Lee Kennedy

In 2015, Lee Locke Kennedy, started construction of Leiper's Fork Distillery, in Williamson County, Tennessee. This marked the establishment of the second legal distillery in the county since 1909.

The distillery's mission is to revive the heritage of small-batch whiskey production, a tradition that has been a significant part of Tennessee and Williamson County since the early days. Despite the challenging nature of maintaining a functioning tourist site at the same time and place as running an operational distillery, Lee remains actively involved in various civic projects in Williamson County. He serves on the Williamson County Planning Commission, is a Board Member for the Williamson County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and is an Executive Committee member of the Heritage Foundation.

Born in Alabama, but a proud Tennessee resident, with family roots in Williamson County dating back to 1805, Kennedy graduated from Montgomery Bell Academy before earning a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Auburn University. Lee and his wife, Lynlee, are deeply committed to their community's history and success, and they continue to raise their children in Williamson County.

Leiper’s Fork Distillery produces 500 barrels of whiskey (equating to about 25,000 gallons) annually. Although this production is relatively small compared to larger whiskey manufacturers like Jack Daniel's, which can produce hundreds of thousands of barrels, Kennedy stated, "That's okay with us. We want to pay attention to the details; we're a small-batch distillery.”

This 5,000-square-foot distillery features one mash cooker and five fermentation tanks (each capable of holding up to 1,000 gallons), and the Scottish Swan Neck Pot Still was custom-made in Louisville, Kentucky. "Here, you can see all aspects of whiskey making under one roof," Kennedy explained. "Our Tours include; how our whiskey is made alongside whiskey history.”

Leiper’s Fork Distillery offers four whiskey brands made of locally sourced ingredients, including corn, rye, and barley all coming from within 4 miles of the distillery.

Visitors will find a 2,500-square-foot log cabin on the property, partially constructed from logs of a historic cabin that Kennedy and his family relocated from Vanleer, Tennessee. The original cabin, built by James Daniel in 1820, was carefully taken apart and reconstructed at the Leiper's Fork site. "We took it down log by log and built it as he had done," Kennedy noted, adding that "JDaniel" is inscribed on one of the logs inside the cabin.

Until the last ten to fifteen years, when people thought of whiskey, they typically considered four primary regions: Scotland, Ireland, Kentucky, and Tennessee. For native Tennesseans, this emphasis on Tennessee is unsurprising, given the cultural significance of the state's flagship distillery in Lynchburg. That prominent brand has solidified Tennessee's status as a household name, much like country music. However, it may be surprising to learn that Jack Daniel's represents only the tip of a much larger industry that has been an integral part of Tennessee's cultural and manufacturing heritage since the state’s founding.

Historically, most of the whiskey in this country has been made between the Ohio River in northern Kentucky and the Tennessee River in north Alabama. This is mainly due to two reasons: access to limestone-filtered water, which is critical to the fermentation process of making iron-poor whiskey, and the heritage of the Scotch-Irish people who settled this area and began distilling Native American corn into a beverage that would evolve into modern-day Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey. 

The Kennedys at the small, but growing Leiper’s Fork Distillery hope to have their part in that rich distilling heritage today, tomorrow, and beyond.