Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is inspired by the best whiskey-maker the world never knew, the first known African-American master distiller, Nathan “Nearest” Green. The Uncle Nearest brand, wholly owned by Uncle Nearest, Inc., an all minority-led business, encompasses a premium aged whiskey with a blend of 8- to 14- year old, an 11-year-old minimum age single barrel, and a 7-year-old small batch offering, all mellowed using the Lincoln County Process, a unique filtering of bourbon through sugar maple charcoal. This process has been confirmed to have been brought to Tennessee by enslaved people and taught by Nearest Green to the most famous Tennessee Whiskey maker of all time. Uncle Nearest is distilled, aged, bottled and hand-labeled in Tennessee.
The company built its brand on its knack for sourcing the best of Tennessee whiskies and bourbons, and using its own non-temperature-controlled aging process and unique post-aging double filtration method that significantly changes the characteristics and profile of the original whiskies. Uncle Nearest is the most awarded new American premium whiskey brand in United States history, garnering 75 awards since its July 2017 debut, including being one of two brands named “World’s Best” at Whisky Magazine’s 2019 World Whiskies Awards, and earning 15 Best in Class. Cigar & Spirits Magazine also named Uncle Nearest one of the “Top 5 Whiskies in the World.”
The whiskey is currently available in all 50 states and 12 countries (while shipping into a total of 148 countries), in more than 10,000 stores, bars, restaurants and its 270-acre distillery in Shelbyville, Tenn., dubbed by a member of the press as “Malt Disney World.”