Uncle Nearest is a Tennessee whiskey brand that has been reborn to honour a pioneer of the American whiskey industry. He was named Nathan Green and was believed to be the first African-American master distiller in the USA during the 1850s. Green is often described as "the best whiskey maker that the world never knew" and lived just outside Lynchburg in Tennessee. He was known as Nearis to his friends and colleagues and worked at a distillery on Dan Call Farm that was owned by Reverand Call, a Lutheran preacher.
Green became the figurehead after the Reverand's congregation disapproved of him distilling and he is said to have been at the forefront of developing The Lincoln County Process - the process where the matured whiskey is filtered through charcoal. He is also said to have trained and later worked under Jack Daniel, the founder of the world's biggest selling Tennessee whiskey, who held Green in high esteem and is thought to have referred to him as Uncle Nearis.
