In 2008 Tennessean Jeff Arnett was named the seventh Master Distiller of the Jack Daniel Distillery. It’s now Jeff’s responsibility to make Uncle Jack’s Tennessee Whiskey in strict adherence to Jack’s guiding words: “Every day we make it, we’ll make it the best we can.”
With eighty barrel houses and nearly two million barrels of Tennessee whiskey to fill and look after, the job of Master Distiller is an enormous responsibility and surely one of the most enviable jobs in the world. Specializing in quality control at the distillery followed by managing Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Whiskey, Jeff is well prepared to take the helm. As he likes to say, “Seven is my lucky number. I became the seventh Master Distiller of Old No. 7 in my seventh year at Jack Daniel’s.”
Jeff loves American muscle cars and has had a bunch of them over the years, his two favorites being the 1967 Chevy Camaro and the 1965 Ford Mustang. These days as husband and father of two, you’ll more likely find Jeff taking his two kids for rides around his ten-acre gentleman’s farm in his “Jacked-up” golf cart, complete with Jack Daniel’s emblems, a stereo, and a six-inch Jake’s lift. Otherwise, he’s working around the house or in the yard on one project or another, or relaxing in his barn loft Man Cave with a three barrel bar and flat screen TV.
There’s also a chance you could run into Jeff anywhere in the world talking to folks about our hometown product in his role as a brand ambassador. “It’s still amazes me how popular Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey is throughout the world and how many different ways people like to enjoy it,” he says. “In England folks mix it with cloudy apple juice. In South Africa they make Jack Daniel’s “Appletizers” with sparking apple juice.”
“What’s also interesting is that throughout the United Kingdom (our largest market outside of the U.S.), where the bar and pub shelves are lined with wonderful regional and local whiskeys, I always find a bottle of Old No. 7 among them. Always. And no matter where I travel, I know that I’ll know two words in whatever language they speak: “Jack Daniel’s.”
Since Uncle Jack passed on in 1911, only five other men have held the title “Master Distiller.” They were my grandmother’s brother Jess Motlow (1911–1941), my uncle Lem Tolley (1941–1964), Jess Gamble (1964–1966), Frank Bobo (1966–1992), and Jimmy Bedford (1992–2008).
Jeff remembers his predecessor, our sixth Master Distiller Jimmy Bedford, fondly and says that not a day goes by that he doesn’t ask himself what would Jimmy do? in a particular situation. “To the world Jimmy was a rock star. To us, he was Jimmy—our friend, our neighbor, our coworker, and my mentor. We’ll miss him always.”
Jeff loves a dinner at Miss Mary Bobo’s, and he’s especially glad when we’re serving Miss Mary’s Chicken with Pastry. “And the okra,” he says wistfully, “it’s no better anywhere.”
Heard around the TABLE
A couple visiting from Australia shared their woeful tale about a traffic ticket they received near Chattanooga for driving on the wrong side of the road. Sympathetic to this news, their dinner companions all chipped in to settle their fine.