Uncle Nearest Whiskey and Finch & Fork Executive Chef Nathan Lingle made a powerful pairing at Friday night’s special dinner in honor of Black History Month. I’m partial to dark liquors, especially in the winter months, and this duo did not disappoint.
We came out of the cold and rain and into the Canary Hotel lobby where we were warmly greeted with a “Barrel-Aged Old Fashioned,” concocted from the classic ingredients of sugar, Angostura bitters, and Uncle Nearest 1884, which were mingled in a small wood cask prior to our arrival. Once we were seated in a private room with two intimate tables of ten, Matt Carlson — the California-based Uncle Nearest Ambassador whose job sounds almost as much fun as mine — gave us some of the history of the Uncle Nearest brand.
Nathan “Nearest” Green was a former slave who became Tennessee’s premier master distiller, helping to perfect the process that is still followed today and passing on his craft to a long line of whiskey legends, including Jack Daniels himself. While Nearest’s contributions have been long known in the industry, it wasn’t until a New York Times article about Jack Daniels caught the eye of entrepreneur Fawn Weaver that a unique brand was built around the Nearest legacy. Launched in 2017, Uncle Nearest has become the fastest-growing independent premium American whiskey brand in U.S. history.
