Beyoncé Gains Full Ownership Of Whiskey Brand, SirDavis
Superstar Beyoncé has taken full ownership of SirDavis, the American whiskey she launched alongside Moët Hennessy in 2024. This marks her transition from creative partner to sole owner of the LVMH-backed brand. According to The Spirits Business, the financial terms of the takeover have not been disclosed, and Moët Hennessy has yet to issue a formal statement on the arrangement, but the move cements what was already the singer’s most personal business venture into one she now controls outright.
As previously reported, SirDavis was more than Beyoncé entering the spirits industry. The brand takes its name from Davis Hogue, Beyoncé’s paternal great-grandfather, who worked as a farmer and moonshiner in the American South during Prohibition, stashing whiskey bottles inside empty knots of cedar trees for friends to find. That family history, combined with her own longtime appreciation for Japanese whisky, is what pushed her to build a spirit of her own rather than simply lend her name to someone else’s.
“When I discovered that my great-grandfather had been a moonshine man, it felt like my love for whisky was fated,” Beyoncé said at the brand’s launch. “SirDavis is a way for me to pay homage to him, uniting us through a new shared legacy. In partnering with Moët Hennessy, we have crafted a delicious American whiskey that respects tradition but also empowers people to experience something new and unique in the category.”
That partnership was built on an unusually hands-on creative process for a celebrity spirits launch. Beyoncé worked directly with Dr. Bill Lumsden, director of whisky creation at Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, and Cameron George, the brand’s head blender, spending entire afternoons tasting whisky together to shape the final liquid. Lumsden has been emphatic that the credit belongs to her. “This is not my whiskey; this is her whiskey,” he said. “Cameron and I had the privilege and pleasure of meeting with her many times to bring this to life.” George added that Beyoncé drove the core decisions on what the whiskey would be, down to the grain: “It had to be an American whiskey. Well, what’s the most historic American grain, the first grain that we started distilling here in the US? Rye. So it had to be a rye whiskey and then folding in malted barley.”
The whiskey is aged first in American oak before finishing in Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks, and it’s non-chill-filtered with no added caramel coloring, yielding notes of Seville orange, raisin, clove, cinnamon and toffee on the nose, with rye spice, malt and citrus on the palate finishing into honey and ripe cherry. It’s produced by third-party distiller MGP Ingredients, then finished, blended and bottled in Texas, Beyoncé’s home state, a detail carried through into the bottle itself. Designed by Stranger & Stranger, the ribbed glass bottle features a black medallion with a bronzed horse, a symbol of strength and her Texas roots.
Priced at $89 in the US and £79 in the UK, SirDavis launched via pre-order before expanding into retailers across California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington DC, along with select stores in London, Paris and Tokyo, and duty-free locations at major international airports. Moët Hennessy has also been building out a SirDavis brand home in Houston, complete with a visitor center. “We are currently establishing a brand home in Houston, which of course is her hometown,” Lumsden said.
SirDavis was Moët Hennessy’s first spirit built from scratch in the US. Beyoncé’s move to take full ownership signals something further: rather than remaining the face of someone else’s American whiskey project, she now holds the brand her great-grandfather’s legacy was built on.
