Fawn Weaver’s journey to building Uncle Nearest into a billion-dollar whiskey brand is one of resilience, sacrifice, and strategic maneuvering.
To ensure the brand’s success in a historically exclusive spirits industry, she initially hid her title as founder and CEO, instead presenting herself as the company’s chief historian.
Weaver’s interest in whiskey began in 2016 when she discovered the story of Nathan “Nearest” Green, the enslaved distiller who taught Jack Daniel the Lincoln County Process.
Determined to honor Green’s legacy, she and her husband, Keith Weaver, purchased the historic Dan Call Farm—where Green first distilled whiskey—for $900,000. She trademarked “Uncle Nearest” and developed a whiskey line in his name.
Despite its historical significance, the whiskey industry was unwelcoming. Calls from Weaver and her all-female leadership team to potential distillers and bottlers went unanswered.
However, when Keith, a former Sony executive, made the same calls, every one of them was returned. Recognizing the barriers Black women face in male-dominated industries, Weaver chose strategy over ego, letting Keith publicly act as CEO while she worked behind the scenes.
“If the people in the industry needed the voice on the other end to be a dude, no problem,” Weaver told an audience on her Love & Whiskey book tour.
Keith later relinquished the title of co-founder, crediting Weaver as the true visionary.
Uncle Nearest has since become the fastest-growing American whiskey brand, rewriting history while reshaping the industry.
