Unfortunately while the business was able to survive the death of it’s founder, it was not able to survive prohibition, which was enacted in Tennessee a full 10 years before it was national law… but that’s Tennessee for you.\u00a0 Of course it’s not all bad, without prohibition there would be no speakeasies<\/a>.\u00a0 But sadly, the Greenbrier Distillery was forced to close it’s doors in 1909 at which point the distillery took a 100 year hiatus and was nearly forgotten.\u00a0 That’s where the story gets interesting.<\/p>\n Charles Nelson’s great-great-great grandsons Charlie and Andy knew that their family used to make whiskey, but had no idea of the scale.\u00a0 To be fair, if you’re from Tennessee, you have a family history of making whiskey.\u00a0 It’s just easy to ignore it because most of the time it was in a toothless man’s bathtub. (I can say it, I’m from there.)<\/p>\n The current Nelson brothers learned more about their family’s rich distilling history by chance on a visit to a butcher in Greenbrier, TN.\u00a0 The butcher just so happened to be across the street from the former site of the Greenbrier Distillery, and the brothers ended up exploring the warehouse and natural spring where the distillery once stood.\u00a0 Having piqued their interest, they also made a trip to the Greenbrier Historical Society, where they discovered a couple of century old glass Greenbrier Distillery Whiskey bottles and met their fate.<\/p>\n As they say, the rest is history.\u00a0 The brothers decided to resurrect the family business and opened Nelson’s Greenbrier Distillery in 2009, a full hundred years after the original closed it’s doors.<\/p>\n Nelson’s Greenbrier Distillery is now located in Downtown Nashville<\/a> and offers tours and tastings to guests for $10 several times throughout the day.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the distillery is so new (this time around) that the only whiskey they have produced in this facility is an unaged white whiskey… or as it’s more commonly known, moonshine.\u00a0 They do however offer other aged whiskeys that the Nelson brothers had a hand in making, just not on property.<\/p>\n The tour is quite interesting and gives guests a behind the scenes look at the ins and outs of whiskey production.\u00a0 The facility is rather small, but that only adds to the quality of the liquor.\u00a0 No mass produced nonsense here!\u00a0 Every batch goes through an old fashioned copper still affectionately known as “Miss Louisa”, in honor of the brothers great-great-great grandmother, who took over the company after Charles Nelson’s death, becoming one of the only women to run a distillery.<\/p>\n The tour takes you through the whiskey making, aging, and bottling process, and of course ends in everyone’s favorite part; the tasting!\u00a0 Samples are poured of Greenbrier’s White Whiskey as well as Belle Meade’s aged whiskeys.<\/p>\n \u00a0 Remember, they haven’t aged their own whiskey yet, but you do get a backstage look at the aging process in the barrel room.\u00a0 It’s enough to get you excited about the years to come.<\/p>\n Nashville’s come a long way in the past few years, of course occasionally you’re still reminded of who actually runs this town.\u00a0 I like my whiskey with a side of guilt.<\/p>\n Chalk it up to youthful rebellion, but growing up here I thought Nashville was a proverbial “one horse town” and it seems they are working hard to kick that image to the curb.\u00a0 Who knows, in another 100 years perhaps Nelson’s Greenbrier Tennessee Whiskey may once again be putting Jack Daniels in his place!<\/p>\n \n \n ~<\/p>\n This post is part of the weekly blog link up, #weekendwanderlust hosted by A Brit and A Southerner<\/a>, A Southern Gypsy<\/a>, Carmen\u2019s Luxury Travel<\/a>, Justin Plus Lauren<\/a>, and Outbound Adventurer<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s safe to say that Tennessee has made a name for itself in whiskey production.\u00a0 After all, Jack Daniels is perhaps the most well known brand of whiskey world wide.\u00a0 Believe it or not, one of Nashville’s newest distilleries once gave ol’ Jack a run for his money. The history of Nelson’s Greenbrier Distillery is […]<\/p>\n![\"Nelson's](\"https:\/\/magsonthemove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/image48-510x340.jpg\")
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