Belle Meade Bourbon

The Belle Meade Distillery stood three miles east of Belle Meade Farm on the Harding Pike at Bosley Springs, whose waters feed Richland Creek. Its proprietors, John Sperry and Watson Wade, sold their spirits as Sperry, Wade, & Co., and Wade was a cousin of the Belle Meade Harding family. The name Belle Meade Bourbon was created through an agreement between the Belle Meade Harding and Jackson families and Sperry, Wade & Co. for use of the Belle Meade name, with royalties paid to the Belle Meade family; a farm ledger records a payment of $514.50 in 1878. The bourbon quickly became popular after production and sales began, and by January 1878, 10,000 barrels had been produced and shipped by rail to vendors across the country. The firm expanded to a second distillery in East Nashville on Hyde's Ferry Pike, where an additional 450 barrels could be produced. By 1879, Sperry, Wade, & Co. paid the most in tax revenues of any distiller in Tennessee. On Monday August 30th, 1885, a massive fire totally destroyed the Belle Meade Distillery. Sperry, Wade & Co. continued producing Belle Meade Bourbon at the East Nashville location until the temperance movement and decreased alcohol consumption slowed sales dramatically, and the firm closed and sold its assets in 1887.

Belle Meade, Tennessee · United States