The Tennessee Whiskey Trail Keeps Growing — And Its Newest Stops Are Worth the Drive
Tennessee has long occupied a peculiar, defiant place in the American whiskey conversation. It is home to the world's most recognizable whiskey brand, has a production tradition that predates the Republic itself, and yet has historically played second fiddle to Kentucky in the tourism arms race that trails and tasting rooms have become. That dynamic is shifting, and the Tennessee Whiskey Trail — the state's answer to Kentucky's famed Bourbon Trail — is at the center of that change. With a pair of compelling new additions folding into the Trail's statewide network, the organization is deepening its footprint in Middle Tennessee while telling the kind of stories that make spirits tourism worth doing in the first place.
The Tennessee Whiskey Trail announced the addition of two new members as two stops along the Trail: Stable Reserve Distillery and Peg Leg Porker Spirits. These are not random craft operations filling gaps on a map. Both newcomers bring their own distinct gravitational pull — one steeped in the small-town history of a storied Nashville suburb, the other born from the smoke and stubborn ambition of a championship barbecue pitmaster who decided Tennessee deserved a better bourbon. Together, they reflect exactly the kind of range the Trail has been working to demonstrate.
What the Tennessee Whiskey Trail Actually Is
Six years ago, the Tennessee Whiskey Trail was launched by the Tennessee Distillers Guild as a celebration of the state and its signature spirits. The concept is straightforward in theory, ambitious in practice: create a curated network of distilleries across Tennessee that meets a defined standard of visitor experience, and give enthusiasts both a reason and a road map to explore the state through its whiskey. In execution, the Trail functions as something between a regional tourism board and a quality-control body for the growing craft distilling scene.
Trail members are an elite group of distilleries dedicated to providing a robust visitor experience — including tastings, retail offerings and educational tours — while also being required to be located in Tennessee and maintain membership in the Tennessee Distillers Guild. That last requirement is significant. The Tennessee Distillers Guild is not a loose affiliation — it is an industry organization with advocacy, educational, and regulatory concerns. Membership there signals that a distillery is playing the long game, not chasing a trend.
With these additions, the Trail further expands its presence in Middle Tennessee and is now composed of 30 distillery brands and more than 40 stops across the state. That number — 40-plus stops — deserves a moment of reflection. For a state that spent most of the 20th century with a deeply complicated relationship with legal distilling, regularly electing dry counties and restricting where spirits could be sold, a network of more than 40 visitor destinations is a cultural reversal of significant magnitude. The Trail, in that sense, is as much a statement about where Tennessee has arrived as it is a tourism product.
The Scale of Tennessee's Spirits Tourism Opportunity
When the Kentucky Bourbon Trail is invoked as a comparison point — and it always is, eventually — the numbers are instructive. As of 2024, there are 46 stops on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Kentucky has had a generation's head start and the institutional backing of the Kentucky Distillers' Association, one of the most organized trade groups in American spirits. Tennessee's Trail reaching more than 40 stops in roughly six years is not a small feat. It reflects a genuine explosion in craft distilling activity across the Volunteer State, and Trail leadership has worked to channel that energy rather than let it scatter.
The geographic scope matters too. The Trail runs from Memphis in the west to the Tri-Cities in the northeast, threading through Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and dozens of smaller communities in between. The three-region structure — West, Middle, and East Tennessee — gives visitors an organizing principle for planning a trip. Middle Tennessee alone, where both new additions are based, contains some of the densest concentration of distillery stops, clustered in and around Nashville and its surrounding communities.
Stable Reserve Distillery: Franklin's First Since Prohibition
Franklin, Tennessee is the kind of town that wears its history visibly. The downtown square, anchored by the 1859 courthouse and lined with preserved 19th-century storefronts, is one of the genuinely well-maintained historic commercial districts in the mid-South. It draws visitors for its Civil War significance — the Battle of Franklin in November 1864 was one of the bloodiest engagements of the war's final months — and for the boutique shopping and dining culture that has taken root in recent decades as Nashville's prosperity has spread outward along I-65.
Into that context, located on Main Street in Franklin, Tenn., Stable Reserve was founded in 2021 by Hunter Yeager and Beth and Cam Goodwin, and officially opened its doors in 2023 as the first distillery in the city limits since Prohibition. That historical footnote matters more than it might initially appear. Franklin is not Nashville — it has its own civic identity and sense of place, and for a distillery to be the first to operate legally within the city limits since the era of federal prohibition is a genuine milestone, not just a marketing talking point. It situates Stable Reserve within a much longer arc of American distilling history.
A distillery, cocktail bar and coffee shop steeped in Southern history, Stable Reserve on historic Main Street is the newest addition to the Tennessee Whiskey Trail. The combination of distillery, cocktail bar, and coffee shop under one roof is a calculated play at modern hospitality. It means the operation is not solely dependent on spirits tourism — locals can come in for coffee in the morning, cocktails in the evening, and tours in between. That layered approach to revenue and community engagement is increasingly the template for successful urban craft distilleries.
Producing whiskey, bourbon, liquor, gin, and vodka, Stable Reserve Distillery is a three-time recipient of World Spirit awards. The breadth of the spirit lineup is notable. Most craft distilleries pick a lane — whiskey or gin or rum — particularly in the early years when capital is constrained and production capacity is limited. Stable Reserve's range suggests a distillery with genuine technical capability and a deliberate strategy to serve a broader customer base, not just whiskey devotees. Three World Spirit awards in what amounts to a very short runway since opening speaks to the quality of what is coming out of their stills.
What Stable Reserve Represents for Williamson County
Williamson County, where Franklin sits, is one of the fastest-growing and most affluent counties in Tennessee. The demographic profile — higher household incomes, a strong preference for experiential spending, proximity to Nashville's visitor traffic — is about as favorable as it gets for a destination distillery. Stable Reserve is positioned to capture both the local market and the Nashville day-tripper who wants something a little different than another honky-tonk on Broadway.
The distillery's presence on Main Street rather than in an industrial park or on the county periphery is a deliberate choice. It places Stable Reserve in the pedestrian flow of downtown Franklin's commercial district, where foot traffic from existing tourism activity becomes a natural feeder. Anyone already in Franklin for the antique shops, the Civil War sites, or the restaurants is within easy walking distance of the tasting room. That kind of embedded positioning is harder to achieve and more valuable than a standalone facility off a state highway.
Peg Leg Porker Spirits: Where Barbecue and Bourbon Converge
If Stable Reserve represents the careful, deliberate build of a community-rooted distillery, Peg Leg Porker Spirits is something altogether different — a brand born from obsession, built on a dare, and validated by some of the most credentialed spirits competitions in the world. The story of Peg Leg Porker is inseparable from the story of its founder, and that founder's story is one of the more genuinely remarkable in American craft spirits.
At age 17, Bringle lost his leg to osteogenic sarcoma. Refusing to let the challenge define him, he went on to build a nationally recognized barbecue brand and one of the most distinctive bourbon portfolios in the country, becoming the world's only award-winning pitmaster with an award-winning bourbon brand. That biographical detail is not incidental to understanding the brand. Peg Leg Porker's identity is built on a specific kind of American grit — the refusal to be diminished by circumstance, the stubborn insistence on doing things properly even when easier routes exist.
Peg Leg Porker Spirits, owned by Teal Hollow Distilling, is located in Nashville, TN. Founded in 2013 by Carey Bringle, Peg Leg Porker became the world's only bourbon brand owned by a barbecue pitmaster. The designation is specific and it has held. No other active pitmaster has built a bourbon brand to this scale or with this level of critical recognition. Bringle did not simply put his name on a label sourced from a contract distillery and call it a day. He built a genuine product philosophy around the intersection of smoke, patience, and precision — qualities that define both championship barbecue and well-made Tennessee straight bourbon.
A Competition Record That Demands Attention
Carey's entry-level product, Peg Leg Porker Tennessee Straight Bourbon Whiskey, was named the world's best bourbon at the 2023 Tasting Alliance World Championship, besting famous brands from Kentucky and earning double gold medals along the way at preliminary competitions in San Francisco, New York City and Singapore. The significance of that result should not be understated. The Tasting Alliance competition is not a regional or boutique event — it is one of the most respected and globally distributed competitions in spirits. Winning at that level, particularly against the Kentucky establishment, and doing so with a Tennessee product, was a genuine upset with real commercial and reputational weight.
Peg Leg Porker bourbon accolades include the prestigious Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition the first year of its release, and the brand's other aged expressions have won Platinum, Double Golds, Silver and Bronze awards in numerous spirits tasting competitions. The consistency of that award record across multiple competitions and multiple expressions is what separates Peg Leg Porker from a one-hit-wonder. A gold medal in year one of a brand's existence is impressive but can be written off as beginner's luck. Sustained performance across subsequent vintages and expressions, at competitions in multiple countries, is the mark of a distillery with a coherent and repeatable quality standard.
In addition to his flagship white label 4- to 6-year-old bourbon, Carey also offers an 8-year-old gray label whiskey, a premium 12-year-old black label bourbon, and an 8-year-old silver label rye whiskey. The lineup reflects the kind of tiered architecture that serious bourbon drinkers appreciate. There is an accessible entry point and a reason to keep coming back as your palate and your budget develop. The 12-year black label positions Peg Leg Porker in the premium aged category where Tennessee has historically had limited representation outside of the George Dickel or Jack Daniel's portfolios.
The Tasting Room in The Gulch
Peg Leg Porker opened its first tasting room in July of this year, offering visitors private tastings and curated expressions, and plans to expand to a larger distillery in the near future. The timing of the tasting room opening, arriving in the same year as the Trail membership announcement, creates a natural alignment. The brand had spent nearly a decade building its reputation entirely through the quality of the product and the strength of Bringle's culinary celebrity in the Nashville market. The tasting room finally gives fans a dedicated physical venue to experience the full range of expressions rather than hunting individual bottles through retail channels.
Peg Leg Porker Tennessee Straight Bourbon Whiskey can be found in 13 states nationwide at specialty liquor stores and tasted on-site at the Peg Leg Porker headquarters in The Gulch in Nashville, Tenn. The Gulch is a consequential address in Nashville's hospitality geography. It is one of the city's most visited neighborhoods, mixing upscale residential development with destination restaurants, boutique retail, and nightlife. Planting a flagship tasting room there puts Peg Leg Porker in direct contact with the tourist traffic that flows through Nashville year-round.
While Carey's whiskey is distributed in 14 states and multiple countries — with five to 10 new states on the horizon for expansion in the near term — some of his most precious products are only available from the bottle shop at his tasting room. That strategy — distribution breadth combined with tasting-room exclusivity for premium expressions — is a textbook move for craft spirits brands trying to reward direct-to-consumer engagement. It gives the Trail membership a concrete reason to convert a casual curious visitor into a brand loyalist who makes the pilgrimage to Nashville specifically for what cannot be found elsewhere.
Trail Leadership and the Broader Strategic Vision
Charity Toombs, who serves as executive director of the Tennessee Whiskey Trail, has been consistent in articulating the organization's philosophy, and her framing of the two newest additions puts the expansion strategy in plain terms. "Stable Reserve and Peg Leg Porker Spirits are iconic names that have brought a unique sense of history and experiences to Middle Tennessee, and we are thrilled to have them join as official members on the Tennessee Whiskey Trail," Toombs said. "We are excited for locals and tourists alike to experience not only the whiskey, but the spirit of Tennessee — whether it be through music, local history or curated events, all of which our new members offer."
The mention of music, local history, and curated events is not accidental. The Trail has consistently positioned itself as an experiential proposition that extends beyond the liquid in the glass. The goal is to compete not just with Kentucky's bourbon tourism infrastructure, but with the full range of destination experiences that draw visitors to the American South. A distillery that connects to Civil War history in Franklin or to the barbecue culture of Nashville is offering something that a production facility in an industrial suburb cannot.
The Trail's approach to expansion has also been notably selective. The membership criteria — Tennessee location, Guild membership, demonstrable visitor experience capability — filter out operations that are not ready for the scrutiny that comes with being a listed destination. That selectivity is what gives the Trail's endorsement actual meaning in the market. When an enthusiast researches a trip along the Tennessee Whiskey Trail, they can reasonably expect that every stop on the list has something substantive to offer beyond a quick pour and a gift shop.
The Trail's Momentum: From Two Stops to a Movement
The trajectory the Trail has established in recent years suggests this expansion is part of a sustained pattern rather than a periodic burst of activity. Beyond Stable Reserve and Peg Leg Porker, the Trail has continued welcoming new operations across all three regions of the state. The additions expand the Trail's network of more than 30 distilleries and tasting rooms and follow recent additions, including Blue Note Distillery in Memphis and Leatherwood Distillery in Clarksville. Memphis and Clarksville represent geographic poles for Middle and West Tennessee, respectively, and their inclusion demonstrates that the Trail's growth is not Nashville-centric even if Nashville generates the most visitor traffic.
More recently, the Trail has also welcomed operations with distinctly different character. Dam Whiskey Co., with locations at historic Hales Bar Dam and in downtown Chattanooga off Market Street, and Silverbelly Distillery in downtown Nashville joined the Trail's statewide network. Dam Whiskey Co. draws inspiration from the site's history and distinctive setting, with guided tours offering a look inside the barrel room and historic structure, including its underground tunnels, while sharing the history and stories surrounding Hales Bar Dam. A distillery operating inside the powerhouse of a historic dam on the Tennessee River is the sort of destination that justifies a multi-hour drive on its own merits.
Located steps from Lower Broadway, Silverbelly welcomes guests for curated whiskey tastings, handcrafted cocktails, access to the Alan Jackson Museum and exclusive experiences, including a backstage VIP tour. Silverbelly's combination of whiskey experience and country music access is pure Nashville, threading together two of the city's most powerful cultural exports in a single venue. For visitors who want their Tennessee whiskey experience to come layered with the state's musical heritage, it is a natural fit.
The Tennessee Collective: Proof of Collaborative Maturity
Perhaps the most revealing indicator of where the Tennessee Whiskey Trail stands as an organization is the Tennessee Collective, a collaborative release that puts the Trail's institutional identity into a bottle. The Tennessee Whiskey Trail announced the launch of the Tennessee Collective — a collaboration bringing together a dozen distilleries and their hand-selected barrels for a one-of-a-kind release. This special bottling of approximately 2,000 bottles is more than just a whiskey; it's an expression of craftsmanship, community and the shared spirit that represents Tennessee.
For the inaugural edition, the participating members selected 12 barrels representing 12 distilleries, which were then thoughtfully blended at Sugarlands Distilling Company under the leadership of Sugarlands' Master Distiller Greg Eidam, who also oversees the acclaimed Roaming Man Rye Whiskey, to create a unique expression that celebrates the diversity and depth of the state's dedication to craft spirits. The logistics of getting a dozen independent distilleries to agree on barrels, blending philosophy, and release terms is no small feat. The Tennessee Collective is a proof of concept for what organized cooperation within a state spirits industry can produce — and it reflects the maturity of the Trail as an institution rather than just a marketing vehicle.
Each barrel included in the blend was aged for a minimum four years and met bottling industry standards. The 2025 Tennessee Collective is bottled at cask strength. Cask strength bottling for a collaboration release is an assertive choice. It prioritizes authenticity over approachability, trusting the enthusiast audience to engage with the full character of the whiskey rather than a diluted version optimized for casual consumption. That is the right call for a project designed to communicate the serious credentials of Tennessee distilling to a knowledgeable audience.
Why This Expansion Matters for the American Spirits Landscape
The growth of the Tennessee Whiskey Trail is not just a regional tourism story. It is part of a larger American narrative about what states outside Kentucky have to say about whiskey, and whether that conversation can be organized and sustained at scale. Tennessee has always had the raw materials — the limestone water, the agricultural tradition, the climate with its extreme seasonal temperature swings that accelerate barrel aging — but it lacked, for much of its history, the institutional infrastructure to convert those assets into a coherent tourism proposition.
The Trail is providing that infrastructure. By creating a shared identity for Tennessee's distilling community, setting minimum standards for visitor experience, advocating at the legislative level through Guild membership requirements, and developing collaborative releases like the Tennessee Collective, the organization is building something that will outlast any individual distillery's marketing cycle. That durability is what gives serious enthusiasts reason to trust the Trail as a curation tool rather than just a list.
For the American whiskey drinker who has already worked through the main bourbon trail stops in Kentucky and is looking for the next frontier, Tennessee's Trail represents a genuine alternative with its own distinct character. Tennessee whiskey has its own legal definition — requiring not just the standard bourbon production parameters but also the Lincoln County Process of charcoal mellowing — which gives the state's signature spirit a flavor identity that cannot be replicated anywhere else. The growing network of distilleries on the Trail means more interpretations of that identity are available for exploration than ever before.
Planning a Middle Tennessee Whiskey Trip: What to Know
For anyone mapping out a trip specifically anchored around the newest Trail additions, Middle Tennessee offers a remarkably compact geography. Franklin is roughly 20 miles south of Nashville on I-65, making Stable Reserve an easy half-day extension of a Nashville-based itinerary. The combination of downtown Franklin's walkable historic district and the distillery's Main Street location means a visit can be integrated naturally into a broader day of exploration without feeling like a detour.
Peg Leg Porker's tasting room in The Gulch puts it squarely in the heart of Nashville's most active neighborhood. The proximity to Lower Broadway — and to the full range of Nashville hospitality — means it fits naturally into either the beginning or end of a longer evening in the city. The availability of private tastings at the venue gives serious enthusiasts an option beyond the standard pour-and-move format of most tasting rooms.
The Trail's three-region structure rewards both the dedicated itinerary planner and the casual road tripper. East Tennessee adds Sugarlands Distilling in Gatlinburg and Knox Whiskey Works in Knoxville. West Tennessee anchors its network in Memphis with Old Dominick. The state, navigated by whiskey, turns out to be a much richer travel destination than its traditional tourism profile — Civil War sites, country music, Dollywood — might suggest to the uninitiated. That is, perhaps, the Trail's most quietly radical accomplishment.
As Stable Reserve and Peg Leg Porker Spirits settle into their roles as official Trail members, they add to a network that has become one of the more compelling experiential tourism propositions in the American South. One restores a piece of Franklin's pre-Prohibition identity in a building on the town's most storied street. The other is the end product of a pitmaster's decade-long insistence that Tennessee could produce a bourbon worthy of the world's best designation — and then proved it. Both belong on any serious whiskey traveler's list.
