ChiTuckyBourbonBrothers
The “Chitucky Bourbon Brothers” podcast, hosted by Mike Nielsen and Tony Meyers, serves as a delightful exploration of bourbon and whiskey culture, offering insightful reviews and discussions about various bourbons and whiskeys. The hosts share their passion for sipping “brown water,” a colloquial term for bourbon and whiskey, and aim to blend music with their love for these beverages, creating an engaging auditory experience for listeners. The podcast not only provides detailed reviews of different bourbons and whiskeys but also promotes a relaxed atmosphere where enthusiasts can enjoy the nuances of their favorite drinks alongside music that complements the experience.
ChiTuckyBourbonBrothers
Episode 119 - Uncle Nearest Single Barrel
Buried in the storied history of American whiskey lies an untold tale of innovation, mentorship, and the extraordinary impact of one man—Nearest Green. As the first African American master distiller in the United States, Green's legacy was nearly lost to time until the creation of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey.
In this episode, we crack open the Uncle Nearest Black Label Single Barrel, bottled at a robust 123 proof, and dive deep into the fascinating history behind the brand. The story unfolds like a historical drama—Jack Daniel, as a young orphan sent to work as a chore boy, meets Nearest Green, an enslaved man with profound knowledge of distillation. Green teaches Daniel a special charcoal filtering technique from West Africa that would eventually become known as the Lincoln County Process—the defining characteristic that separates Tennessee whiskey from bourbon.
As we sip this mahogany-colored spirit, we explore its grassy notes with hints of vanilla wafer sweetness and leathery undertones, discussing how the charcoal filtering affects the flavor profile. The whiskey delivers a quick heat that stays on the top of the mouth rather than giving that typical "Kentucky hug," leading to a grain-forward finish that sparked considerable debate about its overall balance and character.
Beyond the liquid in our glasses, we examine the meteoric rise of Uncle Nearest as a brand—from its founding in 2017 to winning hundreds of awards and expanding to all 50 states and 12 countries in just a few years. However, this rapid growth has led to recent financial troubles, with reports of a $108 million loan default threatening the company's future.
Whether you're fascinated by whiskey history, interested in supporting historically significant brands, or simply looking for your next premium bottle, join us for this enlightening conversation about a spirit that's more than just a drink—it's a long-overdue recognition of a pivotal figure in American whiskey heritage.
man what a beginning. What a beginning, especially since you're gonna do the opening.
Speaker 1:Go right ahead I'm not doing it. You're up, we're gonna wait for it to calm down here.
Speaker 2:It's a great intro, though. You're right, kings of Leon, it is.
Speaker 1:It is. This is a new song for our band.
Speaker 2:I wanna play it further because the drums get pretty crazy and Tony calls that song the song that I lose weight to. It's so true, Because you've got to just be a monkey with your arms and legs. It's pretty crazy, but I love it. It's a beat that kind of just came to me and I didn't have to practice it that much, not because I'm that good, but because it just kind of came and felt fucking awesome.
Speaker 1:That's good, because that's not an easy one. There's some parts of this.
Speaker 2:It's actually coming up in about 20 or 30 seconds, but I always say in our band sometimes guys want to play older stuff that's a little older than me, maybe like 60s and 70s, and it's harder to learn songs you haven't listened to a bunch and you don't like a lot. That kind of sounds obvious. But sometimes I'm like I don't want to listen to more Elvis tunes. I mean he's great, the King is great, but it's not something I grew up with.
Speaker 1:That beginning of that song is so classic. I mean, I don't even know how old that song is it's way older than we think, I'm sure but I mean it's just such a good beginning that everyone knows. And Kings of Leon have not been around forever, but this was, that was one of their albums, or one of their songs.
Speaker 2:That'd be a great show, great kind of old school show to go to now that, now that at the Salt Shed would be remarkable um, who just came to United Center? Who Nine?
Speaker 1:Inch Nails. I saw that in college and that is not my kind of music at all. The dude was breaking shit on stage. I think Marilyn Manson opened for him. It was bad.
Speaker 2:They were pretty badass, but they were rough.
Speaker 1:He was hard to look at. That was a. I don't know about that one.
Speaker 2:Whatever I've said before, this is not a music podcast, but it's fun, but we love music and it's fun and we've got to open to something. Maybe we're going to. I talked to Tony about doing maybe a jingle in the future.
Speaker 1:I don't know. What do you think?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know, but songs for now are great and they've been great for the Plus podcast, so let's keep it going. So why stop now? Why stop now? But what we're going to start with is the whiskey, and here it comes. It is. It's a Tennessee whiskey, tony, it is, and we're going to talk about what a Tennessee whiskey is. But this one is called Uncle Nearest. It is the Black Label single barrel. They call it a premium whiskey single barrel. They call it a premium whiskey.
Speaker 2:And there's I will say that there I don't know what years they chose to do what proofs, but this is the 123 proof. I saw one online, which I think is probably what you will see in stores, which is 118 proof. No reason to believe they're supposed to be other than that they are single barrels, so they will be different, but that they're going to be all that different. Um, but yeah, the uncle nearest. It says the nearest green distillery, shelbyville, tennessee, and the master distiller is is it victoria or Virginia? Victoria? Victoria, victoria Butler, yep, and she is a fifth generation master blender, master distiller. Yes, and the big deal we know about her is she is the first ever African American distiller, master distiller, master distiller.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she was the first one for Female African American master distiller. Master distiller. Master distiller. Yeah, she was the first one for Female African-American master distiller.
Speaker 2:I was like I missed a beat there, sorry, yes, so she started her with.
Speaker 1:Fawn Weaver started Uncle Nearest back in 2017. Uncle Nearest is based on a story.
Speaker 2:Hold on real quick because one other piece I know 2017, 18, 19, 20 they won crazy awards, hundreds of awards for what was not their whiskey, what was their blended whiskey? Still, in 2022, which this is, I believe, a 24, and 22 and past that, they were no longer blenders. This is their own whiskey out of Tennessee.
Speaker 1:Yes, it should be right around that year. I think what we're drinking is either a late 2023 or an early 2024. But the Uncle Nearest what do we have? The premium whiskey, right, the single barrel. So this is the first time that they've only put premium whiskey and not Tennessee whiskey on their label, which has got a lot of people thinking that there may be some of their blends that actually include some whiskey that's outside of Tennessee.
Speaker 2:But anyway, what is? Because it was so interesting to me I thought I knew all of it, but there were pieces that I didn't. A Tennessee whiskey is a bourbon whiskey, for sure, 100%, and so it follows all the very specific rules of it being a bourbon whiskey. And the difference is they do what in Tennessee?
Speaker 1:They do a charcoal filtering. The charcoal filtering they call it the Lincoln County process and it was a process that was actually started by this guy named Nearest Green. He was a slave back for the Call family C-A-L-L. I don't know if it was a Call family or Call farm or what in Tennessee back in the 1800s before the, or call farm or what in Tennessee back in the 1800s before the emancipation. So he is from West Africa and he brought this Lincoln County process, nearest Green brought this Lincoln County process to Tennessee.
Speaker 2:So, nearest Uncle, nearest.
Speaker 1:They call him Uncle Nearest, they call him uncle they call him uncle nearest.
Speaker 2:He was the one that not only uh made the first whiskey in tennessee, but also the tennessee whiskey process as it is today. Yes, he's the star also jack daniels process. Did I just take your fire there?
Speaker 1:no, but that's why I mean so he is. He is Nearest. Green was the first master distiller happened to be African-American African-American, so that means he was the first African-American master distiller in the middle 1800s for Jack Daniels distillery. He was their first one, so what?
Speaker 2:happened, oh wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what happened was what I didn't know and I found out with some research of uncle nearest is that I did not know that Jack Daniels was a orphan that was actually hired or sent to the call farm in Tennessee as a chore boy. Nearest green happened to be one of their slaves and they they were. They became friends and he showed each they show. I guess nearest green showed him how to do this filtering process when they got older and they started doing it with whiskey, because in West Africa, where this Lincoln process, this Lincoln County process, which is really a charcoal, something filtering, it was used for just water and to purify food, so it had nothing to do with alcohol.
Speaker 2:So Jack Daniels is a chore boy, uncle Nearest is a slave. Same place, same place. And then Jack goes and starts his own Buys the call, family Buys that.
Speaker 1:One Buys the farm after the.
Speaker 2:And Nearest stays his master distiller for some time. Yep, and Nearest stays his master distiller for some time.
Speaker 1:Yep, and then I think they say that there are still some of the seventh or eighth generation Nearest are still part of the Jack Daniels team. It's kind of cool.
Speaker 2:Does your wife call you her chore boy? She should.
Speaker 1:With all the shit I do all the time With all the shit I do.
Speaker 2:But it was funny.
Speaker 1:So the reason I grabbed this off the shelf is because right now there's a lot of talk about Uncle Nearest brand. Unfortunately, the Uncle Nearest brand has some financial difficulties.
Speaker 2:Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh. This is not what you want to hear. This is like new news.
Speaker 1:This is new news.
Speaker 2:So it came out in 2017, doing their own stuff in 22.
Speaker 1:They are and stuff in 22.
Speaker 2:They are, it's 25.
Speaker 1:They're growing crazy. So they're eight years in Growing crazy.
Speaker 2:They did a $50 million this Shelbyville 323 acre. I was like where'd they get all this money? And Tony's like, well, it's kind of a private equity firm that also runs as a whiskey company. I don't know.
Speaker 1:You know what it reminds me of? They exploded. It reminds me of, like the old Silicon Valley tech companies where they would just spend money and spend money and spend money and then hope that somebody would buy them. This is what this kind of because they, in this short period of time, they're in like every state and international already Dude, I know.
Speaker 2:It's crazy fast, too fast. Sometimes, like with whiskey, nothing moves fast. But their awards, uh, between 2017 and 2021 was 380 total awards, 46 best in class, 213 golds, double gold, platinum, best brand uh like just so much stuff and it's like all right. So they built themselves on that and then, of course, popped into all 50 States, 12 different countries, you know tens of thousands of bottles. It's crazy, crazy. But that kind of has private equity written all over it, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's what they're trying to do. I mean, they're trying to sell it, but I guess, unfortunately, they defaulted on a $108 million loan and now there's lots of attorneys involved and receiverships. And so I listened to other podcasts and I was walking around listening to the Bourbon Pursuit trying to decipher all of the I guess legal side of this, and they spent an hour talking about how you can get into this position and what could happen, and this and this and this, and honestly, I don't really care how they got into it. I mean, the long and the short is, they have a loan for $108 million that they're not paying back. Why they're not paying it back, I have no idea. I don't know if they've grown so fast. Who knows, maybe their collections are slow. It's none of my business and honestly, I'm not that much of a business guy to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're a business guy Come on, not at the level of a billion-dollar company I mean a billion-dollar company.
Speaker 1:They've got just the amount of barrels that they have to have. That's worth something on a sheet that I'm sure they're borrowing debt against. It's a crazy thing. Anyway, there's been some issues with overstipulating the value of their barrels and that's what kind of caused all of this. If you really want to get into that, there is a lot to read and just Google it. There's so much to read about what's going on. But for me, I wanted to actually do a podcast on this uncle nearest. Learn who this nearest green guy is and decide for ourselves if we think it's any good.
Speaker 2:Well, now that we know all that, we know who he is, we know the background, we probably know too much about their recent stumble stumble with, uh, not paying their bills, yeah, but um, can we get into the whiskey a little bit? Do you have, um, a mash bill? Is my first question undisclosed undisclosed.
Speaker 2:Do you have an age statement? We were told it's a five to six year juice. Okay, so it's pretty young. Yes, it's darker. No mash bill, it does have a good color to it. Yeah, kind of a I don't know mahogany, something like a darker wood. Good proof. But I have heard some say that it's a little hot, some say that it's a little. It's a little hot, it's a little. You know, you kind of want to water it because maybe we should get an ice cube proof's a little high and it can be intense.
Speaker 1:I think an ice cube.
Speaker 2:Maybe we should get an ice cube why don't we taste it without the ice cube first?
Speaker 1:it's a joke we don't have any ice, don't remind me. I've been getting harassed about not having ice today. I was trying to forget about it. Our ice machine broke.
Speaker 2:It's the worst day ever Not good. You know what's not good? Alcohol without ice. Well, cocktails without ice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cocktails, this is fine.
Speaker 2:So high proof young no, we don't know what's in it really. We proof young no, we don't know what's in it really.
Speaker 1:um and we're doing the 123 proof you said earlier.
Speaker 2:Yeah, single barrel uncle nero's, what do you?
Speaker 1:think well, you want to smell it, let's smell it. Taste it in a second. Smells very good. You think it's corny for sure. A little wall like a, like wafer, wafery vanilla wafery, maybe corny and sweet I think the corn is very light because it's just.
Speaker 1:I think it's grassy. Yes, I would say it's more grassy than corny corny. But I feel like I get that a lot on tennessee whiskeys and I think that's that charcoal filtering it kind of away. It kind of makes it a little bit more. It's almost like a little new leather.
Speaker 2:They said the charcoal filtering doesn't change the flavor but it can mellow it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they say it takes away that oil mouth feel, which I like, the oily mouth feel, I mean. I think it depends on the proof honestly.
Speaker 2:All right, let's taste, it taste. I also always get a like a nutty from uh, from a tennessee. Did you taste it yet?
Speaker 1:I have not. I was just looking at something real quick here while I was go. I have like so many different tabs open because I was trying to learn as much as I could about this thing smack your lips.
Speaker 2:That's pretty tasty stuff. Way to go, Uncle.
Speaker 1:Definitely got a. It's got like a rush to heat Kind of comes quick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but then it doesn't like you don't get Kentucky hugger like no, not at all Top of your mouth, it's not down your throat Spite, it's just got like a little spice, I mean.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's's. You get to a little leather leathery almost um I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it comes off. Negatives would be um, I don't think it comes off too young, but it's young, you can, I don't think it comes off. Probably my biggest negative is kind of an unbalanced. It's kind of like sweet then heat, then sweet then nutty, like it's kind of all over the place right.
Speaker 1:Hence I mean it's definitely grain it's definitely grain finish grain. It's definitely very grain forward at the. Yeah, I would definitely fruit forward at all I mean I feel like there's a little bit of like some cherries in there, but it it's mostly grain forward to me in the finish. I'm a fan, though I mean this is supposed to be one of their better expressions. I think there's like seven you said seven different kinds. They have now including ryes.
Speaker 2:Yes, there's a few ryes, there's a few, I think there's two. There's a single barrel few ryes, there's a few, I think there's two. There's a single barrel rye. There's a rye. There's a single barrel, there's a couple with years in it um uh vanilla or caramel, or both, or neither I would say both.
Speaker 1:I would say both.
Speaker 2:Sugar maple charcoal filtration.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that is what nearest green knew from West Africa and that's what turned into this Lincoln County process that has now became law. It's like you do exactly the same steps of what Kentucky bourbon is right. What Kentucky bourbon is right, which is, you know, 50, minimum 51% corn has to be put into the barrel at 120 proof Can't be any more than 160. Can't be more than 160.
Speaker 2:Right, and then it has to be new American oak Like.
Speaker 1:Those characteristics are all the same. And then they have an additional characteristic where they have to put it through this charcoal filter. Now, every one of these distilleries in Tennessee have different ways of doing it. Some use little chips, some use big chips. Some of it goes through like 10 feet of filtering before it gets to the bottom.
Speaker 2:I like. I have to say, though, there's so many options and there's a lot of different places. I like the Tennessee mellowing, though, and I've always liked Dickle quite a bit, and a lot say that, uh, it's a. Well, I think this is true of a lot of whiskeys uh, bourbons, irish, uh, Japanese, canadian, on and on and on. Um, just a bourbon to uh, to a rye, is that, uh, you immediately like it or you don't, and some people are like Tennessee whiskey is gross, and obviously it's been around for a long time, and a lot of people think it's not so gross and actually super, super good, which I'm probably more in that category, just like Tony's not super into Rise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that the Dickle the one thing I like about the Dickle is the age. I think that the Dickle we drink is typically that 11 to 13 year juice and I think it's just a little different. Obviously it's a different mash bill, different everything. But I mean, uncle Nearest, I would be very surprised if one of the five bourbons that they weren't blending was Dickle. I mean, dickle's been around forever in Tennessee and if they were portraying themselves as Tennessee whiskey. That means they've got five different Tennessee bourbons or Tennessee whiskeys that they're blending together at all the different years and different match bills and I guarantee you that Dick will have won.
Speaker 2:Want me to throw you for a curveball? Sure, what do you got? You're not based on stats, uh-oh. But we have the NFL coming up, oh yeah, and who is? I'll call it your pick to click. So not your favorite, not your bangles. I know I can't pick my bears. Obviously. Good luck with that. Uh, but not just the most likely, which I think I read. I think the lions are supposed to be good again.
Speaker 1:Baltimore is the number one team this year On a betting favorite.
Speaker 2:I've actually looked into this, so you can pick Baltimore, but now that I know that that's their ranking.
Speaker 1:They're a betting favorite.
Speaker 2:Alright, I don't want your betting favorite. Who's your click?
Speaker 1:Who do I think is going to have a good year?
Speaker 2:Like, who do you think's going to win it?
Speaker 1:I guess you could say Baltimore, but let's just say I don't think it'll be Baltimore, because Lamar Smith gets hurt every year. Okay, honestly, I think he gets hurt every year. I hope he doesn't because I think he's good enough and he deserves to win some awards. He's that good and that says a lot. Coming from a Bengal fan, because I hope they beat their ass every time we play them, but no Chiefs them but no Chiefs. Um, maybe I don't. I'm kind of off the Chiefs thing. I think that, uh, I think a team that you should watch out for I don't know if they can win the whole thing, but I think a team that's going to have more wins than than people are talking about is Denver.
Speaker 2:The Broncos are going to hurt it here first.
Speaker 1:Broncos, there's going to be my team that has double-digit wins this year. Probably not supposed to.
Speaker 2:Alright, call your bookie.
Speaker 1:That's my one, get your bat slips out. I don't know if I'd put a ton of money behind it, but if you want one out there, I think that they're a team that's going to make the playoffs and maybe win a game. I think Houston could have a down year. I think that they've played so well the last couple years. People are starting to figure out that quarterback. I think that the Eagles are unbelievable still, honestly.
Speaker 2:So that's who I was trying to think. I was like who's everyone talking about?
Speaker 1:It's the Eagles, and Baltimore, the two teams everybody's talking about. You never count out Kansas City. All right, I'm going Eagles.
Speaker 2:I'm going Eagles, All right. Is that an easy one? Just like Baltimore?
Speaker 1:The two tied for betting favorites. That's like taking Ohio State in college they always win something.
Speaker 2:Well, all right, so Denver, I'm just taking a team that's just out there.
Speaker 1:I think Denver is going to do more.
Speaker 2:Last question yeah, have you watched on Netflix the new? It's called America's Team and it's about the gambler and his cowboy, so it's pretty much like 88 to 92-ish.
Speaker 1:Oh, I watched very little TV. Jerry, jimmy, emmett Aikman and, of course, michael Irvin.
Speaker 2:Dude Michael Irvin is like boisterous out there, dude anyway. So if, if what's it called? It's called america's team, I mean it pops right up as like super popular on netflix, but give it. I would say give it an episode, because it's eight of them and I was kind of like ah, it's a lot of like football, football, football. And then it gets pretty deep into, uh, jimmy johnson jones, oh, they had a few their feud and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's pretty great. Anyway, you know, the only I watched so little tv, but the one that I watched recently that I thought was good was that owen wilson golf one.
Speaker 2:I liked it got a little stick was it called stick, maybe it was called stick, yeah I, I actually saw that.
Speaker 1:I I actually got into that when I watched those eight or ten episodes.
Speaker 2:It was easy watching Like quick, quick yeah.
Speaker 1:It was totally like okay, it's just golf, and then the and I think it because it came out, or I found out about it right around Happy Gilmore 2. So it was all.
Speaker 2:And Happy. Gilmore 2 was great.
Speaker 1:It was so awesome, even though that's easy, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just giving other things to. So go buy yourself an Uncle Nearest.
Speaker 1:All right. So I know there's a big social media push right now. Fawn, what's her name? Fawn Weaver has been on her Instagram telling everybody, to quote unquote clear the shelves, clear the shelves. So supposedly all the people that are in love with Uncle Nearest are out buying a bunch. So maybe there's not as much on there as normal, but everybody has it. Uncle Nearest is in absolutely every liquor store in the country.
Speaker 2:I'd get a single barrel pay up for it. It's about $100, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it could be $100. They have a couple other ones, I just don't know a lot about them. I know there's like 1856 maybe, and there's like another one. I don't know the differences, so it might be worth a quick google search. This is a black label.
Speaker 2:There's also like a dark blue label. I think that's the rock single barrel, and you should be. You should be just fine and maybe just maybe just pick the expensive one if we're just going to go down that road you're only going to go with one single barrels I feel like the new going rate for bourbonbons 100 bucks.
Speaker 1:As bad as that sounds it is the new going rate.
Speaker 2:That's a good point um I am going to share this. I'm gonna go with some pretty fucking cool influence. Uh, thank you for your facts and price. It's just kind of like, like you just said, you covered it everything's. Uh, everything's 20 bucks more. I just hope we don't then get another 20 buck tariff bump, but I think, uh, distilled spirits are gonna avoid that. I don't know if wine is going to avoid that, um, but I hear that whiskey and distilled stuff is gonna avoid that.
Speaker 1:Anyway, there's my sip, your sip. Mine's shareable influence is really cool on the story of nearest green, the uncle nearest brand themselves. I is kind of whatever. It's just another blending company. That's a bunch of like MGP slash, whatever blending companies, but I think the name of Nearest Green and the story of Nearest Green I think is super important to American whiskey. It's something that I have not really ever heard of and I'm surprised that it hasn't been talked about more. And then price sucks because all these things suck. Now I hate spending $100 on a bottle of bourbon but you kind of like it, but it's just kind of what it is.
Speaker 2:You do it all the time.
Speaker 1:I do it too much. That's why, actually, I cut back this year, but I do it too much For me. I would give this a ranking. I'm going to give this a three.
Speaker 2:I'm giving it a three, three, even Three even Do you think he takes it seriously, folks?
Speaker 1:I did I did. I was trying to compare what I gave other threes lately and I think it's a three. Here's what I'm going to say.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go three and a quarter and I'm going to say I'm very pleasantly surprised compared to reviews, compared to what prior to reviews and prior to where my head was at on it. Very pleasantly surprised and I would suggest picking it up Again. This is just the single barrel.
Speaker 1:If other stuff gets younger and loses the proof, if this doesn't have the proof, I can almost guarantee I would be on the opposite side and probably be closer to two and a quarter, but I think that's what some of the others single barrel high proof uncle nearest, I would do it all right, I I think that I would say, go buy it if you get it under a hundred bucks, but I would say, go for the single barrel, don't buy the other ones, because I think you're going to be disappointed. I think it's going to be a complete different blend. It's going to be young stuff, that's just. We don't know the price priced for a reason. What reason? What are we going out on? I'm going to stay with Kings of Leon and most likely their probably most popular song. I did look these up. Did you know King Leon is a bunch of brothers? They're all related yeah, all four people in the band. I just found that out.
Speaker 2:Like they all have the same mother and father or they're all like they could be cousins and stuff too they all have the same last name.
Speaker 1:I didn't go that far. Okay, same last name.
Speaker 2:Chi-Tucky Bourbon Brothers, which I haven't said. We usually open with that. Mike and Tony Chi-Tucky Bourbon Brothers, we take care of the whiskey, so you can focus on with whom you share it.
Speaker 1:Uncle Nearest, three brothers, one cousin.
Speaker 2:Three brothers and a cousin, tony and I related we're not. I had a joke in there about something, but it was going to be gross and I'm not going to say it and it didn't really come to fruition.
Speaker 1:It wasn't that funny is what happened Mike and Tony Sean.
Speaker 2:Duncan, it wasn't that funny. I don't tell jokes that aren't funny. Peace out. Bye guys, Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:I'm driving.
