Frank Sinatra Select

Early 2013 Jack Daniel's introduced a new decanter, The Frank Sinatra Select. They used to commemorate special events and just a few years back they started commemorate persons.

You always could order your own specialised bottle, but this was always for either a private person or a very small market.

The first person who got his own bottle with widly availability, was Mr. Angelo Lucchessi. His 90th Birthday was celebrated with a special bottle.

Why do I tell you this, you might think? Well, it is said Mr. Lucchessi introduced Jack Daniel's to Mr. Sinatra back in the mid 1900's. Mr. Lucchesi always made sure of a constant supply of Jack to the store close to the Sinatra residence in Hollywood. He also made sure there was Jack where ever Mr. Sinatra went.

As a singer Mr. Sinatra was well known all over the world. Because he was asked to perform around the world, the best way to travel for Mr. Sinatra was by plane. Therefore he bought his own. He called his plane 'Eldago'.
In his career he held a prop Eldago and a Lear-Jet Eldago.

The love for Jack even meant Mr. Sinatra had his own stash of miniatures, especialy bottled for Eldago, on his plane

 There are still a few full and sealed of these out there. This is one highly collectable item. Over the years I've just seen one on Ebay (going for a price accordingly to it's rareness) and one in a collection of a fellow collector.

As you can gather from what I wrote in part 1, Mr. Sinatra was a great fan of Jack Daniel's. His love of the brand even made him a Squire.

'A Tennessee Squire is a member of the Tennessee Squire Association, which was formed in 1956 to honor special friends of the Jack Daniel's distillery. Many prominent business and entertainment professionals are included among the membership, which is obtained only through recommendation of a current member. Squires receive a wallet card and deed certificate proclaiming them as "owner" of an unrecorded plot of land at the distillery and an honorary citizen of Moore County, Tennessee.'
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Daniel's )

The exact year of Mr. Sinatra becoming a Squire, I don't know. But what I do know is that Mr. Sinatra was very proud to have been selected to be a Squire. So proud, he had 2 TSA-patches embroidered on 2 blazers. 
Around 1959 approximately 58 Jack Daniel's bottled 200 ml bottles and labelled them as 'Tennessee Squire Association' bottles and sent them to each Squire. This was a private label, not available to the general public. The story goes, Mr. Sinatra was buried in one of his Squire blazers and had this little 200ml bottle he got from Squires, tucked into his breast pocket.

When Mr. Sinatra made his comeback at the Sahara in 1980, the event was celebrated by some JD executives. They had 36 decanters etched for him. This was the Belle of Lincoln decanter and only 30 were actually given to him in his dressing room. The etch on the bottle read in "In Fond Memory Of..." and had 12 names  around the bottle. These names were all characters Mr. Sinatra had played in the movies. The list of names on the bottle are; Angelo Maggio, Charlie Y. Reader, Dave Hirsch, Joey Evens, Mike Connor, Bennett Marco, Nathan Detroit, John Barron, Joe Leland, Barney Sloan, Johnny Concho & Tony Rome.

There are still a few of these decanters in existence. These decanters are priceless and have sold as such at various auction houses. As time goes by, they will become more and more valuable!
The 6 that were made and not given to Frank are a mystery. Today there is no one at the distillery who knows what might have happened to them. Good guess they are in the hands of a either the Bobo- or Fanning families.

Every now and then one is on display, making collectors go wild.

Well, as you could have read in the previous 2 parts, it's no wonder Jack Daniel's commemorated this awesome entertainer with a special bottle.

This bottle came on sale early 2013. Although 1 liter, the bottle is way taller (and a little slimmer) then the regular Black Label bottles.
It comes is a very nice case with booklet. The selling price is a little steep, but still this bottle is a must have for collectors and enthousiasts. Downside is you (up to know) you only can get the bottle at certain airports, a few selected shops and at the distillery.

If you like to comment on what is written, please feel free to do so. Also if you would like to add any info on the life of Mr. Sinatra concerning Jack, drop me a line.

Thanks for reading and if you want to, feel free to have a look around this blog. On the right you can jump to different pages in this blog. Enjoy!