Sometimes what makes a brand special is not just the product, but the story behind it. For example, when looking at Uncle Nearest, a whiskey brand, the company was created not only because CEO Fawn Weaver had a love for whiskey, but also because she was curious about the story of a slave in Lynchburg, Tenn.
Just last month, weaver released a book that goes deep into the story of how this enslaved Black man influenced the creation of one of America’s most beloved whiskey brands, Jack Daniel’s, and in turn, inspired her to create one of her own.
While it was initially thought that Daniel learned distilling from a man by the name of Dan Call, it turned out that Nearest Green, one of Call’s slaves, is the man who taught Daniel everything he knew.
In the 1967 book, “Jack Daniel’s Legacy,” by Ben A. Green, Call is quoted as stating, “Uncle Nearest is the best whiskey maker that I know of.”
The story of Green received national attention in 2016, after the New York Times published article on how Jack Daniel’s had a mission of spreading the word about Green and his influence on their company during the brand’s 150th anniversary.
One of the people who read that article was Weaver, who has gone on to build up one of the most successful whiskey companies in recent history as the first Black woman to be a CEO of a major spirit brand. Uncle Nearest is currently valued at $1 billion.
But Weaver isn’t just doing it for the money. In her new book, “Love & Whiskey,” she not only delves even deeper into Green’s story and family, she investigates the ways that Daniel’s ensured that Uncle Nearest’s legacy would continue on even years after he’s passed, since Nearest was a mentor, teacher and friend to someone who would become a legend in the spirit industry.
In an interview with Southern Living, Weaver said, “Every generation has had a keeper of this story to make sure the legacy of Nearest Green never died, to make sure this relationship of love, honor and respect between Jack Daniel and Nearest Green never went away.”
For this generation, Weaver is the keeper of this story and she’s doing her part to ensure that it’s never forgotten.