The New Whiskey Rebellion

A civil war has erupted in the Volunteer State over a seemingly settled matter: What, exactly, is Tennessee whiskey? Last year, the legislature passed a law defining the production of its signature hooch based largely on the method local whiskey behemoth Jack Daniel’s has used since the 1870s. That raised the ire of global liquor giant Diageo, whose George Dickel is the state’s distant-second-best-selling brand.

“Jack Daniel’s is saying you have to make it the same way they do, and we think that’s unfair,” says Diageo’s Barry Becton, who adds that the law’s clause about new barrels–which can be expensive and difficult to find–gives Jack Daniel’s an edge because Brown-Forman, the company that owns the distillery, makes its own. The state’s booming small-batch distillers are split on the law. Jack Daniel’s counters that Diageo, which owns Johnnie Walker Scotch, is trying to loosen Jack’s hold on the surging U.S. whiskey market to protect its other holdings. The fight, says Brown-Forman’s Phil Lynch, “is an effort to undermine Tennessee whiskey.”

–JOSH SANBURN