When you go to the Nearest Inexperienced Distillery north of Lynchburg, Tennessee, you’ll discover a show alongside a hall close to the Barrel Home II restaurant. It honors 5 vital individuals who figured within the rebirth of the story of Nathan “Nearest” Inexperienced, a former enslaved one that was the primary grasp distiller at Jack Daniel’s and taught a younger Daniel how you can make whiskey. There’s Daniel himself, in fact; Fawn Weaver, the entrepreneur who constructed the distillery and places out its signature whiskey, Uncle Nearest 1856; Ben A. Inexperienced, a reporter who outlined Nearest Inexperienced’s significance in his 1967 ebook, Jack Daniel’s Legacy (the 2 Greens aren’t associated); Annie Bell “Mammie” Inexperienced, a descendent of Nearest; and Clay Risen.
[Clay Risen is] not directly chargeable for the existence of the [Nearest Green] distillery the place his picture is displayed.
Risen is a reporter with The New York Instances, the place he writes obituaries. He additionally pens books about such disparate topics as Teddy Roosevelt and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However he’s greatest generally known as a whiskey author. And he’s not directly chargeable for the existence of the distillery the place his picture is displayed.
Weaver was having breakfast on the highest flooring of the 4 Seasons lodge in Singapore when she learn a June 25, 2016, story within the Instances written by Risen. Like a lot of the remainder of the world, Weaver first discovered from that article of the existence of Nearest Inexperienced and the essential function he performed in American whiskey historical past.
“Lots of journalists do that,” says Weaver. “They don’t have the time or assets or price range with their varied publications, so they do a ‘lob.’ They’ll discover out as a lot as they will, written in such a means, in hopes that somebody will full the work. Often, no one picks it up.” Weaver fielded Risen’s lob and ran with it. She moved to Tennessee; did exhaustive analysis on Inexperienced; shared her analysis with Brown-Forman, which owns Jack Daniel’s and quickly selected to formally acknowledge Inexperienced’s contribution; purchased the farm the place Inexperienced and Daniel first labored collectively; constructed the distillery; and produced the whiskey. She principally rewrote the historical past of America’s most well-known whiskey model. “Clay advised me I was the primary one that took the lob,” Weaver says. (Including an uncanny high quality to the connection between the 2, Risen and Weaver have been born on the identical day.)
“…right here’s this girl who took the story and determined to create this model and create an actual narrative round it—that’s fairly impactful. I used to be overjoyed to see that.”—Clay Risen
Any journalist will inform you it’s uncommon that something they write has a real-life affect not to mention adjustments the panorama of the beat they cowl. Risen’s piece on Inexperienced arguably ranks as essentially the most vital piece of whiskey-world reporting of the century. Risen is, by nature, modest. However he, too, acknowledges the impact of the piece. “Seeing the affect my article had in a extremely concrete means,” he says, “not only a bunch of individuals studying it, however right here’s this girl who took the story and determined to create this model and create an actual narrative round it—that’s fairly impactful. I used to be overjoyed to see that.”
When Risen first started reporting on whiskey about 10 years in the past, the skilled area of interest barely existed. At this time, whiskey journalism is an more and more crowded subject, having grown alongside the booming public curiosity in whiskey itself. And in that subject, Risen is the preeminent practitioner, with common must-read whiskey tales within the Instances, 4 whiskey-related books underneath his belt, and one other due this fall.
His place might be chalked as much as quite a few issues, together with the simple affect of getting a perch on the Instances. There’s additionally his prodigious output to think about. “The factor about Clay is he’s a really quick author,” observes Reid Mitenbuler, a buddy and fellow whiskey writer. “I’ve questioned generally, how does this man do it? Does he have extra hours within the day?”
However greater than something, Risen’s profession might be traced again to 2 fateful choices. He printed a narrative everybody had uncared for to report, and he wrote a ebook nobody needed to put in writing.
Risen’s profession might be traced again to 2 fateful choices. He printed a narrative everybody had uncared for to report, and he wrote a ebook nobody needed to put in writing.
The Inexperienced story happened when a Daniel’s publicist pitched Risen a laundry record of potential story angles related to the distillery’s upcoming a hundred and fiftieth anniversary. “It was stuff individuals know already,” Risen says. “However one of many tales was of Nearest Inexperienced. Effectively, one in all these items just isn’t just like the others. That one is absolutely fascinating! I don’t assume they anticipated me to say that. I feel they have been caught off guard.” The article gained Risen an Worldwide Affiliation of Culinary Professionals (IACP) award.
The ebook no one needed to put in writing was Risen’s first, American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye: A Information to the Nation’s Favourite Spirit, an easy tasting information to 200-plus whiskeys that got here out in 2013. George Scott used to bundle ebook tasks, together with fowl guides, and store them round to publishers. He noticed a gap available in the market for an American whiskey information. However he couldn’t discover a author for the job. He’d been turned down by a number of established booze scribes when he floated the thought to Risen after studying one in all his items (about beer, no much less) in The Atlantic.
The ebook bought out its first run of 5,000 copies in pre-sale, and so they started work on an expanded version inside the yr. Up to now, it’s bought greater than 125,000 copies, an astounding quantity, and has grow to be, in Scott’s willpower, the “best-selling ebook about American whiskey ever printed.” The 2 subsequently collaborated on an identical information to single malt Scotch whisky. A information on rye whiskey will arrive in October.
Given his price of success, you’d think about Clay Risen was a 24/7 whiskey man. However, uncommon amongst whiskey writers, he has different pursuits. Along with writing obits for individuals starting from the in-house orthopedic surgeon at Metropolis Ballet in New York to Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge, Risen commonly seems non-whiskey books. The Invoice of the Century (2014) tracks the battle over the Civil Rights Act. The Crowded Hour (2019) is about Roosevelt and the Tough Riders. He’s presently engaged on a ebook in regards to the Pink Scare of the Nineteen Forties and ’50s. “I’m not somebody who might sit and do one factor,” Risen says. “I feel I’m extra productive after I do loads of issues.”
“I feel he’s one of many smartest writers in whiskey proper now.”—George Scott
“He’s a historian at coronary heart,” Scott says. “Having an awesome palate, and his information of American historical past and his strategies as a historical past author, I feel he’s precisely the appropriate mixture. I feel he’s one of many smartest writers in whiskey proper now.”
Weaver goes additional. She doesn’t even consider Risen as a whiskey author per se.
“I wouldn’t put him in that,” she says. “I feel he’s too far above that. I don’t say that as a knock to whiskey writing. However Clay might hop on a aircraft to Ukraine and write the definitive story about that.”
The historic bent of Risen’s work comes truthfully. Born in upstate New York and raised in Nashville, he took numerous historical past programs at Georgetown College (the place he was editor of the college newspaper), and acquired a grasp’s diploma in social science on the College of Chicago. He had utilized to varied historical past applications and was contemplating a life in academia, when a job provide got here from The New Republic. He started writing about whiskey—an curiosity of his ever since his grandfather gave him a style of Blanton’s bourbon in 2002—for The Atlantic. By 2010, he was working for the Instances.
Risen admits that having a number of writing focuses can be complicated to some. “Folks assume my historical past books can’t be any good as a result of I write about whiskey,” he says. “‘You’re a whiskey man! What are you doing writing this?’” However, it could additionally result in uncommon experiences. “I’ve given a lecture on Teddy Roosevelt or Civil Rights, adopted by a whiskey tasting.”
