Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey Announces Major Distillery Expansion

Fawn Weaver, CEO and founder of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. (Photo: Uncle Nearest)

On Tuesday, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey announced that it has expanded its Tennessee distillery over an additional 109 acres, bringing the Nearest Green Distillery’s total size to 432 acres.

Across its properties in Bedford and Moore Counties, Uncle Nearest now owns 745 acres, which the company said in a news release makes it “one of the largest, if not the largest, Black landowners in Tennessee.”

Uncle Nearest has not said what the extra space will be used for.

Uncle Nearest is named after Nathan”Nearest” Green, the first known Black master distiller, who was born into slavery, taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey and became the first master distiller for Jack Daniel Distillery.

Uncle Nearest opened to the public in 2019 with 270 acres. A popular tourist destination that attracts 5,000-8,000 visitors every weekend, Uncle Nearest expects to increase that range to 10,000-15,000 with the expansion.

“We are always thinking ahead and doing our best to keep pace with our continuously increasing demand,” Fawn Weaver, founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest, said in a news release.

Nearest Green Distillery is home to Humble Baron, which holds the Guinness World Record for the longest bar at 518 feet, and a barbecue restaurant named Barrel House BBQ II.

“When a member of the press dubbed us ‘Malt Disney World’ when we opened in 2019, we took that quite seriously and built out a distillery worthy of that moniker,” said Victoria Eady Butler, Uncle Nearest master blender and fifth-generation descendant of Nearest Green.

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