Whiskey Advent Calendar Tasting: Daddy Rack Tennessee Whiskey
This is part of my series on tasting notes from the 2021 Drinks By The Dram Bourbon Advent Calendar.
Whiskey for December 16th, 2021: Daddy Rack Tennessee Whiskey
The distillery
The distillery of this whiskey is actually unknown. The brand, Daddy Rack, is actually a blender and bottler who had some as-of-yet-not-named distiller, "my best buddy distillers from Tennessee", distill the whiskey. So there's not much to talk about here. Instead I want to talk a little bit about whiskey marketing and some things that bug me.
Whiskey Marketing Tangent
So reading the copy on their website we get:
Tennessee Straight Whiskey conforms to all the rules of Bourbon, including the requirements to be made from at least 51% corn. Unlike Bourbon, which can be made in any State, Tennessee Whiskey can only be made in Tennessee following strict production and quality standards.
And I just want to point out what kind of misleading bullshit this is. Let's break it down.
Tennessee Straight Whiskey conforms to all the rules of Bourbon, including the requirements to be made from at least 51% corn.
This is true. Tennessee Whiskey is a subset of bourbon, in that it follows all the rules of bourbon, but also must be filtered through sugar maple charcoal (aka The Lincoln County Process). So it is inherently different from bourbon in that regard. The definition of Tennessee Whiskey is also only from 2013 after extensive lobbying. It has a carve out for the only active distillery in Lincoln County (Prichard Distillery) to not use the Lincoln County process, as Prichard has made Tennessee Whiskey for a long time, but never used the Lincoln County Process. Ironic, huh?
Which means you can buy Tennessee Whiskey that is exactly bourbon from a legal standpoint. So the definition as it differentiates from bourbon doesn't mean very much.
Unlike Bourbon, which can be made in any State, Tennessee Whiskey can only be made in Tennessee
Yes, "Bourbon" can be made in any state. "Whiskey" can also be made in any state. "Kentucky Bourbon" and "Tennessee Whiskey" have to be made in the states that are right there in the name. This is a sort of silly statement because of that comparison.
following strict production and quality standards.
Literally the same standards of any whiskey made in the United States. Seriously. There's nothing special here that sets it apart from any other whiskey, they're just stating it, so you'll think there is.
Why does this stuff bother me? Because I see it everywhere. This advertising is just trying to tear down the idea of another kind of whiskey to pretend this one is something special by following the same rules. The statement above gives the impression that Tennessee Whiskey is something special or greater than bourbon, when it's not.
A Tennessee Straight Whiskey has almost identical legal requirements on it for manufacture, sale, and labelling as any whiskey. At some point I'll write a small explainer about American whiskey labelling terminology to point out just how similar almost all the whiskeys in the US are.
The whiskey
Unlike the distillery we do get a good amount of info about the whiskey on their webpage. Let's look at the mash bill:
All corn sourced from local farmers, Columbia Tennessee: 80% Level 1 Corn, 10% Rye, 10% Malted Barley.
So this should be a relatively low rye whiskey, I expect it to be light and sweet and low on spice.
They want to point out that it's "Double Mellowed". We saw this term with Gentleman Jack as well, it just means twice filtered using the Lincoln County Process.
And we get some tasting notes:
Light golden amber, clear. A nose of Maple, honey, light oak and caramelised banana. Smooth and buttery mouthfeel, roasted apple and banana fruit leads onto vanilla and a hint of nutmeg. A rich and warm finish, salted popcorn.
Sweet and light seems pretty likely with the high corn content and double filtration. I hope it lives up to this tantalizing write-up.
Look
The whiskey is the color of high quality honey. It's clear and has bright yellow-gold highlights in the light. It runs quickly to small thin legs.
Nose
I do actually get maple and banana in the nose hiding behind the brighter alcohol and citrus. I can't seem to find the oak though. It's a lovely amount of sweet and bright and the absence of heavy rye influence is obvious.
Taste
The taste starts with honey sweetness and toasted oats. It swells to show of the little rye it has blooming with the alcohol and then calms back down to a sweet vanilla finish with, yes, hints of nutmeg. I know reading the tasting notes influences my descriptors a little, but this set of notes did a good job of calling out some of the lesser seen flavors in whiskey.
After water
The nose stays the same after dilution. It's very consistent. The taste as well. It's impressive how well it holds on to the characteristics. There might be a little tweaking, but largely the taste is close enough that it might just be sip to sip differences.
Summary
I like this whiskey. It's nice and light with some lesser seen flavors. Banana flavors in whiskey certainly show up from time to time, but we haven't seen it thus far in our calendar. The whiskey isn't super complicated, but it runs a good range of flavors over the full tasting. If you can find it, and you're looking for a lighter whiskey, I would recommend picking up a bottle.