Brent Hocking is an American entrepreneur. He is the founder of

DeLeón Tequila DeLeón Tequila is a brand of the alcoholic beverage tequila. It is certified as 100% blue Weber agave tequila. DeLeón is produced in the town of Purísima del Rincón in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. The city name literally translates to ...

, which he launched in 2009, and

Virginia Black Whiskey Virginia Black is a brand of American Bourbon whiskey. History Virginia Black is a collaboration between Brent Hocking and Drake. It is distributed in the United States by Proximo Spirits and is available in Canada, the U.K., Ghana, Kenya, ...

, which he co-founded with

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

in 2016. Hocking grew up in

Compton, California Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated south of downtown Los Angeles. Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and, on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city in Los Angeles County to incorporat ...

and has lived in Southern California for most of his life. Hocking left his job in mortgage lending in 2006 to start his own brand of tequila, which later became known as DeLeón Tequila. Hocking bought a distillery in

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal En ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and launched the brand in 2009. Hocking sold the brand to

Diageo Diageo plc () is a Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It was the world's largest distiller before being overtaken by Kweich ...

and Sean Combs in 2014 for an undisclosed amount. Hocking is the co-founder of Virginia Black Whiskey, a venture he launched with Drake in 2016.

References

Businesspeople from California Food and drink company founders Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Compton, California {{US-business-bio-stub