Fawn Weaver has made history as the first Black American woman to establish a unicorn company outside of sports and entertainment with Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. Now in its seventh year, Uncle Nearest is celebrated as the most-awarded American bourbon and whiskey from 2019 to 2024, with over 1,075 accolades.

Today, Fawn Weaver is looking to spread the story of the first-known African American master distiller, Nathan “Nearest” Green, who once helped create Jack Daniel’s, with her recently released book Love & Whiskey, out now in UK markets.

Can you tell us how you got into the premium spirits business?

My background is unlike those who usually come into this industry. It wasn’t about whiskey and the spirit business; it was about cementing the legacy of the first-known African American master distiller. If he had been making jeans, I probably would be in the jeans business right now!

You founded Uncle Nearest. What inspired you to kickstart this?

It was all about cementing the legacy of Nearest Green. I wanted to bring his story that was unknown outside of Lynchburg, Tennessee to the forefront to celebrate this legacy of excellence and ingenuity.

When I discovered this story and began working on the book Love & Whiskey, I realised that a book or a movie can no longer ensure someone’s legacy because of the sheer volume of media these days. I started asking myself why we are still talking about people like Johnnie Walker and Jack Daniel’s, and it is because we see their names on the bottles everywhere we go. I wanted to create that for Nearest as well.

What is the story of Nearest Green?

Nearest Green is the first-known African American master distiller. He is the teacher of Jack Daniel and the only known master distiller for Jack Daniel Distillery number 7. Later, his sons and grandsons continued his legacy by making whiskey alongside Jack.

At the time Nearest met a very young, orphaned Jack, he was still enslaved and working on the same farm for the same man as Jack. Jack was very inquisitive about the whiskey business and Nearest eventually became his teacher. It’s an amazing story of love and respect – and not a common story coming out of the South at that time.

At the end of the Civil War, Nearest was the first person Jack asked to be his master distiller. The way Jack and his descendants treated Nearest and his boys, with equality and respect, is something that we are still trying to figure out today.

You have just launched your latest book, Love & Whiskey. What do you hope to achieve with this book?

My goal when I began this company was for Nearest Green’s name to be ubiquitous around the world, and I believe that this book begins that process. My hope is the story continues to grow and people continue to share it. I have just wrapped up recording the audiobook, where I had the opportunity to bring the story to life through my spoken voice.

Working in a male-dominated industry, have you faced any challenges related to your gender? If so, how have you overcome them?

Coming into this project, my entire leadership team were women, and this was something this industry hadn’t really seen before. At the beginning, we were all making phone calls to people in the industry that we needed help from to make this product and we quickly discovered, after months of trying to reach people, that none of us were getting calls back. I decided to ask my husband to make these calls for us instead and, in every instance, he either got through right away or he got a call back by the end of the day. After those calls, they would often ask him if he wanted to grab a beer with them or join them on the golf course. It was a guys’ club that we couldn’t get into.

While on one side of the coin this could be viewed very negatively, the positive is that with him facing the brand, the team and I were able to focus all our time on running things from behind the scenes in terms of sales and marketing.

Now, when I’m out on the road promoting Uncle Nearest, I don’t experience any negativity towards my gender – success kills all of that.

What advice would you give specifically to women in leadership roles?

This industry needs women. We are so far off from our population of 50 per cent when you come into the industry, however, this shouldn’t discourage women from trying as there is so much opportunity.

How do you manage your work-life balance?

For me, it’s not a work-life balance as my relationship with my husband always comes first. However, I am very respectful of the seasons as some are busier than others. In those seasons, we make sure to carve out the time that we need from each other.

What’s next for Fawn Weaver and Uncle Nearest?

I want to build a spirit conglomerate – Uncle Nearest Inc. We started looking into purchasing vodka earlier this year and we also have the cognac company that we are looking to keep on expanding. We want to continue to build this business so that we can finally have a spirit conglomerate that wasn’t founded and owned by a white male.

Love & Whiskey is now available to purchase on Amazon; unclenearest.com