Wine for sale: George Dickel

George Dickel

The Cascade Hollow distillery near Tullahoma in Tennessee was originally built by George Dickel and his associates in the 19th century. It was, however, rebuilt in 1958 by the Schenley Distilling company, one of the “Big Four”, alongside Seagram, National Distillers and Hiram Walker, all considered to be the main players in the US spirits market after Prohibition. Schenley had tried to buy Jack Daniel’‘s, but when the offer was refused the group decided to instead compete against it on its own land via the George Dickel brand, whose rights it had bought at the end of Prohibition and which it was now marketing as a Tennessee Whiskey rather than a bourbon. In 1964, it released the first George Dickel Tennessee Whiskeys—Dickel Black Label Old No. 8 and Dickel Tan Label Superior No. 12. United Distillers bought Schenley in 1987 and invested heavily in American whiskey, so much so that demand could not keep up and the distillery closed in 1997, only to reopen a few years later in 2003.