Why Jack Daniel’s Has the Best Portfolio in all of Whiskeydom

Occasions are really what brought out Jack Daniel’s Honey. According to Arnett, in the six years it’s been in the market, it has become the second largest selling product of Jack Daniel’s portfolio. “For me Honey was about a different occasion and different consumer for sure,” Arnett says.

He explained that, while he likes the three family brand products, Honey fills a spot that a lot of whiskey drinkers (and frankly, a lot of whiskey makers) don’t talk about: the liqueur market. “I serve it as a dessert type and after dinner type drink,” he tells us. “I didn’t always serve whiskey after dinner if I was at home entertaining. So, even for a mature drinker like myself I saw an opportunity to put something else in hand. I put Honey in coffee and that’s not something I would do with the other three.”

The market for Tennessee Fire is pretty obvious to explain: plenty of people have been drinking cinnamon whiskey for the better part of this decade. But Jack Daniel’s also released their first new mash bill in the last few years, and this year put out Jack Daniel’s Rye, largely in response to the skyrocketing demand for rye whiskey. The release fills a need in high demand right now: affordable rye for the cocktail world.

Arnett says they’ve been surprised by the success of Rye. Beyond expectations for domestic demand, other markets are starting to ask for it. “Our bartending community is hearing about how great these rye products are doing. They say, ‘We do not have any in our market how quickly can you get it to us?’ We are beginning to see that maybe rye is a more global market than we were anticipating it to be.”

Part of this success story admittedly has to do with the ongoing boom, but while other distilleries have pushed out barrel finishes and collector bottles, Jack Daniel’s has been (intentionally or unintentionally) mapping the trajectory of a whiskey drinker’s lifetime and making sure that there’s always something there for them.

We ask Arnett if Jack Daniel’s is the perfect whiskey portfolio, and he more or less demurs. “There’s a lot to be discovered,” is his response, “ and hopefully with Jack Daniel’s a lot of reasons to want to stay brand loyal to us.”