The Dry County Paradox

Moore County, Tennessee has been legally dry for most of its modern history, meaning that the sale of alcohol in stores and restaurants is forbidden by county law. This makes it one of a dwindling number of dry counties in a state that permits local option laws allowing individual counties to ban alcohol sales within their borders. The irony that Moore County is home to Jack Daniel's distillery, the world's best-selling American whiskey, is not lost on anyone.

The county can manufacture whiskey by the millions of gallons; it just cannot sell a glass of it across a bar. Tennessee passed statewide prohibition in nineteen ten, about a decade before national Prohibition took effect. When national Prohibition was repealed in nineteen thirty-three, Tennessee allowed its counties to vote on whether to permit alcohol sales.

Moore County chose to remain dry, and continued voting dry through subsequent referendums across the twentieth century. The distillery navigates its county's dry status through a series of legal accommodations. It is classified as a manufacturing facility rather than a retail outlet.

State law has been amended specifically to allow distilleries to offer tastings and to sell one commemorative product at a time, regardless of county statutes. This means the Jack Daniel's gift shop is, technically, the only place in Moore County where you can legally acquire alcohol, and only to take home, not to drink on the premises. The distillery attracts roughly a quarter million visitors a year, most of whom cannot find a legal drink in the county before or after the tour.