Four of the five Jack Daniel's tags here are the same whiskey, just in a different-sized bottle. The only real decision is whether to pay up for the fifth.
Lynchburg is a one-distillery town, and this week the shelf shows it. Everything on it is Jack Daniel's. The Old No.7 tags run from a 700mL up to a 1.75-litre bottle of the identical whiskey, and the one that is different, Gentleman Jack, is a genuine step up in the glass. So this is not really a shelf of competing choices. It is one everyday whiskey sold by the measure, plus a single upgrade, and the useful questions are which size of Old No.7 to buy and whether the upgrade is worth it.
Take the sizes first, because the tags look wildly different and the whiskey inside does not change. Old No.7 is $57 at 700mL, $80 at a litre, $95 at 1.136 litres and $154 at 1.75 litres. The model treats the bigger bottles as sitting too far from any reliable crowd of comparable whiskeys to give a fair value read, which is the honest call: there is no neighbourhood of 1.75-litre bottles to measure a 1.75-litre bottle against. So the sensible way to compare them is per litre, and per litre they land remarkably close together, between about $80 and $88. The 700mL works out near $81 a litre, the plain litre bottle near $80, the 1.136-litre near $84, the big 1.75 near $88. The jumbo bottle is not the bargain the format implies. If anything the plain one-litre is the best rate of the lot, and the 1.75 the dearest per drink.
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 Lynchburg shelf is five bottles, and four of them are the same whisky.
One name sits above the shelf it stands on. Every bottle that carries it is tagged over where its neighbours sit, and the gap is not small.
Filter the whole shelf down to one Tennessee town and a single name comes back. Lynchburg is Jack Daniel's, top to bottom, and Jack Daniel's has never once forgotten how well you know it.
| 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 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 |