Gentleman Jack Tennessee Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B-

When I sampled Gentleman Jack and took my notes some days ago with an eye on making it my last review work of 2024, I did so expecting to revise and update a review from more than ten years ago. I took it completely for granted that either I or a member of the team had covered this Tennessee Whiskey more than a decade ago, so ubiquitous is the expression. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that was not the case!

That sums up the place Gentlemen Jack holds with whiskey enthusiasts well, I think. This bottle was the first regular brand extension of Jack Daniel’s in modern times: all other prior versions of Mr. Jack’s whiskey are a version of a recognizable label dating to the distillery’s refoundation in the late 1930s or else after the World War Two production hiccup. So, when the decision was made in 1988 to create Gentleman Jack, it had been four decades since the company had seen a need to do anything both new and produced to occupy continuous shelf space.

Stop and think about what was going on in American whiskey in 1988. Inside Jack Daniel’s, the company had only caught up with the ever-swelling demand for its products around the world earlier in the decade. The rest of the American whiskey industry had hit rock bottom during those same years, but in Kentucky distillers were beginning to look for ways to revive their fortunes. Heaven Hill released the first Elijah Craig 12 Year Old Small Batch in 1986; Blanton’s Single Barrel came out in 1984.

When Gentleman Jack came out, it was at the junction of Jimmy Bedford starting his tenure as Master Distiller and the retirement of Frank Bobo. Given how Gentleman Jack is made, credit for developing it therefore goes to Bobo. In using their newfound breathing space in production and following the spirit of times exemplified by Elijah Craig, Blanton’s and Maker’s Mark,  Jack Daniel’s chose to double down on what made them special: the Lincoln County Process. The whiskey going into Gentleman Jack receives two separate filtration runs through the distillery’s sugar maple charcoal vats. That should be considered more often than it is, because that puts Gentleman Jack on an entirely separate track to bottling from the moment the new make leaves the stillhouse. The double mellowed Gentleman Jack whiskey stocks cannot go back to make Single Barrel or Coy Hill or anything else coming out of Lynchburg, excepting perhaps a one-shot limited edition bottling that also bears that “double mellowing” tag. It’s quite a set aside, when one stops to think about it.

Other than that, Gentleman Jack is known for being matured on the lower flowers of Lynchburg’s rickhouses. Since the idea is to lean hard on the brand’s signature mellowness, it has always been bottled at 80 proof. When introduced, Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 (“Black Label”) was bottled at 90 proof, before being cut to 86 and finally 80 proof in 2002. In the 1980s and 1990s, Old No. 7 was noticeable stronger as well as being only half as mellowed, so the difference between the two expressions was much wider.

The Whiskey
Even though whiskey derives its color from the barrel it is aged in, the coloring of Gentleman Jack is coincidentally reflective of its double filtration: it’s a pale, dulled take on light amber. I found the nose blended a foundation of caramel and cinnamon with notes of banana and citrus. Sipping is supremely mellow, with the benchmark brown sugar and vanilla accented by a touch of banana and a light presence of oak. The finish is a faint one, but decidedly charred wood despite the lightness.

Gentleman Jack has been disregarded by other writers for its lack of personality, and these days it being too similar to Old No. 7 is tacked onto that critique. Although Jack Black Label has moved closer to Gentleman Jack over the decades, the two are still quite distinct, so we can discount the newer point as coming from prejudice and ignorance. As for the former, I don’t think Gentleman Jack is going to score marks with whiskey enthusiasts, who generally become enthusiasts in search of qualities this expression was designed to minimize or eliminate. Those very qualities, however, make it a natural choice for casual drinkers who reach for whiskey only from time to time. What leaves it lacking for the enthusiast makes it a solid choice for just about everyone else.

The Price
A survey of online retailers shows you can pick this bottle up for as little as $23, and certainly should not pay more than $30 for a 750ml bottle.