Your Guide to Nashville’s Best Distilleries

Today on CityCast Nashville, forget the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Tennessee has its own whiskey trail and a booming distillery scene right in our very own backyard. Nashville's seen food and drink rider Chris Chamberlain joins us to share the best distillery tours, tasting rooms, and hidden gems within driving distance of Nashville. And since today is Election Day, be sure to cast your ballot before you pour yourself a glass. It's Thursday, August 6th. I'm Maurice Cecil Anderson, and this is what Nashville's talking about. I recently went to Louisville and I did the Evan Williams Bourbon experience. And all of a sudden I was like, well, why the heck am I driving all the way to Kentucky when Tennessee has such a plethora of distilleries right in our own backyard? So if someone in Nashville has only one day and one distillery to visit, where are you sending them first and why? Well, first of all, I love Evan Williams. I always have a bottle of it almost within arm's reach. But. I also love how tacky that experience is up there. I call that Malt Disney. It was pretty silly, yeah. So if you're going to go to just one place and you want to stay close to town, I'm going to send you to a place that I feel is really authentic and has a lot of history to it. So I think you have visited Leepers Fork recently. Yes, I just went last week. And it was outstanding. Tell us what your experience has been out there. Well, the owner and distiller, Lee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is just a great, great guy. And he's always had an affinity for the Scottish methods of distilling. But he doesn't make scotch. He doesn't make malt whiskey. He makes bourbon and Tennessee whiskey and rye. He makes them all at 100 proof, which is called bottled in bond. So that's kind of the truest representation of whiskey. But he does it using this really cool old Scottish style still with what they call a swan neck on it. So it gives a little extra copper contact. And his tasting room is in a 200-year-old farmhouse. So you just really feel like it reminds you that making alcohol is generally an agricultural process. I mean, you're doing it to preserve the corn in your field. And it's so much easier to store bushels of corn if they're in a bottle, you know, or in a barrel as opposed to trying to keep a silo full of corn. Back in the day, Williamson County used to have more than 100 registered distilleries because every farm.

also distilled. It was just a way that they stored their leftover corn and were able to sell it in the off season. So that's what Lee brought back with the first legal, we'll say, distillery in Williamson County in decades and decades. So since then, he's added a tasting room downtown Franklin, and he's about to open one in Nashville yards right next to the pinnacle. So between seeing it where it's made and tasting it at those two extra tasting rooms, I think Lepers Fork is a great place for everybody to start. And he makes some award-winning whiskey and just a super smart guy. I just thought the tour was so outstanding and easy to understand. And then you go through the process of how it's made and then you go to the tasting room and taste this delicious, oh gosh, what's it called? The clear. The white dog. The white dog, which is like, ooh, this reminds me of college drinking ever clear. To be honest, I really like the whiskey. They're keeping it small. They're keeping it local. And I think they're more invested in the quality than the quantity. And another limiting factor for him is that he uses all Tennessee grown products, including corn that's grown on his farm. So, you know, there's a capacity issue on how much you can make, but there's also a capacity issue on how much you can grow. I admire that he sticks to his guns. All right. So if somebody wants to continue, do they go to the Tennessee Whiskey Trail.com to see where they go next or where would you recommend? I knew that there's a whiskey trail, but I'm just not familiar. Can you tell us what that is? It is definitely modeled after the Bourbon Trail, which is in Kentucky. And it's more of an organization of the participating distilleries. So we have what's called the Tennessee Distillers Guild. Most of the distilleries in Tennessee. are members of that collective, and they use it to help market each other and market Tennessee whiskey as an agricultural product. If you go to each individual website to try and figure out which distilleries you want to go to, you may run into the problem that I have that it takes so long to scroll down to your birth year on each one of these. It just gets annoying after a while. Sometimes I just pretend to be 21. But instead, if you go to tn whiskey trail.com. That is something that was put together by the Distillers Guild. And it is an indispensable resource if you're trying to plan trip to go to distilleries. Because they've got a trip planner right there on the front page. It's broken down either by region or by interests. So if you know you want to explore East Tennessee, you can just click on that and it will link you to all the East Tennessee distilleries and give you capsule summaries of each one. So you can do your planning from the site or you can click through and go to each individual distillery. But they also have trails that they've put together that I think are especially well written since I wrote some of them. But there's one called cork to fork. And it's all about connecting a distillery and good places to eat around that distillery. And those restaurants or bars have committed to use the spirit from their local distillery in their food and drink.

So you could go visit Leepers Fork and then you could go eat it buckets and have a dish that's got some Leepers Fork whiskey in it. It's a neat way to plan your trip that way. And then the last one that I recommend is one specifically wrapped around music. So you know where you can listen to music on those. And they call that tastings and tunes. Now, are these day trips? They are. I mean, you have to be cognizant that you got to drive home. You got to get home somehow. That's true. There are some tour companies out of Nashville that will put together a two or three distillery visit for you. It's always great to have a designated driver with you. You can certainly hit three or four Nashville distilleries in a day. And if you mind, you're tasting, you should be fine. You can always Uber. There's some concentration areas where you can hit a few. Like, if you were to go to a Marathon Village, that's actually the first stop on the old town trolley. So you could take the trolley anywhere around as part of your tour in Nashville, get off at Marathon Village, and then you can go visit both Nelson's Greenbrier and Corsair. Plus there's Tennessee Legend, which is kind of a moonshine distillery. If you're looking for some flavored vodka, you know, that's always an option. Both those places offer tours and tastings. And they both actually have food options, too. There's a really great restaurant at Nelson's Greenbrier. When they make a bourbon, a rye, and a Tennessee whiskey, so you get to try the three major brown liquor types there. And if you go to Coursera, they're a little craftier. They've got like single malt whiskeys, and they make two different kinds of gin. But they've got a great little tap room with beer and local pizza. So between those two, that's a great day, and you're making one stop.

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What's the oldest distillery in Tennessee? I think I know the answer, but... Again, we're talking legal, right? Yeah, well, that's true. I'm pretty sure that Jack Daniels is the oldest in Tennessee that's still operating. That's done in Lynchburg, but it may be close between them and George Dickel. George Dickel goes by Cascade Hollow now. Jack, the story is that he learned about how to make whiskey from a freed slave named Nearest Green. You know, it's kind of interesting that there is a West African influence in Tennessee whiskey. Because if you were in West Africa and you were trying to clean the water that you were drinking, they learned that if they ran it through charcoal, that it would help pull some of the impurities out of it. The same way that you've got a charcoal filter in your fish tank or in your breeder. So he was the one that taught a young Jack Daniel how to run the whiskey they were making through charcoal. And that they called mellowing. So it's called the Lincoln County process. And that's what makes Tennessee whiskey unique. Everything else about Tennessee whiskey passes every requirement to be bourbon. You know, the Kentucky bourbon is a protected product. It's actually under NAFTA. But Tennessee legislature set aside Tennessee whiskey, and it has to go through this Lincoln County process. So that's what makes Jack Daniels historical and unique. And the fact that... I've never been in a bar that didn't have Jack Daniels. That was such a cool, you know, moment on the tour at Leepers Fork when our tour guy just said, Jack Daniels is one of the most recognizable whiskeys in the world. You can be across the world in Thailand, and they know what Jack Daniels is. And it comes from Tennessee. Every single drop of Jack Daniels comes out of that holler in Lynchburg. And... the bottle that you see behind a bar in China tastes exactly the same as the bottle that you see on Music Row. So the fact that they have that consistency, it's a great tour. I mean, Jack Daniels is a huge industrial company, but they managed to keep it, you know, historical and folksy. And if you do the Jack tour, you'll get on a bus and you'll drive around and you'll see where they burn the charcoal to do the charcoal mellowing. You'll go see the barrels in the Rick House. You'll see one of their stills and end up back at the visitor center. And I tell people, if you do that, you've had a great tour. You've seen about 1%. Get on Google Maps. Go to the visitor center. and then click out about three times, and you'll see 50 warehouses full of whiskey that you never saw on your tour. So it's an amazing operation. And there aren't many products that have that kind of reach. Well, so I'm glad you brought up nearest green because Uncle Nearest Whiskey has been in the news lately. I saw just recently that the CEO and her husband are no longer part of the company. Is Uncle Nearest Whiskey? Is it doing okay? It is not doing okay. Okay. Yeah, they're... That's unfortunate. They are in receivership. They're being run by a court that's trying to collect debts for them. But it's still there near the exit at Shubbleville. They have never made whiskey at that facility. Their whiskey's actually made somewhere else. And then they do the blending and the bottling. I mean, it does have the longest bar in the world at Humble Barron. So it may become another... Someone may buy it as a distillery.

Someone may buy it as a tasting room in a bar. You know, it does happen to be about midway between Jack Daniels and George Dickles, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of them showed some interest in it. But we're in an environment right now where people just aren't drinking as much as they used to. I don't think distilleries are looking to expand as rapidly as they were 10 years ago. There's plenty of whiskey out there in the world. When you go to the liquor store, you see things on the shelves that were never there in the last five years. So it's a good time to buy. It's not a great time to sell. Yeah, it's a good time to buy. Okay, so Jack Daniels, we all know Dickles. What are other unsung heroes here in Middle Tennessee? So believe it or not, there are two... tasting rooms in Barry Hill. Really? Like tucked back there behind Calypso Cafe and all that. Sure. One of them is Big Machine. And Big Machine also has a downtown location right there next to the Goo Goo Goo Shop and what is it, Laney Wilson's Bell Bottom Lounge or something. That's right. It's right there next the pedestrian bridge. And so they have a deal where you can blend your own bottle. You can bottle your own whiskey. They make Borchetta bourbon. They make Jay Clayton James Whiskey and Big Machine Vodka. I don't know why you'd want to blend your own vodka because it's supposed to not taste like anything. But you can get a bottle. And then Carrie Bringle, the Peg Leg Porker, not only does he have three fantastic barbecue restaurants, but he has a whiskey company that has won awards all over the world. It's been named one of the best whiskeys in the world with his Peg Leg Porker Bourbon. And he does tours and tastings on Friday through Sunday at this little place out there in just a small building. It's where he does his bottling, too. But if you go there, you'll find some unique bottles that he only sells in the bottle shop. So, like, special additions. Can you get some of that barbecue while you're out there, too? Well, you can definitely have his whiskey at his barbecue places. Yeah. He is another what we call a non-distilling producer. So he does not make his own whiskey. I mean, you wouldn't want to have a still anywhere near all that flame, right? Right. He's a master of flame, but he purchases great whiskey. He ages it. further, lets it get more mature, and then he blends it to make a fantastic whiskey. So we have two other places in town you might not have heard of, but that do similar things. One's called National Barrel Company. Their main location is out there on Fessler's Lane, kind of near Hermitage Avenue. But they have a tasting room downtown right next to the downtown Presbyterian church. It's run by two guys named Michael Jim Himes and James Davenport. who are just exceptional pallets. They buy fantastic barrels, but then they put them in their own barrels and aids them for more time. So then they pick from their own barrels that they've already purchased and find the best way to blend them. And they have won awards all over the world, like the Ascot Awards and the San Francisco Spirits Awards. So they do a bourbon, a rye, a rum.

They have a brand they call Nash Tucky, which means it is distilled in Kentucky but aged and bottled in Nashville. Just some of the best whiskey I've ever had is from Nashville Barrel Company. And if you're lucky, you'll run into the real boss, which is Michael's Labradoodle, her name's Stella. And she absolutely rules the roost. So she'll be at one of the two places almost every day. And then the other place that does a similar thing, it's called Southern Collective Spirit Company. They're down there on 2nd Avenue right near where you get off the second and fourth exit on I-40. And they do tastings and tours of their facility where they are storing barrels. They'll take you through either a single barrel experience where you can taste different barrels of the same whiskey to see how it changes from barrel to barrel. Or you can do a barrel pick in blending. So you can pick some barrels and blend them together to make a final product. That's what it's like to work at a distillery. It's kind of like, you know, be a distiller for a day. And they make some great whiskey, too. Another one that I'd never heard of, Luke, my tour guide at Libra's Fork, he told me about company. Yeah, company distilling. They're based out of Townsend, Tennessee. They're run by a felon of Jeff Arnett that used to be the head distiller at Jack Daniels. He does a lot of, like, interesting barrel finishes. Like he finishes whiskeys in maple barrels instead of oak barrels. They've got a tasting room down in Lynchburg right on the square. So, you know, he left Jack Daniel, moved away, and then move back. And they're pretty small, but they make some really good products. Luke was telling me that they do some really funky things like sound waves or, you know, play music to the barrels to see how they change the whiskey. Well, you know, the way that you were talking about the white dog, you know, when the whiskey comes off still, it's clear, right? People wonder like, this doesn't look like whiskey. So it's only the charred oak barrel that makes whiskey turn brown. And whiskey gets all of its color and the majority of its flavor from the barrel, actually, as opposed to the green. So anything you can do to expose that whiskey to the barrel more, you know, to vibrate it, to drive it in, the way we get whiskey, why our whiskey is so good in Kentucky and Tennessee is because we got such hot summers and cold winters, then it's almost like a tidal contraction and expansion of the whiskey into the wood of the barrel. So that's where we can make good whiskey in five years, but scotch, you don't want a five-year-old scotch because the water's always the same there. So it takes 15 years for it to get the essence of wood. Well, will you humor me for a bit and do a quick lightning round game with me? Sure. Okay, I'm going to just say a category and then you just shout out which desolery you would recommend. Oh, man, it's going to get me in trouble. Well, in your opinion, best overall tour. George Dickle at Cascade Hollow, that is one of my favorite places. That's where I go to in my brain in a bad day, because it's just beautiful, up the holler, Rippling Creek, half the tours outside, you're walking around. It's not as Hollywood as a Jack Daniels tour, but you'll get all the same history.

It's actually, was started in Nashville. So that's where George Dickel was. He was a salesman here in Nashville. Best food. I love Old Glory, just right off I-65 up in Clarksville. And they've got a great outside bar with fire pits and a stage. They built it in a silo. And their restaurant is like down-home southern food with brisket. They've got a brisket shepherd's pie there. So that scratch kitchen is pretty spectacular. Best scenery. Either Dickler, Jack. I mean, it's just beautiful down there. That's God's country. Once you get in those rolling hills in South Central Tennessee. Best hidden gym. So if you make your way down to Memphis, there's a place called Old Dominic Distillery. And it's right in downtown Memphis. So it's, you know, you're right there surrounded by all the fun and funk of Memphis. But it is a cool historic distiller. He used to be run by a woman. She was a fantastic distiller. She's moved on to a bigger job. But they make really good whiskey down there. So old Dominic spelled with K at the end. All right, which distillery feels the most Tennessee? I mean, if Carrie Bringles there, then it's a pegleg porker. Just because he's such a character. But I think where you went at Leepard's Fork just really feels like you're back in the days of farm distilleries. Now, the one that's going to be downtown next to the pinnacle, that's going to be really flashy and new and modern. And I'm sure it'll be fantastic, too. But the original Leapers Fork, I think, feels very homey. Well, here in Nashville, are we seeing more people interested because of tourism or because locals are becoming whiskey nerds? There's some hunters here. You know, they want to hunt those rare bottles. So this is a good place to do that. We do have a really strong whiskey interest here. There's all sorts of whiskey clubs where people are collectors together or they get together in sample rare bottles. So I think Nashville is right up there with Louisville as far as primary whiskey destinations. And we're such an easy place to travel in and out of. People are going to continue to take advantage of that. What excites you the most about Tennessee whiskey right now? The fact that we can get it. With all these tariffs, we're right here. Well, you know, you look at Jack Daniels. They never even had an age statement on there. They never said, you know, this is a eight-year-old whiskey or a five-year-old whiskey. But in the last few years, they've come out with 10-year-old whiskeys and 12-year-old whiskeys and 14-year-old whiskeys. And I think the goal is to try and make it to see if they can get to an 18- or 20-year-old whiskey. So the fact that those are available. For some reason, people find out when those are going to be released because if you happen to be in Lynchburg that morning when they put them out at the White Rabbit bottle shop, there will be people stretching through the parking lot across the bridge into the town square waiting to get in to buy one of those bottles. Wow. The word gets out. Are you going to be one of them? Are you always one of them? I'm going to be honest with you. They usually send me a bottle.

Oh, of course. My FedEx driver thinks I'm the world's laziest alcoholic because he makes deliveries to do me about twice a week that I have to sign for. Well, I had no idea when I pitched this episode to you that you actually were quite an expert in all of this. Is there anything else I missed, Obi-Wan Kenobi? Other than we need to find a DD. I know. Oh, my gosh. I got to get out there with you, sir. I'll buy a lunch at Old Glory. Oh, that would be so amazing. Well, Chris, it's always just such a pleasure. Again, you were just such a wealth of knowledge, and I'm so lucky to talk to you any chance I get. So thank you. I really enjoy spending time with you. Cheers. That's all for today here on CityCast Nashville. And do not forget to vote today for the state and federal primary election and municipal general. Please, please, please go vote. And don't forget, you can support this show and get great perks by becoming a CityCast Nashville neighbor at membership.citycast.fm. If you enjoyed the show, why not tell your friends. Rate the show. Leave us a review and subscribe to our CityCast Nashville newsletter. Tomorrow there will be a brand new Your City Could Be Better episode in your feed. And stay tuned for Tuesday, where we'll have a full deep dive of the election results on our Tuesday News Roundup. Toodles.