Today is Juneteenth and in honor of that I’ll be reviewing Uncle Nearest 1856. Uncle Nearest is a relatively new whiskey brand from Tennessee that in their own words “is inspired by the best whiskey-maker the world never knew, the first known African-American master distiller, Nathan “Nearest” Green.” It is a black owned distillery and was the easiest bottle to procure from this list.
They don’t put much information about where this is sourced from other than saying it is distilled and aged in Tennessee, sourced from multiple producers and not from Jack Daniel’s. I’d guess it is a blend of George Dickel, Pritchard’s and Corsair distillate but who knows?
Anyways on to the whiskey.
Review #243 Uncle Nearest 1856
Age: NAS on the label but 8-14 on their website
Abv: 100 proof
Price: $55
Neat
Nose: Dickely with chocolate, minerality, a little oak, earthy notes and some spice.
Taste: Dickel minerals, vanilla, chocolate powder, slight dry oak, a little caramel and warm spice. Good mouthfeel.
Finish: Medium length finish with more mineral and chocolate notes, some heat and a slightly odd almost metallic note.
Conclusion
From the nose and taste I thought this was nice, nothing special but pleasant, and then that weird note in the finish hit. I liked the nose, proof and mouthfeel so overall for an NAS whiskey this exceeded my low expectations. Premium is not a term regulated by the TTB so we end up with only the requirements for whiskey which are extremely broad. If you don’t care for the Dickel notes they are present though not overwhelming on this dram.
From tasting I certainly believe a large portion of the distillate, but not all of it, is sourced from George Dickel and is likely their used barrel whiskey. I don’t have enough experience with other non-JD Tennessee whiskey to take a guess at other sources based on the taste.
This won’t be a regular sipper for me but it was interesting to taste and I’m curious to see what their own distillate ends up tasting like.
0 Stars - Poor to Fine: I would not specifically choose to drink this
TL;DR: Dickely, doesn’t stand out, an unfortunate note on the finish knocks it down a point