Sherrie Moore
“A Legacy of Courage”
Sherrie Moore began her whiskey-industry journey in May of 1975, when she joined the Jack Daniel’s Distillery as a part-time college student. Working at the spiritual home of Tennessee Whiskey in Lynchburg proved formative. A few years later, newly graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a chemistry degree, she stepped into full-time work there, launching a whiskey career that has now approached the half-century mark. Her early roles at Jack Daniel’s centered on Quality Control, and she ultimately worked in every department. She gravitated most toward the barrel-maturation side of the operation, handling sampling, experimentation, and barrel selection for dumping and blending. Management soon followed. Her first supervisory role placed her over filtration and the processing of aged whiskey for bottling, and the Barrel Warehouse department was later added to her responsibilities. As Moore continued to prove her skill and judgment, her oversight grew to include the Distillery, Charcoal Mellowing, By-Products, Whiskey Processing, Quality Control, Fire Protection, and Environmental Compliance/Sustainability. She eventually rose to Director of Whiskey Production, the position she held until retiring from parent company Brown-Forman in 2006.
Her retirement was short-lived. Within months, Moore launched a consulting firm and became a sought-after advisor to major spirits brands just as the modern whiskey boom began accelerating. Among her most visible projects was her work with Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee, where she served as Director of Whiskey Production and helped shape the company’s operations during its formative years. At Uncle Nearest she wore several hats, from barrel selection and dumping schedules to overarching maturation strategy, roles perfectly suited to her deep technical background.
In October 2025, Moore embraced what may be her most ambitious challenge yet: becoming Whiskey Plant Manager at Castle & Key Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, on the historic Old Taylor site. Castle & Key announced that Moore, who had never lived more than 30 miles from Lynchburg, would guide production and operations at a moment of major expansion. The move marked not just a new chapter in her career, but a rare geographic leap for someone so deeply rooted in Moore County.
That sense of heritage runs throughout Moore’s life. She is the great-great niece of Lem Motlow, the legendary owner and Master Distiller who took over his uncle Jack Daniel’s operations in the early twentieth century when Jack’s health declined. Motlow shepherded the brand through Prohibition, rebuilt it afterward, and became the architect of many of Tennessee’s post-Prohibition liquor laws, a legacy that shaped the environment in which Moore herself would one day lead.
When Sherrie first began working at Jack Daniel’s, she lived in Lynchburg with her great-grandmother, Mary Evans Bobo, known affectionately as “Miss Mary Bobo.” Bobo was the celebrated proprietor of the most famous boarding house in the region, a white, two-story Greek Revival home just off the town square and just steps from the distillery. Built in 1867 by Dr. E. Y. Salmon over a natural spring, the property became the Bobo Hotel in 1908 after Jack and Mary Bobo purchased and renamed it. Under Mary’s stewardship it quickly became a social hub for Lynchburg.
When Sherrie first began working at Jack Daniel’s, she lived in Lynchburg with her great-grandmother, Mary Evans Bobo, known affectionately as “Miss Mary Bobo.” Bobo was the celebrated proprietor of the most famous boarding house in the region, a white, two-story Greek Revival home just off the town square and just steps from the distillery. Built in 1867 by Dr. E. Y. Salmon over a natural spring, the property became the Bobo Hotel in 1908 after Jack and Mary Bobo purchased and renamed it. Under Mary’s stewardship it quickly became a social hub for Lynchburg.
Miss Mary’s story took an unforgettable turn in 1981, when, at age 99, she appeared in Playboy magazine discussing her life, her town, the distillery, and the challenges of being a working woman during the Depression. Moore remembers the moment vividly. The appearance generated national attention—including several marriage proposals—and Miss Mary remains the oldest person ever featured in the publication. She continued running the boarding house right up until her death in 1983, just shy of 102. The Jack Daniel Distillery later bought and renovated the property into the restaurant that now bears her name, a place listed on the National Register of Historic Places and still bustling with daily service.
Moore’s own career unfolded during a time when women were exceedingly rare in large-scale whiskey production. She has been called “one of the most under-celebrated women in whiskey,” a reflection of her early years in an industry where women were, as she put it, “all but invisible.” Yet she has consistently emphasized that the men she worked with at Jack Daniel’s supported her fully. Many had been making whiskey for decades before she arrived, and she credits them with training, encouraging, and respecting her at every stage.
Ultimately, Moore’s decision to take on a new leadership role at a point in life when many people have stepped away from the workforce feels like a natural extension of her character. She had already influenced some of the largest whiskey producers in the world, but she chose challenge over ease, growth over familiarity, and responsibility over retirement. In this, she echoes the determination of her relatives, Lem Motlow with his strategic leadership through whiskey’s darkest days, and Mary Evans Bobo, whose century-long presence in hospitality was as pioneering as it was unforgettable.
Together, their stories form a quiet but unmistakable thread: Tennesseans who rose to meet the moments when their industries began to bloom. Their legacies endure not just in the whiskey poured or the meals served, but in the example they set: proof that leadership, innovation, and courage transcend eras, and that the barriers before them were never stronger than the will they carried to move beyond them.
Sources:
American Whiskey Magazine, “Sherrie Moore Joins Castle & Key Distillery as Whiskey Plant Manager”, October 29, 2025
Bourbon Lens, “Castle & Key Appoints Sherrie Moore as Whisky Plant Manager”, Jake Lewellen, October 23, 2025, bourbonlens.com
Spirits & Distilling Podcast 20 (podcast), “Sherrie Moore Uses Data…”, Sydney Jones, November 26, 2024
DrinkHacker, “Her Story in Spirits: Celebrating the Women of Distilling…”, March 20, 2025, drinkhacker.com
Moore County Observer (Lynchburg, Tennessee), “Tribute to Southern Hospitality”, Duane Cross
Some photographs courtesy of the Moore County Observer
Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee
