Uncle Nearest Single Barrel Premium Whiskey, Tennessee, USA

A (remarkably) good Whiskey is always worth the wait.

As one story goes, sometime in the 1950s, a young Jack Daniel went to work for a local preacher named Dan Call. Dan, who owned a small distillery as a side gig, was the supposed mentor that passed all the ins and outs of Whisky making to Jack. But the official story is, as per usual, a little different. The man doing the distilling and the knowledge-passing was actually an African-American slave named Nathan Green. To all the people near and dear to him, he was also known as Uncle Nearest. He was the one who taught young Jack the charcoal filtering process, now used to make most of the Tennessee Whiskey.

When Fawn Webster learned of this story, she decided to tip her toes in the Whiskey-making world and honor the life of Uncle Nearest by preserving his legacy. And thank the Spirits, for Uncle Nearest now stands as the fastest-growing Whiskey brand in the United States, receiving a ton of awards, including “World’s Best” at the prestigious 2020 World Whiskies Awards.

One of their last releases is a super-special Single Barrel Premium Whiskey. It's not special only because it's crafted and hand-picked by the great-great-granddaughter of Nearest Green, Victoria Eady Butler - the barrels selected for the Single-Barrel position consist only of the absolute top 1%. If they want to even be considered for this big-name competition, the Whiskey must be aged for at least 11 years and bottled at a cask strength of at least 108 proof.