February 3, 2025
By now, many people are familiar with the background of Uncle Nearest and the connection to Jack Daniel. Public awareness first came about with a 2016 New York Times article that publicized the then little known fact that Jack Daniel learned how to make whiskey from an enslaved man of color. Among the many people who read that article and felt the impact of the story’s ramifications was Fawn Weaver. She felt the impact to a uniquely high degree, because it inspired the black entrepreneur to travel from her home in LA to the small town of Lynchburg, Tennessee. She literally spent years in Lynchburg and the surrounding area doing the boots-on-the-ground historical research of combing through archives, visiting historical sites, and spending countless hours interviewing community elders, Jack Daniels historians, and Nearest Green’s living descendants. Through this heartfelt labor of love, Weaver grew very close to the surviving Greens. It was only after this extensive research and the forging of these deep personal connections that she decided she wanted to create an independent whiskey brand to honor the legacy of America’s first black master distiller.
Though some may erroneously think that Weaver built a billion dollar whiskey brand to spite Jack Daniel’s, she actually created it with the intent of paying homage to the longstanding relationship of respect between the Greens and the Daniels. And, of course, to combat the erasure of black folks’ instrumental roles in the history of this nation - as exemplified in the previously unknown foundational connection to America’s most ubiquitous whiskey. Jack Daniel went to work on the farm of Dan Call, a preacher, grocer, and distiller in Lynchburg, when he was only about seven years old. Employed as a “chore boy,” it was not long after that Preacher Call introduced Jack to Nearest Green, the enslaved distiller who made Call’s whiskey. Call recognized Green as the best distiller he had ever seen, even with 16 other distilleries in that four mile radius at the time. Jack served as apprentice to Nearest, and when Jack started selling whiskey of his own, it was Nearest at the still.
Since Fawn Weaver first launched the brand, Uncle Nearest has taken the market by storm. In keeping with her close connection to the Green family, Weaver brought on Victoria Eady Butler, herself a direct descendant of Nearest, to serve as their Master Blender. The Uncle Nearest core portfolio is made up of their inaugural 1856, a highly awarded 100 proof Tennessee whiskey, their 1884 Small Batch Tennessee Whiskey, and their Alberta-sourced 100-proof straight rye whiskey.
The most recent addition to our shelves from Uncle Nearest, and a point of special pride for us in connection to so important a brand, is our store single barrel select. Since the inception of the brand, Victoria Eady Butler has been sourcing barrels for blending from a heritage Tennessee whiskey distillery. This distillery makes the whiskey with a strict adherence to the Lincoln County Process. The Lincoln County Process is the filtration of the distillate through native sugar maple charcoal, and Nearest Green is actually credited with the standardization of this process of mellowing and purifying the spirit. The whiskey of our barrel underwent this process. It was distilled on July 18th of 2019 from a mashbill of 80% corn, 10% rye, and 10% malted barley. Our General Manager Mark and our Spirits Specialist Lucas selected this barrel from a lineup of samples as especially outstanding whiskey. Lucas points out the textural density on the palate and appreciates the evolution of the spirit’s character. Sweet and nutty elements on the nose move into dark chocolate peanut butter cup on the palate, alongside some maple sweetness and clove spice. That spice sticks around on the finish with a touch of ginger, some sweet molasses, and even a touch of dark chocolate mint.
Uncle Nearest is a brand we are proud to have on our shelves every day, honoring an essential history. This single barrel is an exceptional example of that legacy. It holds a prominent place in our section dedicated to BIPOC producers, a reminder of how easily contributions like Nearest Green’s can be overlooked without proper recognition. At BayTowne, we’re committed to keeping great work like this in the spotlight.