Uncle Nearest expands distillery

Tennessee whiskey brand Uncle Nearest has extended its distillery to 432 acres, which could enable it to double visitor numbers.

The Bourbon and rye whiskey maker has added an extra 109 acres to its Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

The expansion came after the company purchased an adjacent property on Eady Road, bringing its footprint to a total of 745 acres in the Bedford and Moore counties.

The brand said the move makes it one of the largest, if not the biggest, Black landowners in the US state of Tennessee.

In July 2021, Uncle Nearest bought 53 acres for US$2.1 million to expand its Tennessee distillery.

“We are always thinking ahead and doing our best to keep pace with our continuously increasing demand,” said Fawn Weaver, founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest.

The distillery, which first opened in 2019, reopened its doors in June 2021 after being closed for more than a year due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Nearest Green Distillery is also home to Humble Baron, which holds the Guinness World Record for the longest bar at 518 feet with a 17-station bar.

“When a member of the press dubbed us ‘Malt Disney World’ when we opened in 2019, we took that quite seriously and built out a distillery worthy of that moniker,” added Victoria Eady Butler, a fifth-generation descendant of Nearest Green and master blender for Uncle Nearest.

Nearest Green Distillery attracts between 5,000 and 8,000 visitors every weekend, the brand said.

With the additional space, the company expects that number to increase to 10,000-15,000 visitors per weekend in the coming months.

Uncle Nearest exceeded sales of US$100m in October 2022 and is on track to more than double revenue by the end of 2023. This sales milestone means it is the world’s largest Black American-founded, owned and led spirit brand, Uncle Nearest claimed.

To read an interview with co-founder Keith Weaver, see the May 2023 issue of The Spirits Business, out now.