The Love List | How Two Tennessee Brothers Revived Their 19th Century Bourbon Legacy in Present-Day Nashville

At last year's Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, we met the affable Nelson Brothers. Charlie and Andy shared family anecdotes between sips of their heirloom whiskey, and invited us up to Tennessee to see their distillery in-person. Both in their early 30's, the brothers have established a sophisticated business beyond their years, one that's quickly become a treasured Nashville foothold. They're back at the festival again this year, so we figured it was as good a time as any to sit down and chat business, bourbon, brotherhood -- and of course, their favorite bars.

Chances are if you're from the state of Tennessee, whiskey's in your blood.

But the Nelson family didn’t just dabble in avocational hootch. Andy and Charlie Nelson’s great-great-great grandfather Charles Nelson owned and operated Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, which in the late 19th century sold 380,000 gallons (nearly 2 million bottles) of whiskey annually, easily outselling the likes of now-household names like Jack Daniels and Maker’s Mark.