George Dickel

Type: Distillery and brand

At Cascade Hollow, spirit is chilled before it meets maple charcoal, a defining step in the making of George Dickel Tennessee whisky.[1][3][11] The setting is near Tullahoma in Coffee County, Tennessee. The history is less straightforward than the process: the merchant’s name, the distillery and the whisky follow different paths, and the producer’s starting date of 1870 is not an agreed date for the distillery’s opening.[1][6]

George Dickel at a glance

What makes George Dickel distinctive

First comes chilling, then charcoal. The producer confirms that sequence; a trade visit describes the chilled spirit resting with sugar maple charcoal for about a week.[1][11] Both accounts document the process. What remains unverified is the winter-origin story: that Dickel’s preference for winter whisky led to the present chilling practice.[1][5]

Even the spelling carries part of the brand’s identity. The producer uses “whisky”, without an “e”, as part of its original identity.[1] There is also an important distinction between bottle and place: George Dickel is the whisky brand, while Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. is the distillery name introduced in 2018.[3]

A merchant’s name, a distillery’s history

George Augustus Dickel entered this history as a merchant. Born in Germany in 1818, he settled in Tennessee in 1853, according to trade histories.[5][7] Michael Veach traces his whisky business to a Market Street liquor store in Nashville in 1866. In 1870, Dickel formed Geo. A. Dickel & Co. with Maier Salzkotter.[7]

That commercial beginning is distinct from the building of a distillery. The producer describes Dickel as an established Nashville merchant and dates “the beginning” to 1870, but places the Cascade Hollow opening in 1878.[1] Difford’s Guide gives a different date, naming John F. Brown and F. E. Cunningham as the founders and dating the distillery’s establishment to 1877.[6]

Story box

Founding date verdict: Disputed. The producer separates its 1870 beginning from an 1878 distillery opening; Difford’s gives 1877 for the distillery. No agreed founding year, or earliest appearance of the 1870 claim, is established in the supplied record.[1][6]

Did George Dickel own Cascade?

The accounts disagree on whether Dickel owned the distillery at all. The producer says he bought a large share, and Difford’s describes a controlling interest acquired in 1884.[1][6] Historian Kay Baker Gaston says Cascade was never owned by George A. Dickel: his firm bottled and distributed its whisky.[4]

Gaston traces the distillery through Matthew Sims and McLin H. Davis, who acquired Cascade around 1883. In her account, Victor Shwab bought Sims’s share in 1888 and became sole proprietor in 1898.[4] Shwab was Dickel’s brother-in-law and, according to Veach, had become a partner in Geo. A. Dickel & Co. in 1881.[7]

Ownership verdict: Disputed. The producer and Difford’s describe an ownership interest; Gaston says Dickel never owned Cascade. That disagreement remains unresolved.[1][4][6] Dickel cannot confidently be presented as the man who founded and personally ran the distillery.

Prohibition, Kentucky and the return to Tennessee

Cascade’s move to Kentucky changed more than its address. Production transferred to the Stitzel distillery in Louisville, where, Veach records, Shwab funded a charcoal mellowing vat and brought his Tennessee crew to make Cascade.[7] Sources differ on the timing of Tennessee prohibition’s effect and the move, as the timeline below shows.[4][6][11]

During national Prohibition, Cascade began to be sold as medicine in 1920, according to Veach. Shwab died in 1924, and the brand passed to his children.[7] The family sold the Cascade trademark to Schenley in 1937.[4][6]

Schenley’s Cascade of the 1940s and 1950s was Kentucky bourbon made in Frankfort without charcoal mellowing, according to trade histories.[6][7] This was a distinct production chapter, not simply Tennessee whisky made elsewhere.

The return required a Coffee County referendum: the county had remained dry after repeal.[5] Building a replacement distillery, making its first mash and returning the whisky to market were separate milestones.

Production timeline

The 1990s interruption brought a shortage of Old No. 8 before the distillery reopened.[6] Together, these interruptions make a history of distinct production eras, rather than continuous distilling at Cascade Hollow since 1870.[5][6][9]

How the whisky is made

Chilled spirit rests with sugar maple charcoal for about a week in the most detailed technical account, an undated Alcademics distillery visit. Before that treatment, a column still and a doubler provide two stages of distillation. The account describes production at that visit, rather than a verified current specification.[11]

The producer names Cascade spring as the water source and confirms that chilling comes before charcoal filtration.[1] These are production details, not tasting notes: they do not establish a flavour shared by every expression.

The explanation involving winter is more elusive. The producer links chilling to Dickel’s belief that winter whisky was better, but that belief is not established as the origin of the present process.[1][5]

Winter story verdict: Legend. The producer tells the winter story and describes chilling before filtration. Neither a causal link between Dickel’s belief and the present practice, nor the story’s earliest source, is established in the supplied record.[1][5]

Reading the George Dickel range

Bourbon is a separately named George Dickel expression, not a label for the whole brand.[2] Calling the entire range “a bourbon” loses that distinction and the Tennessee whisky identity at the centre of the producer’s account.[1][2]

The producer’s range includes Signature Recipe, Classic Recipe, Bourbon, Rye, Bottled in Bond, Barrel Select, single-barrel expressions and older age-stated releases.[2] Each name needs reading individually, rather than treating “George Dickel” as one interchangeable product.

The 2013 Tennessee whiskey law requires maple charcoal filtering before ageing, with an exception for Prichard’s Distillery.[8] Old No. 8 and Superior No. 12, meanwhile, are historical names from the 1964 return.[6][7] Their numbers are not verified ages; the supplied record establishes no ages for those expressions.

People, the production pause and visits

On 5 March 2018, Diageo announced the Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. name and appointed Nicole Austin general manager and distiller. The announcement recorded her earlier work at Kings County Distillery, Dave Pickerell’s consultancy and Tullamore Distillery.[3]

The latest production report in the supplied record concerns the temporary closure in September 2025. The visitor centre remained open, but a resumption of distillation is not reliably established.[9] An open visitor centre does not necessarily mean the stills are running.

The site has offered a distillery tour, visitor centre and George Dickel General Store.[5] Before travelling, check the official website for current booking arrangements, accessibility, age rules and which parts of the site a tour includes.

Sources

[1] George Dickel. Our Story. Producer’s account, supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.georgedickel.com/en-us/our-story

[2] George Dickel. George Dickel Tennessee Whisky. Producer’s range page, supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.georgedickel.com/en-us

[3] Diageo. Nicole Austin named General Manager and Distiller of Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. https://www.diageo.com/en/news-and-media/press-releases/2018/nicole-austin-named-general-manager-and-distiller-of-cascade-hollow-distilling-co

[4] Kay Baker Gaston, Border States, Middle Tennessee State University. Tennessee Distilleries: Their Rise, Fall, and Re-emergence. https://w1.mtsu.edu/borders/archives/12/Tennessee_Distilleries_-_Their_Rise__Fall__and_Re-emergence.pdf

[5] Clio. George Dickel Distillery; Cascade Hollow, Distilling Co. https://theclio.com/entry/20184

[6] Difford’s Guide. History: Cascade Hollow Distillery (Geo. A. Dickel and Co.). https://www.diffordsguide.com/producers/646/cascade-hollow-distillery-geo-a-dickel-and-co/history

[7] Michael Veach, Bourbon Veach. History of George A. Dickel & Co. https://bourbonveach.com/2015/11/30/history-of-george-a-dickel-co/

[8] Tennessee Attorney General. Opinion No. 15-23. https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/ops/2015/op15-23.pdf

[9] The Spirits Business. Diageo halts production at Balcones and George Dickel. https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2025/09/diageo-halts-production-at-balcones-and-george-dickel/

[11] Alcademics. Distillery Visit: George Dickel. https://alcademics.com/distillery-visit-george-dickel/

This article is desk research based on fact sheet TOP-A296, keeping producer accounts, historical interpretations and dated production observations separate.

Last checked: November 2026