Prior to prohibition Nelson’s Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey was the largest selling brand of Tennessee Whiskey in the world. Records show it was sold throughout the United States and was enjoyed across Europe and in parts of Asia.

The brand started in 1860 and by 1885 the distillery was producing more than 2 Million bottles a year to keep up with demand. That demand was a result of Charles Nelson’s dedication to creating a whiskey from the finest ingredients in a precise process. He charcoal mellowed his whiskey and was an early adopter of bottling his product rather than selling it by barrel or jug. This attention to detail made Nelson’s Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey one of the best whiskey anyone had ever tasted…until Prohibition shuttered the distillery in 1909.

Fast forward to the 21st century, the legendary whiskey was all but forgotten save for whiskey historians and some well-weathered artifacts. As such it was no small feat for the triple Great Grandsons of Charles Nelson to resurrect the original recipe for the worlds largest selling pre-prohibition Tennessee Whiskey. There was no dusty leather bound book of recipes hiding in the family attic. So how do we know the recipe you ask? Every year Charles Nelson would have a large party at the distillery on the 4th of July. Historical accounts tell us that it was a pretty big event that was attended by all the distillery employees as well as the who’s who of the region. The press was also invited. One of the highlights of the day was a tour of the famous distillery given by Charles’s right hand man Mr. Henry Bolinger. During the tour he would explain the processes for making Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey in detail. Savvy members of the press would then publish a few of these details in their stories.

These tidbits of information were scattered like puzzle pieces across publications sitting forgotten in archives for a century. It was through many countless hours of research across years of published accounts that we were able to put together the puzzle pieces to replicate the mash bill and processes Charles used more than 100 years ago to make Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey - The Original Tennessee Whiskey.

