Jimmy Bedford, Jack Daniel's master distiller, passed away

[DainBramaged]

Jimmy Bedford, the slender and silver-haired former master distiller of the Jack Daniel's whiskey during a 40-year career with the company, died Friday. He was 69.

His body was found outside a barn at his farm in Lynchburg, apparently the victim of a heart attack, company officials said.
Bedford retired in March 2008 after spending 20 years as the master distiller supervising the entire operation at the 143-year-old distillery in Lynchburg, the oldest registered one in the United States. Among his duties was tasting the whiskey before it was sent to retailers.

Bedford traveled the world as the promotional face behind the product. He appeared in one advertising photo standing behind a Jack Daniel's bottle with his arms folded.

Jack Daniel's is available in 135 countries with 9.5 million cases sold annually. The distillery is tucked away on a hilly, 1,700-acre plot in rural Tennessee 65 miles south of Nashville. The whiskey's black and white print ads for years have celebrated the rural lifestyle of the area.

Bedford started at the distillery in 1968 and worked in the yeasting, fermenting, milling and distillation areas. He became master distiller in 1988.

As master distiller, he was an ambassador for the product, traveling often to talk to consumers, distributors, retailers and others. He also signed some bottles and storage barrels, and hosted tasting seminars.

http://news.aol.com/article/obituaries-in-the-news/26428?icid=sphere_newsaol_inpage

Only seven men have held the position of master distiller at the 143-year-old distillery, beginning with founder Jack Daniel.


Man, I drank A LOT of his fine whiskey in the 80's and 90's. I still have a 1992 bottle unopened. Maybe I'll tip one to him before I take my meds.

[Zomby Woof]

1. RIP Mr. Bedford

From a proud member of the Tennessee Squire Association.

I have a collector's set of glasses, each with a reproduced autograph of the master distiller and their tenure with Jack Daniel's. I will have to get out his glass and drink a toast in his honor.

Took a tour of the distillery back in 1982. Learned some interesting facts - for example, due to its status as the first registered distillery in the U.S., the government allowed it to stay open during Prohibition (all other distilleries in the U.S had to close down completely). It produced lemonade and sold bottles of the spring water used to make Jack. Because it's made in a dry county (has been for over a century), they couldn't sell us Jack after the tour. So they gave us a free bottle of the spring water, attractively presented in an engraved wood box. The water is the purest I have ever tasted to this day.

Middle Tennessee is some beautiful country, and if you are ever in that part of the country, a tour of Lynchburg and the distillery is worth a few hours of your time.

[backwoodsbob]

2. one of the best American pures

I prefer blended but Jack is damned good

[DainBramaged]

3. I opened the bottle (bottled in 1992) and poured one in his memory

damn fine whiskey. All the whiskey coming out in the next decade is his product.

[jmowreader]

4. Remember the Good Friday joke?

I toured the distillery in 1983, and the tour guide told us the Good Friday joke.

It seems that even though Lynchburg is in a dry county (which means you drive 17 miles up the road, buy it there and bring it back with you), they are allowed to give each employee a pint of whiskey every month. The whiskey is distributed on Fridays, and the day of distribution is called Good Friday by everyone who works there.

He also told us why Tennessee is called the Volunteer State: many of the workers there are husband-wife couples. Sometimes the wife doesn't drink the product they make, but she gets her bottle on Good Friday anyway. Husband will drink first his bottle then hers. If you drink two pints of Jack Daniel's whiskey in one weekend, by the time you're through you'll volunteer for anything. They make no bones about the fact the product made at that plant will get you drunk off your ass.

Incidentally, you know whiskey transports as hazardous material?

[Zomby Woof]

5. Yep

I remember the Good Friday joke, but not the Volunteer State one - but that may be my faulty memory.

On edit: Blamimg my memory over blaming a different guide.

:-)

[DainBramaged]

6. I know one thing, every Friday used to be Good Friday for me when I worked for the Japanese

If I wasn't traveling, olde Jack and me caught up on the past week.


I miss those days. I could pound down a fifth of Jack over a weekend and still function (of course the beloved wife drove everywhere). And then I had my kid and I stopped doing anything stupid. Now that she's grown, I can't drink much of anything because of the meds I take.


Damn.