E
But the creaminess from the low barrel, entry proof. And I get. I get almost an overload of dark honey on some of it, you know.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker E
It's really coating. Ben's going to have to like, really get his arms.
Speaker D
He's trying to think about it.
Speaker C
You know, we just did a week or two ago, we did an Elijah Craig toasted barrel pick at barrel proof. And so that's my. That's my baseline. It's good. But I swear I don't get the toasted barrel part. I just don't. I don't taste it. And maybe, maybe I'm off today. I don't know. I hope I don't have Covid because we got like 25 people in here, but I, I don't get it. It's good. It's really, really good. But I would not have marketed as a, like a toasted barrel. And maybe it's.
Speaker D
I think toasted barrel just has like such a wide range of things people are doing and what is you. They. Because ultimately all they're doing here, this is a different way that they are charring the barrel than what they typically do. Right. And so, yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker E
It's like, well, flash toasting, probably deeper grooves. But again, it's not a toasted finish.
Speaker C
Which you're thinking, right, maybe that's what I'm having.
Speaker D
It's just a different product.
Speaker E
This is a toasted barrel. So you would have to probably look at a double oak to get it to compare it. But it wouldn't be a toasted bear. Like, it wouldn't have gone in at barrel entry into a toaster barrel and age for eight years. It still would have been finished in a secondary barrel. And that's what's making this unique. It's really going to be the uniqueness of it that actually I'm getting more of like, it tastes like a Double. But it's not. It's. It's a single oak, but it's been toasted.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker E
Different and for eight years.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker C
It tastes like a high quality brown foreman product, but.
Speaker E
It does.
Speaker C
But I was expecting, and only because of the labeling, to come in and have that dessert, like the sweetness at the end. I didn't get that. I mean, it's good. No, it's outstanding. But I wouldn't. I wouldn't have necessarily. If you're thinking you're going to get a Mictter's toasted barrel or a Elijah Craig, you're not.
Speaker D
Yeah, it's a different. I like it a lot. I think it's the. The. It's punchy up front, like I said. I almost get, like a little bit of cinnamon. There's like that bright flash, which I love. The finish is wild, though. The finish is like that charred dark chocolate, like, long.
Speaker E
Yeah. The. The chocolate profile is kind of crazy on it, right?
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker E
And the. And the oak profile is nice.
Speaker D
Yeah. Yeah. It's a good oak problem.
Speaker E
You think when you toast, it's more gentle and delicate. You're thinking about. But this has done the exact opposite. Well, I almost turned a, like a whiskey into something that's very, like. It feels like a double barrel.
Speaker D
Yes. Yeah. I mean, I think about it this way. Ben is like the 10, 12, and 14 are so phenomenal, but they're gonna. They're gonna get harder and harder to find. If this is a core release that's kind of like a baby brother, it's like, that's pretty sweet.
Speaker C
Well, MSRP again, I mean, you can't beat that.
Speaker D
Yeah. 70 bucks.
Speaker E
I just think you can't even compare it really, with any of their core offerings or any. It. It's a. It's a class by itself in terms of how it was produced, prepared, aged. Hats off to Chris Fletcher again, like putting something out for a couple of years, and then all of a sudden, okay, I'm going to make it part of the permanent line, kind of like the toasted barrel. Elijah Craig's part of their permanent line. Right. But again, that's just your regular Elijah Craig that is transferred to a toasted barrel, you know, to get part. A little while, additional flavors. This one, it tells you, like, how powerful it is. Right. What if you put something in a toasted barrel for eight years? Well, it's gonna.
Speaker D
Oh, yeah.
Speaker E
It's totally changed the profile.
Speaker C
It really has. Yeah. It's different. Yeah, it's very good. Very good. But not the candy sky he's not gonna.
Speaker D
Really hung up on the.
Speaker C
It really is. Like when. When I was searching for. For the last month, that's what I thought I was getting. I mean, I'm not disappointed. I'm just saying it's not what I was expecting.
Speaker D
Yeah, I'm. I'm definitively two thumbs up, I think. Grab a bottle if you see one. It's. It's awesome.
Speaker E
Yeah. This one's on my list for a Whiskey of the year. Price point. The kind of originality of it, like being. Being like entrepreneurial, like. Like pioneers really, of what they're doing here with toasted barrels. And then it's a complete whiskey from the color all the way to the finish. So you can't put it into any particular class. You'd have to, like, get a crazy double barrel to compare it.
Speaker D
Yeah, it's its own thing.
Speaker E
And it's not. It's. It's. And it's better. It's cleaner.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker E
There's nothing, nothing dirty or overly oaked about this.
Speaker C
Well, let's. Let's look back at our Whiskey of the Year list so far. I think we're all in agreement that Bardstown Cathedral is on there.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker C
Amazing.
Speaker E
Are we talking about the post?
Speaker C
Well, we got burgers, PFG.
Speaker D
Yeah. We've got like the high end and the JD14.
Speaker C
Yeah, we're looking at some different ones.
Speaker E
But those would be our high end.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker C
This would be the sub 100.
Speaker E
200. 200 calorie.
Speaker C
What was that? Yeah, it keeps going up.
Speaker D
No, it's too. It's sub 200. It's up to. I know you. You were like sub 30. I'm like, no, it's up 200.
Speaker E
It's 200.
Speaker D
Value.
Speaker E
Secondary value.
Speaker D
Secondary value.
Speaker C
Okay.
Speaker E
And this is right there.
Speaker D
Yeah. I mean, listen, the list is. It's still. It's moving around. We'll see. Yeah, we got a couple months. We still have the biggest releases of the year coming.
Speaker C
Yeah. I mean, we're getting ready to hit allocation season and we'll see what that brings. So two thumbs up from Kyle.
Speaker D
Yes, Joe.
Speaker E
Yeah, I'm big. Two thumbs up.
Speaker D
Jack. Dan.
Speaker C
What's our audience? Two thumbs, everybody. Two thumb.
Speaker D
What's up?
Speaker C
Is that one thumb or is that two thumbs? It's just one. Oh, okay. All right. Our Weller guy, we got. We've got a Weller aficionado, Ravena Bina Ravina like, slammed hers like Chuck the Deuce. Like, I swear, I think she like, licked salt off her arm and maybe took A little shot of lime and like slammed.
Speaker E
Yeah. You know, ravine. If you put this up with a little bit of this nice vanilla ice cream, that would be a jam.
Speaker C
All right. I'm giving it two thumbs up on taste, one thumb up on marketing because I thought I was getting like this.
Speaker D
Super sweet and not get over it.
Speaker C
Sorry, I'm so mad. It's very good. I think for $70, you're not going to find very many whiskeys that are better than this. Right?
Speaker D
Correct.
Speaker E
Yeah. I mean, I think you can go higher. I think you can go easily. $100 on this bottle.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker E
For all the crap that's out there right now, this is really good.
Speaker C
How would you Compare this to JD10?
Speaker E
It's a different whiskey. So the 10 is a very clean, amazing profile whiskey. It's kind of weird that we might put that along with this potentially on our list. Right. On the sub 200 valuation level. But this is not the 10 year again. I have to remind you that it's. That doesn't have the color, doesn't have the body, doesn't have the. I mean, this is a toasted barrel. So it's just. I wouldn't even.
Speaker D
I'm guessing I would take the 10 over this if I did them head to head, but I like this a lot. I mean, yeah, it's. I mean, again, is it worth going out and grabbing a bottle? Yeah. I mean, yeah. 100.
Speaker C
I think it's good. It's good. All right, well, have you tried it? Let us know what you think. Am I being too. Am I.
Speaker D
Am.
Speaker C
I was having an off day.
Speaker D
I think you're a little sour right now. Yeah, it's okay. We all have those days.
Speaker C
All right, let me know what you think. Ben. @bounbonpodcast.com Check out our newsletter. Bradley, Killing it, as always. You can sign up for the newsletter on bourbonpodcast.com you can also buy merchandise. You can get our. Our logo, Glen Karens. That's our number one seller. It's also the number one requested thing on our social media site.
Speaker D
Hey, man, guess what? We have a store.
Speaker C
We have shirts. We're going to come out with some new products pretty soon, but let us know what you're thinking if you've tried it. If I'm crazy, I need to know that I read every single comment. I don't care if it's on social media for its emails. The best way to get a sew is at my email address. So hit us up, let us know. We appreciate you listen. Thanks.
Speaker B
Darling. Something got you dragging yourself in here tonight, darling let's get you back to some of that light that shine get you some of that feel good feeling get you some of that no more pain get you some of that feel good.