Many don’t know that a Tennessee slave, Nearest Green, taught Jack Daniels how to distill—even going on to work for Daniels as a black master distiller after the Civil War. Armed with thousands of documents, author Fawn Weaver convinced brand owner Brown-Forman to recognize Green’s role and incorporate it into the Jack Daniels story, where it’s always belonged. She’s now released her own whiskey to …
With cognac consumption on the rise around the world—including key markets like the US and China—an exhausted image of snifters in the hands of grandparents has been shed. Many consumers look to celebrities for recommendations. Some may even look back, for nostalgic reasons, to what the previous generations of their family drank. Taste, however, is the only reason you should buy a particular cognac. Tremendous …
In the spirits world, there are master blenders and then there is Yann Fillioux, who has been with cognac powerhouse Hennessy for 50 years. On his first day of work (3 October 1966) he was just 19 years old. A seventh-generation Hennessy blender, Fillioux has tasted cognac nearly every day of his professional life and he’s responsible for two of the world’s most coveted liquids, …