In 1969 Paul Newman evidently purchased from Gristedes Bros. liquor store in Greenwich, Connecticut, a bottle of Jack Daniel Black Label that seemed to him to be somehow "off." He returned the bottle to the store, which it turn sent it back to the distillery. Mahanes relates that he found Newman's complaint very distressing and that he "took immediate steps to determine the cause 💞of your dissatisfaction."

These steps included having the company's own blind test panel taste the bottle (the panel found that it lacked the characteristic smoothness of Jack Daniel), as well as having the contents analyzed in both the distillery's lab and by a commercial laboratory. "Both reports indicated that while the proof, ph, fusel oil, esters and other factors were well within the Jack Daniel standard range, the acid content" was abnormal, perhaps due to "the use of new crop corn at the time of manufacture, or🀅 of the presence of not fully seasoned staves in the barrels." After congratulating Newman on his "discriminating taste and sensitive palate," Mahanes assures Newman that the Greenwich retailer has been asked to immediately replace the unsatisfactory bottle.