By Jheri Hardaway
Staff Writer
Celebrity culture has taken our world by storm and distracted local communities from the amazing people and things happening inside of our respective communities. The leaders, innovators, and tastemakers among us deserve way more celebration than untouchable folks who frame careers around selling concert and movie tickets and merchandise to people they do not respect or value past the purchase. Let’s take a moment to celebrate a group of men in our community working to provide the vibes and highlight history in North Carolina and far beyond.
For those out of the loop, Old Hillside Bourbon Company was founded in friendship more than six years ago. Bottled in Kentucky, the name "Old Hillside" pays homage to Durham, North Carolina's historic Hillside High School. As one of five historically Black high schools remaining active since desegregation, the institution carries a rich legacy. Building on that legacy, Brian Burton, Jesse Carpenter, Emmanuel Waters, and Courtney Tucker came together through their love of Bourbon and brotherhood to create an amazing product and an outlet to celebrate Black history and excellence. During the pandemic, Jesse leveraged Brian’s IT skills and natural curiosity, Courtney’s marketing strategy and communications, and Emmanuel’s ability to assist with contract negotiations and business development to birth Old Hillside Bourbon Company.
After years of success and growth nationwide, the team found themselves in Harlem at an event celebrating the Harlem Hellfighters. The Old Hillside special edition bottles brought for the function sold out, but the networking was plentiful, and they found themselves in conversation with the insightful and well-connected Doug Melville. Melville had recently published Invisible Generals, a powerful story that recounts his family’s extraordinary lived experience. It is the story of a father and son who always maintained their belief in the American dream no matter the obstacles. This is not your average family story. Understand, out of more than thirty million Americans who have donned a military uniform since the founding of the republic, only two families have ever produced both a father and a son who achieved the rank of general or admiral. One was the McCain dynasty of the United States Navy. The other was the Davis family, the first two Black generals in the United States Military.
Benjamin O. Davis Sr. rose to become the first Black Brigadier General in the United States Army. His son, Benjamin O. Davis Jr., commanded the world-renowned Tuskegee Airmen, weathered four years of isolation and total silence from his white peers at West Point, and eventually retired as a four-star Air Force General under President Bill Clinton. Beyond the battlefield, Davis Jr. helped architect foundational elements of modern American life, from standardizing the national 55 mph speed limit to shaping aviation safety policies, locked cockpit protocols, and what would become the Transportation Security Administration.
Despite their monumental impact across six presidential administrations, the full, unvarnished story remained largely hidden, even within their own home. Doug Melville’s father was raised as a Davis. "My dad didn't really want me to write the book. He didn't support it," the Invisible Generals author recalled. "He didn't even read it until it came out. He didn't even want to see it, because it’s trauma. Old people don’t want you to kill your career. The whole thing for him was: silence is safety. Once you start talking about it, people make you a target."
That instinct ran deep. The family's proximity to power had long been an everyday reality rather than an anomaly. Decades spent attending Thanksgiving dinners at the White House, lighting national Christmas trees, and working alongside icons, Doug’s father once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall before becoming a judge. For this American family, their outstanding contributions were routine matters of survival and discretion, not things to boast about.
The gentlemen from Old Hillside Bourbon Company have consistently demonstrated great reverence for the United States Military, counting a U.S. Air Force Veteran and a government contractor as founding members of their team. The 2023, Old Hillside Bourbon Company's Purple Heart Rye is a limited-edition 104-proof straight rye whiskey dedicated to honoring Corporal Nathan Jakubisin, a Marine Corps veteran, and Sergeant Derek Drew, an Army veteran. Exhibiting a medium amber color with a bold aroma of rye spice and floral notes, the spirit offered a complex palate of caramel, vanilla, mint, and floral characteristics layered with a lingering spice, finishing with hints of nutmeg and cinnamon. Highly acclaimed, it earned a Gold medal at the 2024 San Francisco Spirits Competition and a Double Gold at the 2023 San Francisco Spirits Competition. A portion of the proceeds from each bottle sold is donated to Military Missions In Action, a non-profit supporting veterans in need.
This alignment, alongside the Harlem Hellfighters special edition bottle, inspired Old Hillside Bourbon to collaborate with Doug Melville on the Invisible Generals special set.
The Ben Davis Sr. Cognac Cask finish opens with rich caramel and toasted vanilla, complemented by dried apricot, golden raisins, dark cherry, and honey, alongside subtle aromas of leather, sweet tobacco, toasted oak, and warm baking spice. Full and velvety on the palate, it delivers layers of caramel, vanilla bean, dark fruit, brown sugar, toffee, roasted nuts, cinnamon, and cocoa, with the Cognac cask contributing a refined grape and dried-fruit character.
The finish is long, warm, and elegant, carrying lingering notes of dark fruit, vanilla, toasted oak, tobacco, and baking spice before concluding with a gentle, dry oak note.
The Ben Davis Jr. Madeira Cask finish leads with a nose of rich dark cherry, raisin, caramel, brown sugar, baked apple, orange peel, toasted almond, vanilla, and warm oak, offering a subtle wine-driven sweetness. Velvety and fruit-forward, the palate features caramel, vanilla, baked apple, fig, and dark cherry, accompanied by mid-palate notes of toffee, honey-roasted nuts, cinnamon, cocoa, and toasted oak that blend seamlessly with the Madeira’s sophisticated dried-fruit complexity. It concludes with a long, warm, and layered finish marked by lingering notes of fig, raisin, cocoa, toasted almond, and seasoned oak, ending in a refined balance of sweet fruit and dry oak. Both are 112-proof.
Available for purchase online October 25th, the first 100 sets will receive a signed copy of Invisible Generals for $250 in honor of America’s 250th celebration. The 10.25.65 Blend represents ten for October, the 25th Day of October, 65, the years representing the continuing legacy between Davis Sr.’s historic promotion in 1940 and Davis Jr.’s elevation to four-star recognition on the retired list in 1998. One father, one son, two generals.
Co-founder Emmanuel Waters emphasised, “We don’t let the bourbon create the story; we let the story create the bourbon.”
Old Hillside Bourbon is now carried across all 100 counties in North Carolina, Whole Foods, Total Wine & More, and is currently available for purchase on ReserverBar.com as well as their website OldHillsideBourbonCompany.com.
