Everyone knows what a bottle of Jack costs. Far fewer people have looked at what the fancier Jacks cost against the whiskeys that actually taste like them.
That is the gap this week. Set the standard Old No.7 aside for a moment, because its sizes muddle the comparison and I will come back to why at the end. Look instead at the bottles Jack Daniel's sells as a step up: Gentleman Jack, Single Barrel Select, the bonded release. Every one of them sits a long way over its flavour-crowd, which is the ten whiskeys the model rates nearest it on taste. The two headline step-ups cost roughly double what that crowd costs. The brand's middle price across the whole range lands near $94, and the dearer bottles push well past it.
Start with Gentleman Jack in the litre. It reads as a corn-sweet, charcoal-filtered Tennessee whiskey, soft and easygoing, with caramel, a little light oak and a banana note that is pure Jack house style. None of that is a criticism. It is a pleasant, mellow pour. But the litre asks $107, and its crowd of nearest tastes sits around $47. That is sixty dollars of daylight, about 128% over, and nothing in the glass explains it beyond the size of the bottle and the name on it. You are paying mostly for the extra volume and the label, not for a step up in character.
1/Two American whiskeys the engine's profile model keeps shelving together: Jack Daniel's Old No.7 and Buffalo Trace. On make-up it reads them as close kin, a cosine of 0.94. Both sit at or near their own floor this week — the Jack a litre at $73, the Buffalo Trace a 700 at $56.
2/Check the measure before the money. The Jack is a full litre; the Buffalo Trace a standard 700. Per litre that's $73 against roughly $80. So the Kentucky bourbon is the dearer pour by volume, even with the lower ticket. The shelf price flatters it.
3/Where they part is worth. On value-for-money the model doesn't rate the pairing at all — it scores near zero. A Tennessee whiskey and a Kentucky bourbon that drink in the same register, then, not one filling in for the other. Shared character, different answers.
4/Both near their own floor, and together they come to $129, a shade under their recent average. Two everyday American pours at keen tickets. Which earns the daily shelf spot for you — the $73 Jack by the litre, or the $56 Buffalo Trace? Tell me what yours rings up.
Jack Daniel's Old No.7 and Jim Beam White come up as near-twins on the engine's flavour read — seventh-closest by profile, both built on that corn-and-charcoal spine. Both are at their lowest of the last eight weeks right now.
Jack Daniel's Old No.7 at $55 and Buffalo Trace at $58 are both sitting at the bottom of their own recent range this week. Two everyday American whiskeys, a few dollars apart, quietly at their floor at the same time.
310 bottles at Dan Murphy's can be priced per standard drink this week. Cheapest first: Grant's Triple Wood 1 litre at $1.99 a standard drink; the median is $4.16; Dalmore 21 Malt is the highest at $42.68. 235 of the 310 come in under a pint at the pub, which works out at $6.28 a standard drink.
305 bottles at Dan Murphy's can be priced per standard drink this week. Cheapest first: McAllister 1 litre at $2.00 a standard drink; the median is $4.03; Dalmore 21 Malt is the highest at $42.68. 228 of the 305 come in under a pint at the pub, which works out at $6.28 a standard drink.
The most famous whiskey in the building is, this week, the one bargain on its own shelf, in a single specific bottle. The standard Old No.7, in the plain 700mL, is tagged just under the whiskies around it.
Buy the same Jack Daniel's whiskey in two different bottles and one of them asks a hundred and twelve percent over its neighbours while the other asks nine. Nothing in the glass changed. The label on the shelf did.
Take the labels off the Jack Daniel's shelf and you are looking at one idea wearing several outfits. Corn-heavy spirit, filtered slowly through sugar-maple charcoal before it ever meets a barrel, then sold at more sizes and dress-ups than any other name in American whiskey.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Daniel's Gentleman Jack Tennessee Whiskey 1L | Lynchburg | $100.99 | observed | $74.89 | $58.82 | 21.5% | #5 of 5 | $2.85 | #5 of 5 | 2 |
| Jack Daniel's Gentleman Jack Tennessee Whiskey 700mL | Tennessee | $64.95 | observed | $64.95 | $50.84 | 21.7% | #2 of 4 | $2.94 | #2 of 4 | 2 |
| Jack Daniel's Old No.7 Tennessee Whiskey 1.136L | Lynchburg | $84.95 | observed | $58.51 | $50.45 | 13.8% | #3 of 5 | $2.37 | #1 of 5 | 2 |
| Jack Daniel's Old No.7 Tennessee Whiskey 1.75L | Lynchburg | $153.99 | observed | $61.60 | $52.05 | 15.5% | #4 of 5 | $2.79 | #4 of 5 | 2 |
| Jack Daniel's Old No.7 Tennessee Whiskey 1L | Lynchburg | $78.85 | observed | $53.83 | $47.99 | 10.8% | #1 of 5 | $2.41 | #2 of 5 | 3 |
| Jack Daniel's Old No.7 Tennessee Whiskey 700mL | Lynchburg | $56.95 | observed | $55.88 | $49.07 | 12.2% | #2 of 5 | $2.58 | #3 of 5 | 4 |
| Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Select Tennessee Whiskey | Tennessee | $112.99 | observed | $116.99 | $73.07 | 37.5% | #4 of 4 | $4.55 | #4 of 4 | 2 |
| Jack Daniels Bonded Whiskey | Tennessee | $88.99 | observed | $94.99 | $61.95 | 34.8% | #3 of 4 | $4.03 | #3 of 4 | 2 |