Uncle Nearest CEO, Fawn Weaver isn’t the type to back down from a challenge or destined opportunity. Weaver has been a serial entrepreneur for 25 years but is a storyteller at her core, which led her to create Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey in 2016. While traveling abroad in Singapore with her husband, she saw a photo of Jack Daniel and George Green, the son of a previously unknown master whiskey distiller, Uncle Nearest. Uncle Nearest, was a formerly enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel how to make Tennessee whiskey. After learning about Uncle Nearest and Jack Daniel’s interconnected history, Weaver followed the story down to Tennessee, which led her to purchase the 300-acre farm in Lynchburg, Tennessee, where Nearest taught Jack how to distill. Without any experience in distilling, she decided to open up the Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is the fastest-growing American whiskey brand in U.S. history, the best-selling African American-founded spirit brand of all time, and was the most award-winning American whiskey (including bourbon) of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
“Nearest To Greenwood” #NearestToGreenwood #LeftysOnGreenwood Photo Credit Fred Jones/One Tulsa
In addition to being at the helm of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, Weaver is also the founder of the Nearest Green Foundation. This 501(c)(3) non-profit organization offers full scholarships to every descendant of Nearest Green, the world’s first known African-American master distiller.
