Before the internet became the go-to resource for how-to instructions, 15-year-old Lee Kennedy was inspired to build his first whiskey still from a chapter in the Foxfire book Moonshining as a Fine Art.

Now, nearly three decades later, Lee, the owner of Leiper’s Fork Distillery, largely credits that book for stoking a passion that has become a vocation. In the four years since it opened, the distillery has become a booming tourist attraction, offering tours and tastings and bringing in visitors from nearly 70 countries. That’s allowed the other side of the business to grow, as the whiskey ages in white oak barrels for four to seven years. Ultimately, the family business will sell its own Tennessee rye whiskey and bourbon. For now, the bourbon, Colonel Hunter’s, is outsourced, but Lee hand-selects each barrel.

The name of the bourbon is a nod to Colonel Henry Hunter, who owned the Leiper’s Fork property where the distillery now resides. The War of 1812 veteran was also a distiller, in keeping with a long-held Tennessee tradition. There were 322 distilleries in Tennessee before prohibition, which lasted in the state from 1910-33, says Lee. It wasn’t until 2009 that a law was passed allowing distilleries in Williamson County. Lee, who had been working in finance in Nashville since 2000 after graduating from Auburn University with a degree in business, saw his opportunity and began the process of getting his plans for a distillery approved.

Originally, he wasn’t planning on making Tennessee whiskey; although to some, that might have seemed an obvious choice. “I’m kind of a contrarian by nature,” says the affable Lee, laughing. But he realized that it only made sense, considering bourbon can be made in all 50 states and Tennessee whiskey in only one.

The 27 picturesque acres in Leiper’s Fork is home to a 5,000-square-foot stillhouse and a 2,500-square-foot 1820s log cabin Lee found in Vanleer, Tennessee, that he and his brother, Wes Kennedy, a general contractor, rebuilt. The cabin houses the gift shop, a tasting room and staff offices. When business was upended due to COVID-19, the distillery started making sanitizer, which could be used on both hands and hard surfaces. They donated to first responders and hospitals and sold 55-gallon barrels to companies and government agencies, including UPS, the USPS and even Homeland Security.

Spirits Within 

The gift shop is full of tea towels with witty William Faulkner and Mark Twain sayings on them, signature baseball caps and T-shirts, sanitizer bottled in-house, local raw honey from nearby Foxhedge Farms and, of course, bottles of whiskey. Lee’s wife, Lynlee, oversees the retail side of the business. There’s a tasting room just across the hall, and it wouldn’t be Leiper’s Fork without a pickin’ corner with guitars and a banjo hanging on the wall for musicians who might come visit.

Where the Magic Happens 

The stillhouse, where the whiskey is actually made, is as picturesque as the distillery’s setting, with the focal point, a massive copper pot still, surrounded by white oak barrels, bins of grain and large cypress tanks of fermenting whiskey. One day recently, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s "Simple Man" fittingly blasted through the built-in speakers. Tours are held on the hour, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The cost is $18 per person.

Photographs by HK Photography, Caleb Chandler and Anthony Scarlati