Jack Daniel’s Special Release (2025) Tanyard Hill Rye Whiskey Review

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Prior to the 2020 Special Release where Jack Daniel’s put their rye whiskey in a bottle at Barrel Strength, fans of the brand didn’t fully realize just how good the Tennessee distillery was at making rye whiskey. Since then, the roar was so loud for more of their rye whiskey, that Jack began to offer it through their single barrel rye whiskey program.

Another interesting thing happened in the years that followed that Special Release – Jack started to highlight the locations that their single barrels had aged in. I don’t think this was something the public had really thought much about in the past because Jack’s range of products was so small and uniform. It was almost all bottled at very young ages before the barrels had a chance to showcase various traits from their aging location. Then came the Coy Hill series of 2021 and 2022.

Coy Hill walked so that Tanyard Hill could run

If you’ve never been to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery and its surrounding area, then you might not know it’s rather hilly getting there. And when it came time to build barrelhouses, they chose to build them on top of the hills rather than in the valleys. This allowed maximum exposure to the sun along with lots of air movement. It also meant that the warehouses weren’t packed so closely together, allowing more diversity among the barrels during maturation.

What Coy Hill taught enthusiasts was that the outcropping of four barrelhouses situated at a higher elevation seemed to create some incredible whiskey. Whether or not the barrelhouses across Jack’s other two campuses could create whiskey of comparable quality is up for debate, but Coy Hill captured the imaginations and palates of enthusiasts all over the world.

Imagine those same enthusiasts’ reactions when Jack announced another Special Release in 2025 bearing the name of a similar outcropping of barrelhouses – this time called Tanyard Hill. The part that makes this hill – and Coy Hill – special is that they’re part of the original grouping of barrelhouses the brand has had for decades (maybe even a century). Even if you don’t think that these warehouses vary much from the ones they build at their second and third maturation locations, you still have to appreciate the heritage that barrels aging in these older ones bring to the table.

Jack Daniel’s has commented about the 2025 release of Tanyard Hill Rye Whiskey by saying that only 200 barrels were selected and that between 20-30 barrels were completely dry when they were plucked. Evaporation was also rampant since they had matured for almost 10 years at the top of Barrelhouse 1-01 and with it came extremely high proof whiskey left in the barrels. From what we’ve seen, the lowest proofed single barrels run 130.2 proof and the highest barrels run 148.8 proof Therefore, it is believed that this release only saw 15,000 bottles produced – a relatively small amount compared to prior years.

Coming fresh off of a barrel pick of Jack Daniel’s Rye Whiskey last year, I was eager to try the 2025 Special Release to see how it stacked up against the barrel I helped select for Analogue Bar/The New Jersey Bourbon and Yacht Club. So when a friend brought his bottle over, I got my single barrel out to let everyone compare them. Here’s what we found. As always I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Sweet brown sugar pairs with maple syrup. Heat from the proof stings my nose just a bit, but it’s overall very well controlled. I can find a touch of cinnamon spice and some ground ginger/nutmeg notes along with a sweetgrass/herbal scent that adds a dimension to their rye whiskey that I don’t normally find. Peppermint candy canes and a bit of banana bread with raisins (weird, haha) give it both a touch of Christmas scents as well as some Fall baked-goods scents. As for oak, there is some, but it’s generally sweet and not bitter at all.

Palate: A thick, oily (possibly creamy?) mouthfeel delivers an impressive array of nutty banana bread, cinnamon pinwheels and herbal flavors. Chocolate-dipped candy cane and a bit of licorice give complex candy notes while a different kind of sweetness comes from maple candies and table syrup. A flavor similar to “Dr. Pepper” also finds its way from my taste buds to my brain which always signals that the whiskey I’m drinking is A+ in complexity. Sweet oak and a bit of barrel char combine with butter toffee to give that final push of richness onto my tongue.

Finish: Warm and spicy while also being sweet and oaky at the same time. Rock candy and herbal flavors remind you that you just had a rye whiskey. The finish is a dream that lasts a moderate-to-long time and is delicious to behold.

Score: 8.9/10

I can’t find a single flaw with this rye whiskey. It’s sweet to the point where it compliments every other flavor it touches without becoming sickeningly sweet. It’s powerful and oily in its delivery, yet doesn’t punish your tongue and nostrils. It has enough nuanced flavors to keep your interest for the entire pour… and maybe another pour right after. And unfortunately for me, it totally dominated the Jack Rye pick I was on just 12 months prior – and I really liked that pick!

All of my glazing probably stems from the thorough vetting of these barrels. Maybe the maturation experts knew about this honey spot on Tanyard Hill or maybe they got lucky, but it’s you and I who are lucky if we got a bottle. I firmly believe this is the best rye whiskey product ever put out by Jack Daniel’s… and I haven’t even tried other barrels!

Final Thoughts

What more can I say about this rye whiskey that I haven’t already said? If my words don’t make you want to rush out and buy one for yourself, then I don’t know what to tell you. Actually, finding one for yourself is going to be incredibly hard due to what I believe was a relatively small release. I’ve had friends from the East Coast to Tennessee to Chicago tell me they struggled to get this bottle most of all during the height of bourbon release season.

It seemed like it was released very haphazardly throughout the US resulting in spikes and dips in its secondary price as regions got their allocation. At the time of writing, the secondary market is valuing non-Hazmat (below 140 proof) bottles at around $475 while Hazmat bottles are north of $625. But let me tell you this, no matter which kind you get, I think you’re in for a treat. Make sure this bottle ends up in your collection and share it with your best friends.