The Founding Father of Tennessee Whiskey

Why you’ve never heard of the founding father of Tennessee Whiskey

You may well know what I’m going to say, but I shall tell you the story regardless. There has never been a more important time to tell it. It’s about two men and some incredible whiskey...

More than one hundred and sixty years ago, in the hills above Lynchburg in Tennessee, there was a farm owned by a young preacher man called Dan Call that still stands today. Reverend Call had a side hustle down the road on his farm: a small whiskey distillery, which made a silky smooth, maple-sweet whiskey that was highly regarded by all that tasted it. The man who distilled the whiskey was a black slave named Nathan Green, known affectionately as Uncle Nearest, and he brought with him a special technique of charcoal filtering that he had learned back home in West Africa when they had to clean water. This method of filtering whiskey through sugar male tree charcoal became known as the famous ‘Lincoln method’ and it’s still used today.

At some time in the 1850s, a young white boy came to Reverend Call asking for work. The Reverend took him on and gave him chores but the boy became increasingly fascinated by what was going on down the road at the distillery. Eventually, after begging his master, the boy, who’s name was Jasper, was introduced to Nathan ‘Uncle Nearest’ Green, who was told to teach him what he knew. A natural entrepreneur, Jasper so believed in this whiskey that he started selling it as far and wide as he could. 

December 6th 1865 came around and the thirteenth amendment was finally passed. Uncle Nearest was a free man. Not long after, Jasper bought the distillery and named it after himself, though he didn’t use his given name; he preferred what the locals called him: not Jasper Daniel, but Jack Daniel. He asked Nathan to be his very first master distiller, a position which he happily accepted. The men worked together until Nathan retired.

Nathan’s story was lost for a long time. We can only imagine why. However, a new distillery was built just down the road from Jack Daniel’s, where Nathan’s descendents work today. Quite rightly, it was named after the man who turned out to be the true founding father of Tennessee Whiskey: Nathan Green. Uncle Nearest. 

There are three Uncle Nearest Whiskies to try. Seek them out and please, tell the story. 

1884 Small Batch Whiskey - blended by descendents of Nearest Green.

1856 Premium Aged Whiskey: a blend of premium aged whiskies between 8 and 14 years old.

1820 Nearest Green Single Barrel Edition: Aged a minimum of 11 years, with a cask strength above 108, less than 1% of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey barrels are selected as these rare, single barrels.