Distillery Tour Directions Distillery Tour Photos Visitor Center Stop One: - Jack Daniel's Office Stop Two & Three: - Cave Spring - The Rickyard Stop Four & Five - The Mash - The Copper Stills Stop Six & Seven - Charcoal Mellowing - White Oak Barrels Stop Eight - Old No. 7

The Cave Spring is the reason why the Jack Daniel Distillery settled in the Hollow in Lynchburg. And it's the reason the Jack Daniel Distillery is still here more than a century later.

Mr. Jack understood that the cool limestone spring water was perfect for making his Tennessee Whiskey. For one thing, it's 100 percent iron-free (iron interferes with the taste of good whiskey).

The Cave Spring, along with our charcoal mellowing process, plays an important part in Jack Daniel's uncommon character.


The rickyard is where we make our own special charcoal required for the mellowing process.To make our charcoal we start with hard sugar maple trees cut from the high ground in Middle Tennessee.

The trees are split into 5 foot lengths (1.5 meters), approximately 4 inches thick (10 cm) and stacked into a special "rick" formation: four equal stacks together, slanting in toward the center.

Some folks say it's impossible to make charcoal in the open air, but Mr. Jack always made his charcoal that way, and we are still doing the "impossible" today.

Burned in the open air and controlled by a hand-held water hose to keep the pile of wood from being reduced to ashes, the result is pure, clean maple charcoal without a trace of smokiness or impurities.

Once cooled, the charcoal is ground into pieces about 1/4 inches in diameter (1 cm).

Note: Even though we make our charcoal by burning maple in the open air, it's all done under a filtering hood to make sure we keep the air clean. We've got a real interest in keeping our air and water clean. The Cave Spring is important to the taste of our whiskey and so is the air.

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