24th September, 2014 by Becky Paskin

Jack Daniel’s expects its long-awaited rye whiskey to be ready to launch by summer 2015, although it will only be available in limited quantities.

The Lynchburg, Tennessee-based distillery has been resting a charcoal-mellowed rye whiskey in new American oak barrels for the past two years, marking the first time since before Prohibition that Jack Daniel’s has experimented with a different mash bill.

The distillery, owned by Brown-Forman, released an unaged rye whiskey in 2012, following the expression up with a limited edition rested rye, which spent two years in barrel, in 2014.

Master distiller Jeff Arnett said the Jack Daniel’s rye whiskey will not carry an age statement, and will be priced at a similar point to the Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel.

“The rye is already fairly mature now, but for age labelling it needs to ride out until the summer,” he told The Spirits Business. “We don’t like to carry age statements, we’re not Scotch, and maturity and age are somewhat disconnected.”

Ahead of its launch Brown-Forman intends to whet consumers’ appetites with the release with a premium, single barrel expression with a higher proof. “That will be the leading product to bring the final mature rye to market,” Arnett added. “Then we’ll follow behind that with something more reminiscent of black label, a batched product. You will see both of those in an ongoing fashion.”

Both expressions are expected to be available before the 2015 holiday season, a key sales period for the Tennessee whiskey brand.

However, with just 20,000 cases produced, Arnett warns Jack Daniel’s rye will be available in very limited quantities.

“We will try to be fair to as many markets as possible,” he said. “Even if we restricted it to the US it’s not a lot to offer.”