When you hear the name Jack Daniel, you immediately recognize the most well-known name in whiskey. You can see that iconic black and white label in your mind’s eye, picture your dad or grandpa pouring you your first glass of Old No. 7 and maybe even taste the $1 Jack and Cokes you used to drink back in the day.
But when you hear the name Nathan Green, do any such images come to mind?
Up until 2016, the answer was no for most people. That was the year the spirits world was introduced to a lesser-known whiskey legacy, unearthed by The New York Times and revitalized by two women with a dream the following year.
This is the story of Uncle Nearest, the man who taught Jack Daniel everything he knew.
Nathan “Uncle Nearest” Green was born into slavery in Maryland in 1820 and later moved to Lynchburg, Tennessee. He was a skilled fiddle player, a natural-born entertainer and a damn good whiskey distiller.
Sometime in the 1850s, Nearest worked for Dan Call, a preacher, grocer and distiller. Nearest was one of the few formerly enslaved people who continue working for Call after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.1
It’s here that Nearest practiced and perfected the process of sugar maple charcoal filtering whiskey. Now called the Lincoln County Process, this distillation method is believed to have been brought to the United States by enslaved people, who were already using charcoal to filter their water and purify their foods in West Africa.2 This process is what differentiates Tennessee whiskey from other whiskies, giving it its characteristic smoothness.
This process was utilized across Tennessee, but none worked as well as Nearest. Any of the good people in Lincoln County would tell you that Uncle Nearest’s whiskey was the best around.
Around the same time Nearest went to work for Call, a poor 7 or 8-year-old boy by the name of Jack Daniel came to work for him as a chore boy and farm hand. A kid with a tragic home life, Jack was the tenth child in his family and lost his mom to a sudden illness at a young age.
For years, the story went that Call saw promise in Jack and taught him how to distill whiskey himself. Lynchburg locals know different, though – Call introduced Jack to Nearest, saying, “This is Uncle Nearest. He’s the best whiskey maker that I know of.” Call tasked Nearest with teaching Jack how to make Tennessee whiskey with the famous Lincoln County Process.3
After emancipation, Call sold his distillery to Jack, now a skilled whiskey maker thanks to Nearest’s tutelage. Jack asked Nearest to be the newly formed Jack Daniel Distillery’s first master distiller. He accepted, becoming the first recorded Black master distiller in the United States.4
Over time, Jack moved his distillery, and though Nearest retired from distilling, his sons and grandsons continued working for Jack. The smooth Tennessee whiskey we all know and love would never have come to be if Uncle Nearest hadn’t taken Jack under his wing and showed him the ropes.
Nathan “Nearest” Green is one of the greatest distillers, but his story was lost to history.
...that is, until June 2016, when New York Times journalist Clay Risen published a story giving Uncle Nearest credit for everything he contributed to the whiskey industry.5
Fawn Weaver, an American entrepreneur (and, fun fact, daughter of Motown legend Frank Wilson), read the article and was determined to restore Nearest’s legacy. She went to Tennessee to interview his descendants, and by the next year, she founded and launched Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey.
“Telling stories like Nearest’s is part of reclaiming Black American legacies that have been lost, hidden, and destroyed,” Weaver wrote in a piece for TIME6 last year about why she decided to make Nearest’s legacy her personal mission. “Against the white-washed backdrop of U.S. history, Nearest’s story stands out as the kind of example I longed to hear about and see, and I can already see the impact it’s having on others.”
If Weaver was the match that rekindled Nearest’s legacy, Victoria Eady Butler is the flame that grew from that spark. Butler isn’t just Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey’s master blender (the first Black woman to hold this position in the U.S.), she’s Nearest’s great-great-granddaughter.
In fact, when she started with the company in 2019 as VP of Administration, she had no background in whiskey blending and expected to only be doing administrative work. Then, Weaver asked her to blend their first batch of whiskey. The result was Uncle Nearest’s 1884 Small Batch Whiskey, which continues to fly off shelves to this day. It has a gorgeous golden amber color with tantalizing notes of frosted spiced cake, banana, almond, muffin and a light, crisp finish.
Uncle Nearest Whiskey and Butler herself have earned countless accolades (but you can browse them all here), and the reason is clear to see: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“Whiskey truly is in my blood,” Butler told The Tennessean.7
Although Uncle Nearest 1884 Small Batch Whiskey remains one of the brand’s staple products, they’ve grown to offer more selections since their founding. There’s also Uncle Nearest 1856 Premium Aged Whiskey, a 100-proof whiskey with notes of oak, vanilla and a hint of white pepper, and Uncle Nearest Straight Rye Whiskey, a peppery (but not hot) rye with notes of cinnamon, fruit and maple and a long, smooth finish.
They recently launched Nearest Green Tennessee Whiskey, which is made using the same famous Lincoln County Process, but at a more approachable 84-proof for sipping neat and mixing in cocktails.
Most excitingly, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits got the opportunity to travel to Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee. You can read all about the single barrel selection process here.
Finally, Nearest Green’s story is being told, and his descendants are following in his footsteps. Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is the fastest growing whiskey brand in the U.S. thanks to its incredible team, taste and tale that has touched the hearts of whiskey lovers worldwide.
A tasty whiskey is good, but a tasty whiskey with a story is great. And Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is undoubtedly the greatest.
Resources:
2 ABOUT NEAREST GREEN | NEAREST GREEN
3 https://www.searchablemuseum.com/the-man-behind-tennessee-whiskey-distilling-the-truth
4 The story of Nearest Green, America’s first known Black master distiller
5 Jack Daniel’s Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave - The New York Times
6 Why Master Distiller Nearest Green's Story Must Be Told | TIME
7 Tennessee’s Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey preserving historic legacy
