The Jack Daniel Distillery has launched Jack Daniel’s Bonded Tennessee Whiskey, the first permanent expression in the brand’s new Bonded Series.

The Bonded Series honours the whiskey making excellence of the iconic Jack Daniel Distillery and will be a permanent
brand extension.

Bonded is Bottled-in-Bond at 100 proof (50% ABV), with packaging inspired by the original design of the 1895 Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey bottle. As stipulated by the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, a bonded whiskey must be distilled by a single distiller during a single season, matured in a government bonded warehouse for at least four years and bottled at 100 proof.

Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller Chris Fletcher said: “The Jack Daniel Distillery has been making exceptional American whiskey to the highest standards for generations, before and after the Bottled in Bond Act, dating back to the days of Mr Jack himself.

“Jack Daniel’s Bonded is a nod to our heritage with a touch of innovation and craftsmanship. This whiskey is another opportunity for both our friends and new drinkers to explore and discover everything Jack Daniel’s has to offer.

“Jack Daniel’s has long been a loyal favourite of Australian whiskey drinkers, and we’re excited to bring our first Super Premium product in 25 years down under.”

Bonded is made using a time-honoured recipe of 80% corn, 12% malted barley, and 8% rye. Barrels were hand selected for their unique and particular characteristics of deeper colour, flavour, and aroma, which bring a darker, richer, and more oak-forward character to the whiskey. It is a big, bold Tennessee Whiskey at 100 proof with layered notes of caramel, rich oak, and spice giving way to a pleasantly lingering finish.

Bonded is available across Australia in 700ml bottles for a suggested retail price of $85.

How Frank Sinatra made Jack Daniel’s into a rock star brand

Bonded was launched this week at Maybe Sammy in The Rocks, Sydney. At the event, the Brown-Forman team discussed how the venue had been chosen because it was inspired by the roaring Fifties, when the Rat Pack and Hollywood glamour were revered and admired.

Among the famed members of the Rat Pack was Frank Sinatra, who put Jack Daniel’s on the map.

As Tales of the Cocktail notes: “While the title didn’t exist as we now know it, Sinatra was, in a manner of thinking, Jack Daniel’s first brand ambassador. Without a contract or paycheck or any official partnership, Ol’ Blue Eyes had a measurable impact on his whiskey of choice simply by being the coolest guy in any room and telling his fans what he liked to drink.”

Sinatra was introduced to the spirit by his friend and Hollywood legend Jackie Gleason. The whiskey’s historian Nelson Eddy said the brand would never have become one of the world’s biggest selling American whiskies if wasn’t for Frank Sinatra.

“Frank’s introduced to Jack Daniel’s in around 1947, we’re a brand that’s under 200,000 cases at that point, very small brand,” Eddy once told Forbes. “And the only reason Sinatra finds out about it, he’s at a bar with Jackie Gleason. Gleason turns to him and says, ‘Have you tried Jack Daniel’s?’ He tries it that night, he falls in love with it, he feels like he’s discovered it and given the number of cases that were out there, in a way, he did discover it for many, many people. He starts calling it, from the stage, the nectar of the gods and the best booze in the world.”

As a result, for many years the spirit was on allocation because the distiller couldn’t make enough of it to satisfy demand. The shortage delayed the export of Jack Daniel’s for almost two decades.

When Sinatra was living in Palm Springs he would hoist a Jack Daniel’s flag to signal cocktail hour to the neighbours. While visiting England, he wore a blazer featuring a crest of two crossed golf clubs and a bottle, plus the name ‘Jack Daniel’s Country Club’. His closest friends were given similar jackets to signify they were ‘members’ of the club.

Sinatra was very particular about how he took his favourite drink: a two-finger measure with three or four ice cubes, plus water, in a traditional rocks glass.

When served a glass of Jack Daniel’s filled to the brim with ice at the Four Seasons in Boston, he carefully fished out all but four of the cubes, according to Bill Zehme in The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin’:

“The bartender asked: ‘Is there a problem, Mr Sinatra?’ Quietly, he explained: ‘No, but with all this ice, I figured we’re supposed to go skating here or something. That’s not my sport.'”

When he died in 1998, Sinatra was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, a pack of Camel cigarettes, a Zippo lighter and a dollar’s worth of dimes. The dimes were reportedly in case he needed to use a pay phone to order more whiskey or cigarettes.

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