Andy & Charlie Nelson

Brothers Andy (William) and Charlie (Charles) Nelson took an unconventional path to entering the whiskey business.  It was a beef purchase their father made from a local butcher in Greenbrier Tennessee that would happen to change their professional careers going forward.

Little did both young men really understand about their ancestry til they visited that butcher shop with their father in 2006.  While stopping for gas, the youngest brother Charlie noticed a historical marker stating “Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, one mile east on Long Branch Road. Charles Nelson opened the Green Brier Distillery.”  Upon arriving to the butcher, they asked a few questions and immediately began to learn the rich history of a whiskey empire their great great great grandparents Charles and wife Louisa Nelson operated prior to the Tennessee Prohibition in 1909.  The story of elder Charles immigrating from Germany with his family and losing his father and all the families fortunes after their vessel encountered rough weather at sea is nothing short of breathtaking.

The two brothers would embark on a journey of their own.  With no experience in the whiskey industry other than Charlie having bartended during a brief stint abroad in Paris and Southeast Asia – the brothers faced significant challenges ahead.  After visiting the local historical society in Greenbrier and researching the history of their ancestors – they found recipes and bottles from the previous iconic brand of which included their family name.  Younger Charlie became even more intrigued and motivated being his birth name was the same as elder Charles.

Both brothers having grown up in Nashville - attended Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles California, majoring in Humanities.  Andy graduated in 2005 and immediately got an internship at the Country Music Association in Nashville and later worked at a software publishing company doing video editing for roughly 6 years.   Charlie had a semester of college remaining when the two discovered the history of the distillery and received a grant to study cave paintings in Spain, Italy, and France.  It was during this time the two boys would start reaching out to others with knowledge in the industry and begin working to identify potential funding sources.

The two brothers were driven to restore the family business and spent the next three years researching, raising capital and preparing to renew the family legacy with a new vision, resurrecting the Nelson’s Green Brier brand, taking inspiration from the elder Charles’s original recipes.  The brothers reached out to both Lincoln Henderson (Woodford Reserve’s first master distiller) and Dave Pickerell (longtime master distiller for Maker’s Mark) early in the process.  Both of whom encouraged the brothers to continue their journey and offered support along the way.

It was one hundred years following the Tennessee Prohibition and closure of the Nelson Green Brier distillery in 2009 that state laws changed allowing an additional 41 counties the option to begin distilling – previously it was just 3 counties (Lincoln, Coffee, and Moore).  The three counties were dominated by the likes of Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel at the time, but things were heading in the right direction for both brothers and after meeting with several brokers over the previous three years the two brothers would lean on the advice from Pickerell and partner with Lawrence Distillers Indiana (LDI) to source their first brand “Belle Meade”.

Finally, after resurrecting the Belle Meade brand and having used their parents house as collateral for investment – the brothers would sell their first bottle in March 2012.  After reinvesting their earnings over the next two years – in 2014, the Green Brier Distillery was built in Nashville and awarded a historic designation of DSP-TN-5 and credited for their family heritage in the whiskey industry. On August 11, 2014 the brothers would begin their own distillation and three days later laid their first barrel for aging with their flagship brand Nelson’s Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey.

The Nashville-based distillery opened its doors on Sunday November 23, 2014 continuing to sell their sourced Belle Meade brand – while also continuing to eye growth and investors.  In 2016 Constellation Brands took a minority interest partnering with the two brothers before acquiring a controlling interest in 2019.  Charlie and Andy would continue to operate and manage the distillery but now benefit from the resources and capital of a large investor with knowledge in the industry.  The first bottle of Nelson’s Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey was sold on October 1, 2019.

Today, Charlie Nelson is the President & CEO of Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, LLC and brother Andy Nelson serves as the Head Distiller.  The two brothers continue to build on their family’s heritage and in 2022 announced plans to discontinue their Belle Meade brand’s availability nationally.  The brand transitioned to Nelson Brothers Whiskey and is available in both a “Classic” and “Reserve” line.

Both Andy and Charlie have made an effort to honor the late Louisa Nelson for her contributions to the family name, company, and whiskey business with an annual Louisa Nelson Award – but also with a coffee caramel pecan liqueur named after her.  The award recognizes the achievements, vision, and inspiration of three female leaders from Nashville’s business and cultural communities.  In addition, Andy hosts a podcast called “Still Life” – a podcast about life, whiskey, and everything in between.