Spirit-Led: How Fawn Weaver's Faith Introduced The World to Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey

Something curiously shifted in the world of spirits in the late 2010s – and in Black families’ bar cabinets, sideboards, and cupboards.

Where we once stashed our Jameson and Jack Daniels, brands generations of uncles and daddies were loyal to, sat a new shiny bottle bearing an old name almost buried in the hills of Tennessee and effectively lost to modern historical records. Uncle Nearest, the first known African-American master whiskey distiller, was living a life anew, touted as the latest Black-owned brand we had to have, whether we were dressed in suits and blazers at a Congressional Black Caucus mixer or cut-off shorts and airbrush t-shirts at the family reunion.

It may seem like luck or even business as usual: a new brand hits the streets, consumers are captured by its newness, and we buy, we try, we like.

Fawn Weaver wears a Tom Ford full look, Jacob & Co earrings and Nicole Rose ring. Image: Matt Sayles for EBONY.

But in the world of spirits, it’s notoriously difficult to play the majors with well-known brands and even more challenging to make lasting change. And in the spirit of tradition, Black folk don’t shift our practices and products on a whim. We buy brands because our mothers bought them. Our grandparents used them. We rarely ask questions because we don’t have to. These things work – they are staples and ancestral practices. But seven years after its initial launch, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey has proven its staying power–and the power of history, ownership, and how deeply holy it is to be connected to something bigger than ourselves.

You can instantly hear the spirit working through Fawn Weaver, founder and owner of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, our EBONY Power 100 special honoree who is accepting the Entrepreneur of the Year award on behalf of the brand. In every interview, from our EBONY Power 100 sit-down to the earliest articles naming Weaver as the brains behind the brand, she is quick to let you know that, well, quite frankly, it’s not about her.

“I don’t look at affirmations or awards,” she told me. “I don’t believe in accolades for myself. I don’t want to be patted on the back by other people. What I’m always looking for, and until the very end of this lifetime, I only care about ‘good job, my faithful servant.'”

You can see it, too. Maybe it’s the studio lights highlighting her shimmering emerald dress at the EBONY shoot or the opulence of the 1897 Gilded-Age limestone and Roman brick mansion overlooking the Hudson River – the shoot location, not Weaver’s own, that would probably be a bunch of unnecessary “hoopla” to Nearest Green she says – but her bright eyes and aura, infectious laughter, and insistence on not being the recipient of this award felt…Godly?

It’s starting to make sense to me. You don’t happen upon a picture of Jack Daniels and his master distiller from the 1800s by chance. You’re not called to research George – the Black man standing center and son of Nathan’ Nearest’ Green because it’s just something to do. You don’t just happen to share a birthday (Sept. 5) with Jack Daniels and Nearest Green’s granddaughter. You don’t travel to Tennessee, tracking down the Green family story because it’s a hobby. You don’t then found the fastest-growing American liquor brand in history, surpassing $1.1 billion in valuation, and tripling sales from 2021 to 2024 by luck. And doing this all alongside the descendants of Nearest Green (most impressively, his great-great-granddaughter Victoria Eady Butler is the company’s master distiller) and for the Green Family Tree.

It’s the pun of all puns. Spirit is working here—through Weaver, The Green descendants, and technically, through the distillation process that makes the amber-colored, milled, and malted beverage we proudly swirl in lowball glassware.

“You don’t have to be Christian, but you’ve got to understand the foundation by which this building was built,” Weaver said of the guiding principle of spirit and faith. “So it’s infused in our company culture that there is no place for ego. Ego and God can’t exist in the same place…so you have to make a choice: Is it going to be about you, or is it going to be about the assignment that God has given you?”

Fawn Weave wears a Gucci Bomber Jacket, Shorts and Boots, Wolford tights and Nicole Rose earrings. Image: Matt Sayles for EBONY.

“[The team] is going to make certain sacrifices because we all believe that we were divinely brought together in order to build this for the Green family,” she said. “Across the board, we believe that.”

It’s a small but mighty team, she points out.
Weaver accepts the award on behalf of those who have committed their lives to fortifying future generations of the Greens and providing a clear model of success for other Black and Brown distillery brands on the come-up. (According to EBONY via a Pronghorn 2022 report, less than eight percent of the spirit industry’s labor force is Black.)

“[This is for] Victoria Eady Butler, our Master Blender. It is Keith Weaver, my husband, [who] oversees our operations. And then you have Katharine Jerkins, our Chief Business Officer. She was the very first person who I hired. [It’s for] Brielle Caruso, our Chief Marketing Officer for Nearest Green Distillery. And Susan, our general manager for Nearest Green Distillery.”

Weaver rattles off the names with ease and admiration, making mention of the executive leadership team (all women, by the way) and their reports. She does so in one breath, excitement and admiration punctuating every name and every sentence. It’s clear she is proud of what they have built together – it’s earnest and heartwarming and a reminder of why her status as an entrepreneur at the helm of a billion-dollar business still feels like the antithesis of everything we know about the horrors of capitalism and the question of ethical billionaires.

“People talk about this $1.1 billion valuation; I don’t look at that as meaning anything because it’s so far from the goal that I have set,” she said. “What I think is so important is I’ve basically brought down the walls [and] gatekeepers. And everything that I learned, everything in real-time, if I’ve done something, if I’ve succeeded in it, I’m sharing those keys right away.”

She doesn’t claim to know it all—just like she doesn’t claim to have reached this level of success in business and uncovering this gem of Black history alone—but Weaver says it’s her calling to tell it like she’s experienced it.

“I feel a sense of urgency to bring us up to create equality in this country. If we do not have equality from a financial standpoint, we will never have equality.”

Nothing is possible alone – no journey ever made successful by just two feet. Still, I’m resistant to letting Weaver slide by without notable applause from myself, her fans, and her peers. By our second conversation, an ocean and some jetlag between us (Weaver in NYC and me officially on vacation touring wineries – of all places – in Italy), I’m loose enough to ask outright – why won’t you take the credit?

“Because pride leadeth before a downfall. That’s why.”

It’s a lesson straight from the Good Book. Another flicker of the spiritual magic of Uncle Nearest speaking through Weaver and her team, the power of ancestral practices and beliefs. This, not the dollars, is what makes Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey a success story.

“I think that when lights are being shined on us, if we don’t figure out how to turn them into reflection and shine it somewhere else, it actually burns us.”

Fawn Weaver wears a Versace jumpsuit and shoes, Jacob & Co earrings and Nicole Rose ring. Image: Matt Sayles for EBONY.

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November 2025: Digital Cover Experience: The Power Issue

Story By: Team EBONY

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