2017 Jack Daniel’s Ducks Unlimited SiB

Cost: $60 for 750mL bottle at distillery (in 2017/2018?)

Age: NAS

Proof: 94

Mash Bill: 80% corn, 8% rye, 12% malted barley

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

Appearance: Auburn (1.5), thick, fast legs.

Nose: Brown sugar, caramelized bananas, peppery spice, and a light note of charred oak. This is very robust for 47abv.

Palate: Velvety soft, and all though it’s still thin, it coats well. Very sweet – brown sugar simple syrup, a light maraschino cherry note, a dash of white pepper, and a smoky/char note.

Finish: It’s a short finish. Mostly sweet caramelized sugar, a light amount of char, and a surprising mild herbaceous note.

Rating: 4.8/10

Overall: This was more pleasant than Old No. 7, but there was a lot of quality missing that I’ve found in other similarly priced JD expressions (*cough*SiB BiB*cough*). It has all the flavors you would expect from a JD product, and while the nose and palate were good to great, the finish just fell short.

Behind the Bottle

I’m so confused about this bottle that I reached out to Jack Daniel’s to try and clear up some of my questions, but after a week, I never heard back so just decided to roll with the review. So, this bottle packaging says it’s a 2017 Duck’s Unlimited Single Barrel. However, when you look at the bottle neck label, it says that it was bottled on November 13, 2018. Now this really made me turn my head funny…it’s the 2017 Duck’s Unlimited SiB…bottled in 2018…hmmm.

Now let me give you a little background about this bottle. I have in-laws that visited the Jack Daniel’s distillery in 2018. When they were there, they purchased a handful of bottles that were harder to find (ref. Bourbz Review #39). Now, this bottle came with the Duck’s Unlimited 2017 stopper, it came with a 2017 duck band strapped to the neck of the bottle, and it came in a box that said it was the 2017 pick (pictures of all in this post). I have zero reason to think this bottle got swapped by my in-laws because they’ve never had another JD SiB bottle before.

I did some searches online to see if there was something that can explain this, and I came up with nothing. Like I said previously, I reached out to Jack Daniel’s to see if they can share any info and I came up dry with that. So I’m still a little confused about what exactly I’m sipping on.

Now as far as the Duck’s Unlimited SiB goes, Duck’s Unlimited started picking JD SiB releases in 2006 and their final year was 2017. So this is the last year of this releases…or is it the last year +1? We may never know. If you have any info on this conundrum, please share! It’s honestly kinda killing me.

1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.

2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.

3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.

4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but many things I’d rather have.

5 | Good | Good, just fine.

6 | Very Good | A cut above.

7 | Great | Well above average

8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.

9 | Incredible | An all time favorite

10 | Perfect | Perfect