Bedford County Post

Summer Local Living May 2024— 31 PROCESS Those interested in touring the facility can choose from three different experiences, including the traditional Cascade Hol- low Tour & Tasting, the George Dickel Bottled in Bond Expe- rience and the George Dickel Single Barrel Experience. Tours begin in front of the visitor center, where guests learn about what goes into every bottle of George Dickel Whisky. That process begins with a 4x4x6 rick of sugar maple wood. While it is common for some larger distilleries to utilize a large burn pavilion equipped with ventilation fans, Cascade Hollow is still doing this the old fashioned way. “We are the only distillery in the state of Tennessee that has an open burn permit,” Parks said. “We like it because it lets the breeze that comes down through here pick all that smoke off our charcoal and keep every- thing nice and smooth.” The charcoal will then be broken up dried for about a week before it is put into burlap sacks and brought over to the distillery for use in its charcoal mellowers. There are some standards to a product being able to be labeled a “Tennessee Whisky.” These include being made in the state of Tennessee, using new charred oak barrels and mel- lowed through charcoal in what is known as the “Lincoln County Process.” “Mr. George had a couple ex- tra steps that he added in that he thought made is whisky particu- larly superior,” Parks said. One of these extra steps is adding a virgin wool blanket to the top and bottom of each char- coal mellower. “The first blanket is going to pull off the excess corn oil in the product,” Parks said. “The back end is going to work like a fine filter to keep any of our charcoal from going through into our fin- ished barrels.” Parks said Dickel also thought his winter whiskies were smoother than his summer whiskies and Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. is able to mimic that wintertime fla- vor with some modern technol- ogy. The charcoal mellowers are chilled to about 40 degrees year- round. “It takes about one week for the whisky to make its way down through there, it is very tightly packed,” Parks said. “It seeps down through slowly chilled all the way.” “So those two steps together are going to be unique to us,” she added. “You are not going to see them at other distilleries you go to.” Another distinction between George Dickel and many other Tennessee Whiskey is the use of the traditional Scottish spelling for the product – “whisky” rather than the Americanized “whiskey.” “Scotch Whisky was consid- ered the premium product of George Dickel’s day,” Parks said. “He loved it and thought his was every bit as good so he took that spelling and we have kept with it ever since.” Guests will make their way through the Cascade Hollow Dis- tillery, seeing every part of the distillation process from the two nearly 10,000 mash tubs to the fermentation tanks and the three- story column still as well as the barreling process. Cascade Hollow barrels are made by three cooperages in Ken- tucky. “They are going to char them to our specifications,” Parks said. “For us it is going to be a level four char on the belly and level two on the top and bottom. That is about forty seconds and twenty seconds of flame.” The charring process allows for two things to happen. First, it is caramelizing the sugar in the wood to bring out the flavor, but it also burns the cellulose out of the wood to make room for the whisky to move in and out of throughout the year. After being filled with 83 gal- lons of whisky, the barrels are moved to one of 14 barrel houses located on the hills surrounding the distillery. Guests will then make their way back to the visitor center where they will be able to sample some of Cascade Hollow’s prod- uct. For more information about the Tennessee made George Dickel or Cascade Hollow Distill- ing, visit www.georgedickel.com .