gillmang wrote:The label... refers to Tullahoma water being used (which would suggest Dickel manufacture) yet on the front label it says, "bottled by", which argues for the position Mike has taken. The only way to know if this was, (i) made at the Dickel plant set up in the late 50's, and (ii) subjected to the maple charcoal leaching process, would be to ask someone who worked there.
(1) Interesting that you should bring up the water, Gary. You're not only observant but you're also good at sequeing into further comments!!
Y'see, it just so happens that another item I learned in the course of obtaining this bottle is that Tullahoma residents (including commercial sites) can no longer drink the famous Tullahoma water. At some point (I don't know when) Tullahoma was forced by Federal requirements to convert to getting water from the Duck River instead of from "Big Spring". But it's not unusual for distilleries to tout their wonderful natural water from wells or springs driven deep into the limestone aquafier, despite the fact that only their coolant water is obtained that way, and all their production water is deionized processed municipal water as required by FDA standards.
(2) The new Dickel distillery began operating around 1958. The first George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey was bottled in 1964. The "Pride of Tennessee" trademark originated in 1960 according to the BottleBooks website. All of that is quite consistant with a product aged 6-months. I don't think it's a matter of releasing a short-aged iterim product so much as the fact that there is a tradition of corn whiskey in Tennessee (still, even though it was more common then) and that allowed production (bottling lines, distribution, warehousing, etc.) to be developed and implemented (and fine-tuned) in anticipation of what was expected to be a very busy schedule starting in '64.
(3) You really can't get a better example of "someone who worked there" than Ralph Dupps, who was the man who not only designed and built the distillery, but whose obsession with bringing the old Cascade Distillery back to Tullahoma is why there is a George Dickel whiskey in the first place. The person we bought this bottle from has been a close friend of Dupps and his family for many years and Ralph personally gave him a case of this and another of Tennessee Walker. I'm pretty sure this was distilled at Dickel. Dupps is still alive; there is a photo of him as guest of honor at the reopening of the visitor center at the distillery in the current issue of the
Cascade Hollow Courier (Dickel's fan magazine).