Your friend obviously has never been to the distillery! lynchburg is in a dry county(Moore County) and has been since before prohibition. Unless he was an official taster employed by JD, or a long time employee brought in for weekly batch tastings, he did not get to taste blue label at the distillery. Blue label is just what others have said here, a not for sale sample drawn from barrels either labeled for tasting by employees or drawn for a single barrel buyer and redeemed at their local liquor store.....