National Jerry Dalton Day

Yesterday on The Bourbon Daily, Steve and the panel declared the day to be National Jerry Dalton Day. There was not an ensuing social media wildfire as there was with National Alan Bishop Day. But, then again, Jerry didn’t insist everyone change their Facebook profile photo to “The Shocker”.

In case you don’t know, Jerry was the first and only non-Beam family member to hold the title Master Distiller at Jim Beam. Jerry bridged the gap between the larger-than-life Booker Noe and Fred Noe, Booker’s son and current Master Distiller.

There are three ABV Network podcasts dedicated to Jerry Dalton. The most recent was The Bourbon Daily from November 20, 2020. The first was an episode of The Bourbon Show (#48 Pint-Size Show, 9/6/17). That led to the best of the three and that is The Bourbon Show interview with Jerry Dalton (#65, 5/1/19). I highly recommend all three, but if you listen to just one, then it should be the Dalton interview show. That is one for the ABV time capsule. Links in this paragraph will take you to those shows.

I won’t re-tell all that you can hear on the podcasts. I’ll just offer a few personal thoughts. One of my favorite Beam products was the brain-child of Jerry and that is the Signature Craft series. Unfortunately, by the time it came to market, Jerry had retired and he didn’t get the credit he is due for it.

I learned on The Bourbon Daily “National Jerry Dalton Day” show that Jerry is not active in the Bourbon world now because he is the caretaker for his wife. I’ve seen how my own father has cared for my mom for some time now. I’ve seen the love and sacrifice that can be. This only raises the respect I have for Jerry. Not as a distiller, but as a man of honor.

It is an oversight of great magnitude that Jerry Dalton is not in the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame. What do you say, Colonel Steve? Let’s make that the next big project for ABV!