“Love & Whiskey: “The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest” by Fawn Weaver (Melcher Media, 2024, 355 pages, $28.00)
As a young man, beer was my adult beverage of choice. In the autumn of my life, I am an inveterate whiskey drinker, with Jack Daniel’s as my go-to pour (perhaps the only thing I have in common with Frank Sinatra). So when a friend offered to lend me “Love & Whiskey,” I was immediately on board.
“Love & Whiskey” tells the story of Jack Daniel and his head distiller, former slave Nearest Green. It’s also the story of author Fawn Weaver. The daughter of a Motown record producer-turned-evangelist, Weaver overcame a troubled adolescence to become a businesswoman.
In 2016, Weaver was traveling when an article in The New York Times international edition changed her life. The article, by Times journalist Clay Risen, was titled “Jack Daniel’s Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave.”
Weaver went to Lynchburg, Tenn., and launched an extensive search into the history of Nearest Green. She talked to family members and other people and found references to Green in old records. Green served as head distiller from Jack Daniel’s founding in 1866 until 1884. He was instrumental in developing the distinctive taste of “Old No. 7” (a phrase explained in the book).
I was impressed with the story that Weaver shares. In the early days of Nearest Green and Jack Daniel, Lynchburg appears to have been a place where blacks and whites knew each other as people rather than on the basis of their skin color (and this seems to continue into the present). It also appears that Jack Daniel was a good man in addition to being a skilled businessman.
Weaver is the author of two previous books: “Happy Wives Club: One Woman’s Worldwide Search for the Secrets of a Great Marriage” (2014) and “The Argument-Free Marriage: 28 Days to Creating the Marriage You’ve Always Wanted with the Spouse You Already Have” (2015).
“Love & Whiskey” can seem a bit self-laudatory as Weaver details her own business efforts, but they are impressive. She and her husband founded Uncle Nearest, Inc., in 2016. Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey holds the title of the fastest-growing American whiskey in U.S. history and is recognized as the top-selling African-American-founded spirit brand ever. As Weaver points out, before she initiated her company, white males represented 30 percent of this country’s population and 100 percent of the available whiskeys.
I can’t wait to sample hers.
Contact Ted Ayres at tdamsa76@yahoo.com.
