Tennessee Whiskey Founders
(NOTE: FOUNDERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Below is a list and links to Whiskey Founders that have made huge contributions to the growth of the Tennessee Whiskey Industry. These may have been historical figures that lived long ago before prohibition or may be living leaders that have advanced the cause of the industry as a whole. Tennessee Whiskey has been its own whiskey category for years but the requirements of a Tennessee Whiskey weren’t defined by statute until May of 2013.
1
Jeff Arnett
Arnett, who was already a Tennessee Squire at the time, went to work as a quality control engineer at the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN. He began that position, which very importantly took him all throughout the distillery grounds. He met the challenge of being a part of each aspect of the distillery. So, when Jimmy Bedford stepped down as Master Distiller in 2008, Arnett became the 7th.
2
Nicole Austin
Nicole began at George Dickel in 2018 as the General Manager and Distiller. She doesn’t like the job title of “Master Distiller” stating, “I have a real job, not just hand shaking. Plus, I feel too young for that.” Indeed, she is only 38, but she has enjoyed monumental success at George Dickel. She has been vital to the significant success of several George Dickel brands, including the launching of the Cascade Moon Whisky series, George Dickel Bourbon and George Dickel Bottled in Bond.
3
Joe Baker
So, in 2009, when the State of Tennessee legalized moonshine, Baker decided to take one of his family traditions (and moonshine recipes) to rest of the world. That decision took Ole Smoky Moonshine LLC from a family tradition to a company that now controls 40% of the moonshine market.“For anybody on the outside looking in, it looks easy. It’s easy to see this as just a wildly successful business that anybody can do, but I think the more realistic assessment would be: Damn, that’s hard,” says Baker.
4
Derek Bell
THIS FOUNDERS HISTORY WILL BE PUBLISHED SOON
5
Victoria Eddy Butler
THIS FOUNDERS HISTORY WILL BE PUBLISHED SOON
6
Domenico Canale
THIS FOUNDERS HISTORY WILL BE PUBLISHED SOON
7
Alex Castle
In 2015, Castle made the decision to go to Old Dominick Distillery in Memphis. At Old Dominick, Castle immersed herself in the culture and history of Memphis and of Tennessee Whiskey. She helped to craft not just the liquid, but developed the logo, label and building design. During her nine years at Old Dominick, Castle became the first female master distiller in Tennessee and served as the president of the Tennessee Distiller’s Guild.
8
Matt Cunningham
Old Glory is now the epitome of a family-run business. Cunningham’s dad, who is in construction, helped erect the ever-expanding distillery. Matt himself spends most of his time in production. His wife, with a two-year-old in tow, oversees the Old Glory brand and designed the recently completed and highly praised onsite restaurant. “We wanted the restaurant to sort of create a home place for the brand”, expresses Cunningham.
9
George Dickel
George Augustus Dickel was a German American who owned a number of businesses in Nashville, Tennessee. One of his businesses was a liquor wholesaler, which was a non-distiller producer of the Cascade brand Whiskey he originally sold and distributed. During the late 19th to 20th centuries his name would appear on its labels and when the Cascade Hollow distillery was reopened in the 1950’s.
10
Colonel Craig Duncan
Colonel Craig Duncan is lifelong whiskey aficionado with a passion for history. He blends these two interests over an elusive glass of single barrel to form a truly unique and informative bourbon experience that you will never forget.
Duncan now resides in Columbia, Tennessee which is in Maury County. He is happily married to his wife of over 33 years, Melissa Page Duncan and they have two adult children.
11
Ralph Dupps
Rosenstiel turned to Ralph Dupps to build and run the new distillery. Dupps was very familiar with the brand and his family moved to Tennessee and began work on starting the new distillery. Dupps worked to purchase 850 acres of land nearby the original Cascade Hollow distillery location. The new location had access to the same Cascade Hollow water source which comes through layers of limestone to be pure mineral and iron-free water, key to making good whisky. The new distillery is location in Coffee County.
12
Greg Eidam
Sevier County’s decision to allow distilling opened the door of opportunity for Greg and his reunited business partner, Ned Vickers (and others) to work through the many layers of Federal, State, county and municipality government bureaucracy to get permission to establish a new distillery on land that they had acquired in Sevier County, Tennessee, in the town of Gatlinburg. The name of this new distillery was Sugarlands Distillery.
13
Nathan Nearest Green
Uncle Nearest, as his family and friends in his hometown of Lynchburg, Tennessee called him, was the first known African-American master distiller. Born in Maryland around 1820. Nearest was known as a skilled distiller who specialized in a process known as sugar maple charcoal filtering – also called the Lincoln County Process. This process gave Green’s whiskey a unique smoothness. In 1865, the 13th amendment was ratified and Nearest Green agreed to be Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller as a free man.
14
Billy Kaufman
Kaufman then established the Short Mountain Distillery in 2010 along with his brothers on his 400-acre farm just outside Woodbury, Tennessee. The distillery became one of the first four distilleries to open in the state of Tennessee after prohibition ended excluding Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel which opened in 1938 and 1958 respectively. Short Mountain Distillery is located on the same property that houses the historic limestone-filtered cave spring which once supplied water for the moonshine still of Cooper Melton that filled the speakeasies of infamous gangster Al Capone throughout Prohibition.
15
Lee Kennedy
THIS FOUNDERS HISTORY WILL BE PUBLISHED SOON
16
John Lunn
John attended Spring Hill High School and went on to earn his Bachelor’s Degree in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University. He was a proud Tennessee native, and he got his start at George Dickel in 2004. He made Dickel whiskeys for 11 years there and served as the Master Distiller at Cascade Hollow Distillery, in Tullahoma, Tennessee. He primarily worked on the range of George Dickel Tennessee Whiskies, including "No. 8 Classic," "No. 12 Signature," & he started both "Barrel Select" expression and “Hand Selected Barrel” program
17
Andy & Charlie Nelson
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.
18
Charles Nelson
Charles would produce a flagship brand of Whiskey by using the Lincoln County Process to identify its Tennessee Whiskey distinction – much the same as both Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel. However, a major distinction between that of Charles and his competitors was the use of wheat instead of rye. The mash bill was composed of corn, wheat, and barley – with two of their most popular brands being Nelson’s Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey and Belle Meade.
19
Louisa Nelson
When husband Charles died in 1891 Louisa assumed the role and duties of distillery president, leading the Nashville Tennessee based Greenbrier distillery for eighteen prosperous years before statewide prohibition shut its doors in 1909. Not only did Louisa meet expectations, but she far exceeded them. Additionally, Nelson Greenbrier whiskey was being exported internationally. Louisa was a pioneer in the whiskey industry. During a time when women were denied the right to vote
20
Tim Piersant
Born in July 1981, Piersant was the son of an entrepreneur who spent much of his career in ministry. After graduating college from Auburn University, Tim worked for 7 years with his father.
Amazed to find Chattanooga once a prospering hub for distilling in his home state – he launched a Facebook campaign with then close friend and co-partner Joe Ledbetter, posing a question for residents on the then rapidly growing social media platform Facebook, asking "Would you drink Chattanooga Whiskey?" The answer was a resounding “YES!” and quickly galvanize community support.
21
Phil Prichard
The Lincoln County Process is a requirement for today’s Tennessee distilleries to meet the classification “Tennessee Whiskey”. However, there is one distillery that has been granted an exemption from this requirement – and today, is the only distillery in the state of Tennessee to not produce their whiskey using these guidelines. The distillery CEO & Master Distiller Phil Prichard opened the distillery in 1997 in search of creating America’s first rum in over 250 years, but credits his fifth-generation grandfather Benjamin Prichard with being an early pioneer for distilling whiskey in Tennessee’s Davidson County in the late 1700’s.
22
Victor Manny Shwab
Victor Emmanuel “Manny” Shawb, George Dickel’s brother in law, who was made a full partner in Dickel and Company in 1881, bought out Sims in 1888 and held 2/3 ownership of the distillery. At this time Dickel and Company were then Cascade Hollow’s exclusive marketer and distributor calling it George A Dickel’s Cascade Tennessee Whiskey; the whiskey that is Mellow as Moonlight based on the method of cooling the mash at night began by Davis.
23
Fawn Weaver
Author, CEO, and historian Fawn Weaver is why many people know the name and story behind Jack Daniel's original master distiller, Nathan "Uncle Nearest" Green. Born in 1976 in Pasadena, California, Fawn Evette Wilson was one of four daughters of Frank and Philomina "Bunny" Wilson. Her father, a former Motown songwriter, singer, and record producer, was chosen by Berry Gordy to open the Los Angeles division of Motown. Later, he became a Christian minister and author.
24
Stanton Webster
That passion for discovery and pursuit of the new, love of the city of Knoxville and desire to be different has made Post Modern what it has become today. Stanton, and master distiller Ron (the “brains of the operation” according to Stanton) tried many different combinations. They wanted to create flavors and spirits that represented Knoxville and not source, but truly be an original, much like Knoxville itself.
25
Mike Williams
Mike Williams is a founder of Tennessee Distilling Group and former Tennessee State Legislator from Franklin, Tennessee who helped pass new legislation that revised Tennessee state laws related to distilling in 2009. The law that Williams was instrumental in getting passed was the catalyst to the Tennessee distilled spirits’ rebirth.