Beyoncé’s whiskey launch, SirDavis, is right on trend
SirDavis, Beyoncé’s new whiskey collaboration with Moët Hennessy, joins a long and growing list of spirits by Black celebrities.
Soon fans of Beyoncé worldwide will be able to imbibe a spirit inspired by the megastar’s Texas roots.
On Tuesday, the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer announced her very own whiskey — adopting the Japanese and Scottish spelling “whisky” — SirDavis. With this new spirit, the music icon enters a new market, with her Texas heritage on full display via a golden horse on its label.
“I’ve always been drawn to the power and confidence I feel when drinking quality whisky and wanted to invite more people to experience that feeling,” Beyoncé stated in a release.
According to the release, the new label, created in collaboration with Moët Hennessy, also pays homage to the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer’s paternal great-grandfather, Davis Hogue. During Prohibition, he was a farmer and a moonshiner in the South, and would hide whiskey bottles in cedar trees for his friends and family to find and enjoy.
“When I discovered that my great-grandfather had been a moonshine man, it felt like my love for whisky was fated,” explained the “American Requiem” songstress in the release.
“SirDavis is a way for me to pay homage to him, uniting us through a new shared legacy,” she continued. “In partnering with Moët Hennessy, we have crafted a delicious American whisky that respects tradition but also empowers people to experience something new and unique in the category. You can taste it better than I could ever tell you.”
SirDavis, retailing for $89 a bottle, is available now for pre-order and slated to hit shelves in September. According to early reports, it’s worth the high price tag, offering a satisfying experience for whiskey connoisseurs.
Aside from its poignant backstory, there are obvious answers to why whiskey, why now, and even why Moët Hennessy. Beyoncé is synonymous with Black luxury — as is Hennessy. Additionally, her husband, Jay-Z, founded the most successful celebrity liquor brand to date. Nevertheless, Beyoncé is only the latest Black celebrity to launch a liquor brand, as developing liquor and alcohol brands has become a popular trend among Hollywood’s brightest stars.
In October 2023, Issa Rae introduced her own prosecco, Viarae. A month later, Meagan Good announced she was releasing a signature line with a Black-owned South Carolina-based vodka company, St. Royale. In May 2022, Kevin Hart launched Gran Coramino tequila. The year before, Ciara became an investor in Ten To One Rum.
Prior, Mary J. Blige released her own wine, Sun Goddess; NBA legend Michael Jordan has been holding it down with Cincoro Tequila; Snoop Dogg has both a wine collaboration with 19 Crimes and his own canned gin and juice brand with Dr. Dre; and ten years ago, Dwyane Wade launched Wade Cellars in Napa Valley.
The list goes on, spanning Olympic gold medalist athletes like Steph Curry, who launched his own whiskey, Gentleman’s Cut Kentucky Straight Bourbon, as did A$AP Rocky, with Mercer + Prince. Even diplomats such as the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, who reportedly has her own forthcoming rosé.
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While we can easily deduce why Beyoncé is bringing SirDavis into the world, the growing trend belies a bottom line. It’s no secret how lucrative alcohol and liquor brands are; they are considered both a recession and inflation-proof industry. For celebrities, Black or otherwise, brands of any kind are an opportunity to cash in on a lifestyle they indirectly and directly promote. For Beyoncé fans, one might imagine them sipping her whiskey while listening to “Drunk in Love,” “Feeling Myself,” or “Party.”
Black celebrities have also become strategic in expanding their brands into full-on lifestyle brands — because they can. With celebrity platforms reaching millions every day in a variety of ways, their star power can yield major returns. Today, stars have way fewer clauses in contracts barring them from collaborating with competitors or fronting certain types of products like alcohol. Why just get a deal to promote something when you can also own the product?
Still, despite so many of our faves getting in on the wine and spirits game lately, the trend is not without reason to pause. Liquor, as Beyoncé reminds us with the legacy behind SirDavis, has had a wild history in this country and within the Black community specifically. Presently, though Black Americans drink less than white Americans, a recent study revealed the rate of “deaths of despair” — deaths involving suicide, alcohol-related complications, and drug overdoses — for Black Americans nearly tripled by 2022 and now tops the rates compared to white Americans. American Indian or Alaska Native people unfortunately continue to have the highest rates for deaths of despair, nearly six times what it is for white Americans.
So, while alcohol is a lucrative “recession-proof” industry, the reality that it has not become that without causing real harm to communities of color is hard to ignore. Just like drinking, producing and promoting liquor should be done responsibly.
According to international beverage giant Coca-Cola’s official global policy for marketing alcohol, depicting responsible consumption is among the new standards of the day. The brand also says it has strict guidelines for marketing only to those above the legal purchase age, will not imply that alcohol provides any health benefits, and will not promote that drinking could lead to social or sexual success.
In recent history, this has meant focusing more on the product and far less on its potential to intoxicate. Beyoncé and Moët Hennessy, for instance, chose to highlight her family’s history and the whiskey’s notes. Her first campaign imagery simply features her and the glass bottle of dark brown liquid, with no lavish party atmosphere.
So, maybe Beyoncé fans can best enjoy SirDavis to the sounds of “Don’t Hurt Yourself.”
