Gentleman Jack Rare Tennessee Whiskey with Davey & Alex

Gentleman Jack Rare Tennessee Whiskey.  Why is it a Gentleman and what makes it rare? Let’s investigate!

The main selling difference between Gentleman Jack and his dirt common cousin regular Jack Daniel’s is a second charcoal filtering. If you believe the marketing, this smooths it significantly, and is noteworthy because Gentleman Jack is the only whiskey in the world to do so. But what does charcoal filtering even do?

As howstuffworks says, charcoal is carbon, so charcoal filtering is carbon filtering. The fact that Jack Daniel’s uses sugar maple for their charcoal may suggest a context for the sweetness of the whiskey, but this is impossible. As AlcoholProfessor notes, since carbon filtering works through chemical adsorption, it is a net-loss filter – there is less stuff after the filtration, because some of it has been pulled out of solution and bonded to the carbon. This does explain the smoothness; some of the more bitter and unpleasant-tasting co-distillates in the alcohol are organic compounds, which the carbon is good at removing.

SCIENCE! Here’s what we thought:

colour
Davey – n/a
Simon – golden orange
Alex – brown clementine

nose
Davey – spicy cider
Simon – sweet, sour, maple
Alex – vanilla, not very boozy

neat
Davey – smooth, non-distinct
Simon – sweet, smooth, slight pepper
Alex – no character

finish
Davey – still smooth, faint caramel/vanilla
Simon – sweetness remains “smoov”
Alex – mellow caramel

splash
Davey – not better, booze & water
Simon – fell apart
Alex – booze + water

Gentleman Jack Rare Tennessee Whiskey – 40% 750ml – $38.95 – Tennessee

Try it? only over Jack Daniels.  Buy it? No.