Uncle Nearest Receiver Wants To Sell Company Plus Other News

By Richard Thomas

Although it was my intention to not do another round-up of the whiskey industry’s closure, bankruptcy, business and lawsuit news until early summer, recent events have compelled me to follow mid-May’s update with a mid-June update.

Double Blow To The Weavers In Uncle Nearest Case
Sometimes small town newspapers are an excellent source of information on national news, as has been the case with The Moore County Observer and the Uncle Nearest case. On May 26, the newspaper–based in Jack Daniel’s home territory and one county over from where Uncle Nearest has their visitor center and hobby horse farm–reported that the federal judge presiding over the court proceedings rejected Fawn and Keith Weaver’s bid to regain control over Uncle Nearest. Instead, the judge expanded the receivership to include the holding company owned by the Weavers and in control of their ownership interest in the whiskey company.

The move expanded court-appointed receiver Phillip G. Young Jr ability to expand examination of the movement of assets and money in regards to the Uncle Nearest case, which was instigated by the foreclosure suit of the company’s principal creditor, FMCA. However, the judge declined to expand Young’s authority to include any other related assets owned by the Weavers.

A few business days later, on June 2, Young filed a letter of intent to sell Uncle Nearest. The letter specifies a buyer, an unnamed African-American-owned investment firm. Said firm will remain anonymous until the sale is finalized, with a proposed closing date in mid-July. The related Weaver assets, including a Cognac distillery and a mansion in Martha’s Vineyard, are not included in the proposed sale; what would become of them is unknown.

What should be underlined is that in the 2 1/2 weeks since the letter of intent was filed, the judge has not ruled on the matter. The proposed sale is not approved at the time of writing.

Brown-Forman Shutters Their Irish Whiskey Plant
Following the collapse of their talks to merge with Pernod-Ricard and rejection of Sazerac’s unsolicited bid to buy them, Brown-Forman announced they were closing Slane Irish Whiskey in the midst of softening Irish Whiskey sales.

The drinks company, owner of Jack Daniel’s and Old Forester, had already put their Scottish distilleries in the BenRiach group on reduced production, laying off most of the combined staff at the group’s three distilleries. Brown-Forman acquired Slane in 2015 and spent $50 million to build the sourced brand its own modern distillery and visitor center at Slane Castle, previously better known in Ireland as a concerts-ground. The visitor center will remain open and Brown-Forman will continue to sell Slane whiskey, but apparently the distillery will remain shuttered until supply and demand reach something like equilibrium.

Irish Whiskey was particularly hard hit by the Second Trump Trade War of 2025. Irish Whiskey sales are not as diversified as that of the Scotch industry, with 1 in 3 bottles being sold in the US. Ireland is also a member of the EU, which was particularly targeted by Trump.

Garrard County Distilling To Be Sold At Auction
The largest of the distilleries built at the end of the Bourbon Boom that went bust either just before or shortly after opening, Garrard County Distilling’s fate was sealed by Sazerac. The owner of Buffalo Trace Distillery used a subsidiary to buy up $28 million of Garrard County’s debt and then used that standing to force foreclosure. The court ordered at the end of May that the distillery will be sold at auction within 90 days. At time of writing, the auction date has not been set.

True Story Whiskey Sued Over Unpaid Bills
TKC Distilling, the new project of Angel’s Envy co-founder Wes Henderson and parent company of True Story Whiskey, was launched to great fanfare at the Kentucky Castle Hotel in September 2024. The consulting firm run by Peggy Noe Stevens and a separate Louisville architecture firm have sued the company for $1.5 million in unpaid bills.

Whiskey House Slashes Workforce
Although it has avoided the fate of Garrard County Distilling, Whiskey House (another company that opened at just before the end of the Bourbon Boom) is still struggling. Founded in 2021 by the same people who started Bardstown Bourbon Company (BBCo) Whiskey House has laid off 22 employees, a third of their workforce.

Retaliatory Lawsuit Dismissed
When BBCo was sued by their former Human Resources Vice President Sylvia Sanders for sexual discrimination in a whistleblower lawsuit, the company’s former CCO Herb Heneman counter-sued for defamation. That retaliatory lawsuit was dismissed on June 12.