Imagine a mechanical engineer becoming a master distiller at Jack Daniels? That's Jeff Arnett for you. Arnett could never land a job in an automobile company after he completed engineering. He started off with a job at Procter & Gamble where he worked with three separate divisions in food and beverage sector for over 10 years. When the company started shutting down its food and beverage companies in 2008, he landed up at Jack Daniels. After serving seven years as a quality control manager, he has reached a position, where only a few have made it—as a master distiller. The Week got in conversation with him at a Masterclass he took in New Delhi.
Excerpts
How do you know so much about whiskey?
There's tremendous amount of history as we talk about Jack Daniels and a good portion of that is also well-documented. So I have become a historian of the brand. I work with people whose parents and grandparents have worked at Jack Daniels. A lot of history is being passed by word of mouth. Though whiskeys are known for their flavours, people have the curiosity about their origin, where do they come from and understanding the nuances of flavours in it.
What are the parameters that are considered for tasting?
The only thing that varies in our product line-up is single barrel. So I have set up a master panel and a team of people are trained on the range of single barrel. For everything else, there is consistency, which has a set standard. If there are three or four batches to be tasted today, I'll have a control sample on their tables, where they don't have to reveal which one do they like the most and least. But, they share experiences on the batch that tastes like the control sample. That's how we test for consistency. It's never which is better or worse, but which sample is different. That is how we prove point of difference and consistency. The panelists are asked to compare the three samples and look for the odd one.
Who are the people who are involved in the tasting process? What qualities do you look for in a whiskey taster?
A taster's job involves tasting the product every single day; so he needs to be disciplined. At Jack Daniels, there are over 100 employees who are involved in the tasting job. Half of them are part of the distillery, who taste the new one. The other half taste the mature whiskeys. I have had tasters who would drink a cup of coffee and eat some snack to get their taste right. But most of our tasters taste whiskeys over the day. Only a very few people, who are working in a laboratory setting, get the leverage to be a mere taster.
How has your journey been with Jack Daniels?
It's been great. I was on the master panel of tasters for seven years. I processed all the single barrel that came out of the Jack Daniels and also prepared them for the market. While I was a taster, I was tasting every single barrel that went to the market over five years. But my predecessor was retiring and since I was interested to take up the new role, I became the master distiller.
How do you plan to carry forward the legacy of Jack Daniels?
It's never been our desire to be the biggest whiskey company on the planet. Jack as a person always wanted to survive. Carrying forward his legacy, we want to continue focusing on the quality and to make great products. That's what brings us to India today. India is not the largest market in world but it's a huge whiskey market. We have not come here to be the biggest selling whiskey of India but more importantly, we want to give people a range of choices that they can trust. As master distiller, my job is to never knowingly compromise on the quality. We want to continue offering great quality of products—by choosing the best quality of grains and purest source of water.