Tennessee Hills Distillery

Tennessee Hills Distillery is the East Tennessee craft operation in Jonesborough — the oldest town in Tennessee, founded in 1779 — that's built its identity around the Appalachian distilling heritage of the upper east corner of the state, far away from the Jack Daniel's/Lincoln County gravity well that defines most of Tennessee whiskey to the outside world. Founded in 2015 by Stephen Callahan in the historic main-street district of Jonesborough, Tennessee Hills occupies a restored 1840s brick building on the corner of Main and Boone streets, with the distillery and tasting room visible directly from the sidewalk through the original storefront windows.

The location matters editorially because Jonesborough sits in Washington County, in the East Tennessee mountains roughly two hours northeast of Knoxville and an hour from Bristol, in a region whose distilling history runs continuously from the Scots-Irish settlers of the late 1700s through Prohibition-era moonshining to today's licensed craft revival. The Appalachian whiskey tradition is distinct from the Lincoln County Process tradition of Middle Tennessee — typically lower-corn mash bills, more aggressive malted barley use, and a stylistic preference for unfiltered or lightly-filtered final spirit that highlights grain character rather than the sweet round mellow of charcoal-mellowed Tennessee whiskey.

The Tennessee Hills product range reflects that regional identity. The Salt & Smoke Tennessee Bourbon line is the flagship, alongside a Tennessee Single Malt that uses 100% malted barley (most American single-malts come from craft producers in the Pacific Northwest; Tennessee Hills' is one of very few East Tennessee single-malt programs), an aged rye, a corn whiskey, and a small range of finished and limited releases that rotate seasonally. Production runs on a single pot-and-column hybrid still in the back of the Main Street storefront, and most aging happens in 25- and 53-gallon new charred oak.

The Jonesborough visitor experience is one of the most accessible in Tennessee craft distilling. The Main Street storefront is steps from the Washington County Courthouse, the International Storytelling Center (Jonesborough's other claim to fame), and the small but well-developed Main Street restaurant scene. Tours move through the production floor and into a tasting room that includes the full Tennessee Hills range. For visitors building an East Tennessee whiskey trip — combining Sweetens Cove, Tenn South, and the Tri-Cities craft scene — Tennessee Hills is the natural Jonesborough anchor.