Our friend Chastity Beasley, Uncle Nearest Whiskey Brand Ambassador, is back with another delicious cocktail. As usual she is sharing historical info just in time for women’s history month. Did you miss our last segment with Chastity? Check it out here.

You may remember Uncle Nearest Whiskey from our “How To Incorporate Wine and Spirits into Your New Lifestyle Segment on WGN.”

The link to today’s cocktail hour video with fun facts and recipes is below.

A Little-Known Women’s History Fact:

Victoria Eady Butler, the first African American woman master blender on record, and happens to be Uncle Nearest’s great-great-grand daughter! That’s amazing, happy women’s history month!

A Little-Known Black History Fact:

Uncle Nearest is a Tennessee whiskey named after the first African American master distiller, Nathan “Nearest” Green. He credited as the man who taught Jack Daniel’s how to make whiskey. According to Chastity “you all know Jack Daniel’s as the Father of Tennessee Whiskey, well Uncle Nearest, former slave, is the godfather of Tennessee Whiskey.”

Did You Know:

Nathan “Nearest” Green is also credited for introducing the Lincoln County Process to Tennessee Whiskey makers. As a result, this process is the standard at Jack Daniel’s distillery. The Lincoln County Process is a, “unique filtering of bourbon through sugar maple charcoal. This process has been confirmed to have been brought to Tennessee by enslaved people.” Read more about Uncle Nearest

The Cocktail:

This time we are using the 1856 whiskey. The date on the Uncle Nearest 1856 is the date that the distillery believes uncle nearest perfected the Lincoln County Process.

This whiskey is great served neat and is also great in this Boulevardier cocktail. Named after the creator of the cocktail Erskine Gwynne, publisher of “Boulevardier” magazine. The classic recipe is equal parts whiskey, vermouth and Campari. Check out how Chasity puts her own spin on it.

Ingredients:

1 oz Dubonnet (fortified win)

1 oz Martini and Rossi Bitter Liqueur

1 oz of 1856 Uncle Nearest

2 dashes of cherry bitters