Old Hillside Bourbon Company

About Us

Our Story

Old Hillside Bourbon company was created out of the love for bourbon, friendship, and camaraderie. This team was organically formed through quality time and great conversation. Our vision is fueled by optimism, integrity, and a sense of responsibility to build a successful household Bourbon brand that tells a story people can cherish and love. We are a group of individuals, each with different experiences, careers and professional goals. Our collective hope to infuse the history of Kentucky with our North Carolinian roots unites us. Our strength lies in our passion for sharing stories and in leveraging our diverse personal and professional experiences in order to curate an unmatched product, brand and service to our customers.

History, Heritage and Homage

History, Heritage and Homage is our motto and it is represented throughout our logo and centered in all we bring.
History: Kentucky is the birthplace of bourbon, crafting 95% of the world’s supply. This is not only placed at the center of our logo, but also central to our company.
Heritage: Represented in large figures is a Black jockey and a bull. Far too often, it goes unnamed that Black jockeys, such as Isaac Murphy, played a pivotal role in popularizing the Kentucky Derby. Similarly, the versions of history that get repeated leaves out the brilliance and contributions of Black Wall Street, whose home was Durham, North Carolina. We take great pride in honoring this history, and it is our goal to carry on the legacy of Black entrepreneurship that was started here.
With Hillside Bourbon, we want our customers and partners to have this complete story of history. These unmentioned historical moments play an imperative role in our heritage and who we are today.
Homage:
Our story begins in Durham, North Carolina at Hillside High School. Hillside High School is the oldest historically Black High School that operated in the state of North Carolina before desegregation. Hillside High School is also the Alma Mater of our team and where we first met. Within our logo and throughout our motto, brand, and company, we are committed to paying homage to this story of ours. We aim to be a brand that reminds our customers of the richness and value of honoring our collective history and heritage.

The Owners

Jesse Carpenter

An experienced Six Sigma/Lean Manufacturing Black Belt with over twelve years of professional experience in Lean Six Sigma. Jesse has been instrumental in implementing over 25 Kaizen events and conducting rapid improvement workshops. He has helped companies improve efficiencies, while maintaining and improving quality metrics. When he isn’t working, you’ll find Jesse producing music, hiking with his family or hunting for rare bourbons. Jesse’s developed a passion for collecting bourbon and aged whiskey after relocating to Lexington Kentucky.

Brian Burton

An experienced IT professional with a vast knowledge of various systems in the operational environment, for tasking day to day business operations. A strategic thinker, with an analytical view of processes to be implemented for the tasking of providing IT Services through innovative, structured, disciplined and systematic methodologies. Brian is business aligned and focused, and can quickly adapt to dynamic business requirements. Upon experiencing bourbon for the first time, he has taken an interest in sensory evaluation and preservation.

Courtney Tucker

An experienced Communications Technician with a demonstrated history of working in the broadcast media industry for 20 years. He has worked on shows such as NBA Countdown, Sports Center, Sports Nation, First Take and many more. He has implemented the communication strategy for the ESPYs and NBA Finals. Courtney is a strong arts and design professional with a B.A. focused in Speech/Theatre Communications from Fayetteville St. University. Courtney is an avid Bourbon enthusiast and enjoys sampling and collecting different spirits. Courtney is also married, with one daughter and two grandchildren. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California

Emmanuel Waters

An experienced contracts consultant in Silicon valley. He has over 10 years of experience in both commercial and government contracts. Emmanuel started his career working as a contract administrator for the Department of Defense. Upon leaving the federal service he opened up his own LLC and currently serves as a contracts subject matter expert for universities such as Stanford and University of California, Berkeley and several tech companies. When Emmanuel isn’t working he enjoys traveling the world with his wife and daughter, they have been to over 30 foreign countries. He currently resides in San Jose, California.