Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/990824
76 / the tasting panel / june 2018 ANDREW POLLARD Assistant Director of Beverage Development for Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas, NV Jack Black Book Appearance: Featured in Vol. I with his "M Manhattan" made with Jack Daniel's Sinatra Select On What Makes Jack Daniel 's a Classic: "A lot of folks are very much in the school of 'craft' and 'small batch,' but to be able to produce something that's high quality at such a high volume with consistency globally—it's quite impressive." What He Drinking: "My favorite is the Sinatra Select. It pays homage to someone who was so iconic to the brand—really one of the first 'brand ambassadors' as we know today. It really has that iconic feel, touch, and taste to it. I also love making a Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Rye Fashioned. It's got a great balance of spice and sweetness, and it also highlights the spirit. I find too often that people are using spirits just to use them. It's about the canvas, and an Old Fashioned truly highlights that." Jack Daniel 's is Like . . . "a Ferrari. It's fast, it's strong, but it also has a good feel to it." DALE DEGROFF Aka "King Cocktail"; author of Craft of the Cocktail (second edition lands November 2019) Jack Black Book Appearance: Featured in Vol. II with his "Almost Perfect 'Perfect' Manhattan" made with Gentleman Jack On What Makes Jack Daniel 's a Classic: "Well, Frank Sinatra went a long way toward making it a classic, and the Brown-Forman family, which did not invent the brand, very wisely purchased it at exactly the right moment. It seems to be the brand that captured attention before any other American whiskey. Now, of course, American whiskey is having its hay day abroad, but there was a time when Jack was the only American whiskey anyone outside the U.S. knew. And that has to say something about it: that it captured the imagination of the rest of the world, that this is what American whiskey was supposed to taste like." What He Drinking: "Tony [Abou-Ganim] and I just noticed while sitting at the bar: Everybody drinks Jack and Coke, Jack and ginger . . . And we're sitting there with just a big glass of ice and Jack Daniel's, saying to ourselves, 'Wow. This is really, actually the way Jack Daniel's is supposed to be drunk.' It's just so good on the rocks. I don't think I want to mix it with anything right now—although I do also like it in a Manhattan." Jack Daniel 's is Like . . . "It'll always be the star of any drink it's in, because anything else you add to it is a mixer." COVER STORY A longtime leader in the modern mixology movement, Dale DeGroff prefers his Jack "the way [it's] supposed to be drunk": on the rocks. Andrew Pollard, Assistant Director of Beverage Development for Las Vegas' Wynn Resorts, commends Jack Daniel's for its consistently high quality.