Daddy Rack 4 Year Old Cask Strength is our Whisky of the Week, so here’s Adam to give you the details and the customary tasting note, complete with video!
You vote, then we taste it. While filming it, for the ‘gram of course. It’s Whisky of the Week, the series where you make sure our glasses are full of goodness, and today we’re enjoying an interesting dram: Daddy Rack 4 Year Old Cask Strength. Here’s the lowdown, but first, if you want to have a say in what we taste next, you’ll need to vote on our Instagram stories.
The thing about Tennessee whiskey
Most of you will know two things about Tennessee Whiskey. One, it’s made in Tennessee with almost the same legal regulations as bourbon (at least 51% corn mash bill, must be aged in new, charred oak, etc.) apart from the use of a method of additional filtration through maple charcoal known as the Lincoln County Process. And two, Jack Daniel’s is a Tennessee Whiskey.
There are, of course, numerous other producers that make whiskey the Tennessee way. George Dickel is the other giant alongside Jack, while Uncle Nearest is growing so fast we’ll be calling it Great Uncle Nearest soon. The latest brand to join the esteemed ranks is Daddy Rack Tennessee Straight Whiskey.
Founder J. Arthur Rackham was born into booze. Not into a literal vat or anything, but above his father’s liquor store in Portobello Road, west London. In 1968 he got an apprenticeship with the Camus family in Cognac, which began a more than 50-year career in the international spirit merchant business that led him to create his own Tennessee Whiskey in 2021. It’s named Daddy Rack, after the moniker his daughter gave him.
That core expression has been followed by limited-edition bottlings like this superb single-cask Tennessee Whiskey, bottled in 2021. This particular whiskey contains a four-year-old spirit produced from a mash bill of corn (80%), rye (10%), and malted barley (10%), matured in a single barrel (no. 06, as you might have guessed), which yielded an outturn of 228 bottles. Want to know what we think? Then click on the video below. And marvel at my Negroni t-shirt.
Adam tastes Daddy Rack 4 Year Old Cask Strength
Nose: Fresh peach and green apple lead, with prickles of pepper and orange zest.
Palate: Sweet vanilla, oaken caramel with jammy cherry, and dark chocolate.
Finish: Biscuity spice with notes of forest fruits, creamy grain, and oak char.
Daddy Rack 4 Year Old Cask Strength is available from Master of Malt.