Whisky Advocate: Uncle Nearest’s Fawn Weaver On #TasteWithSpace

When Fawn Weaver went chasing down the history of Nearest Green, the enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel how to distill, she never expected to find a love story. But then she saw a famous photo of Daniel surrounded by his employees, including a Black man by his side. “If you look at that photo, Jack Daniel is not at the center,” she said. “He’s off to the side, and he’s ceded that center to the Black man.”

The positioning made Weaver want to know more, and as she dug into archival documents and biographies, she noted how often Green and his descendants, who worked for Daniel, were cited as integral to the distillery. “Knowing the time frame when they were alive, and that they would have been walking the streets of Lynchburg [Tennessee] together, that said to me that this was a story of love,” the Uncle Nearest founder explained on Whisky Advocate’s Instagram Live series #TasteWithSpace.

Watch the full interview with Weaver on Whisky Advocate’s IGTV channel, and follow Whisky Advocate on Instagram to join #TasteWithSpace live interviews every Friday at 3pm Eastern—except for this week, when the series’ editors will pause for the July 4 holiday and instead host an informal tasting session on Thursday, July 3 at 3pm.—Susannah Skiver Barton

Tagged : Uncle Nearest

Get your first look at 2019 data and 2020 projections for the wine and spirits industries. Order your 2020 Impact Databank Reports. Click here.