Love and Whiskey

In this incredible story of entrepreneurship and perseverance, Fawn Weaver seeks to uncover the forgotten history of Uncle Nearest, the Black master distiller who taught Jack Daniel how to distill.

In 2016, while a divided America wrestled its demons, Fawn Weaver traveled to the tiny town of Lynchburg, Tennessee in pursuit of a hidden story at the heart of one of America's most iconic whiskey brands: Jack Daniel's.

In this remarkable place, with its one stoplight, one main road, and one industry-whiskey-Fawn peeled back the layers of a Southern town that had bucked societal expectations for generations and a lineage that refused to let their history be lost. This was the home of the best whiskey maker the world never knew: Nearest Green.

As an enslaved man during the Civil War, Nearest befriended a young Jack Daniel and taught him how to make whiskey. As a free man after the war, Nearest became Jack Daniel Distillery's first Master Distiller.

How was the story of their remarkable friendship and allyship allowed to be forgotten? And what could be done now to honor and preserve his legacy for generations to come? "We think Nearest deserves to have his own bottle," the Green descendants told Fawn. "His name should be on a bottle."

What began-and will always remain-as a way to permanently honor the legacy of Nearest Green grew into Uncle Nearest, the record-breaking independent whiskey that's become the fastest-growing Black-owned spirit brand of all time, the fastest-growing Bourbon in U.S. history, and disrupted the American spirits industry to its core.

An incredible true story of friendship, faith, and purpose, Love & Whiskey details how Fawn launched herself into the historical mystery, living among the residents of Lynchburg, discovering a trail of unknown records, and reconnecting branches of a family tree across the generations.