Patrón Tequila’s vice president of Global Marketing, Adrian Parker, says sales at the liquor store have increased by 25% in the past two weeks amid the coronavirus.
Kendall Jenner is following the many other Hollywood celebrities who compete to profit from spirits.
The model and reality star launched her own brand 818 Tequila, joining a series of stars like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in an attempt to build the next billion dollar alcoholic empire after the label George Clooney’s Casamigos sold for up to $ 1 billion in 2017.
Kendall Jenner announced the launch of 818 Tequila, the brand of spirits she has been working on quietly for nearly four years, she said. (Edward Berthelot / Getty Images; iStock)
The 25-year-old “Accompanying the Kardashians” star said 818 Tequila, in honor of the Calabasas area code, has been around for years and has won global competitions, including the World Tequila Awards.
“For almost 4 years, I’ve been on a journey to create the tastiest tequila,” wrote Jenner in an Instagram post. “[A]after dozens of blind tastings, trips to our distillery, entering world tasting contests anonymously and WINNING… 3.5 years later, I think we did it! “
She further stated that 818 Tequila is “everything we drank last year” before revealing that her brand “will come soon”.
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Jenner quietly entered his tequila in the Ultimate Spirits Challenge competition, one of the most acclaimed in the world, and posted a marker calling it “the tastiest tequila of 2020”, receiving an almost perfect score of 96 points in the “best Anejo tequila category” , according to his Instagram post.
A judge described his tasting notes as having earthy aromas of pine and yellow fruits mixed with vanilla with sweet aromas of brown sugar, spicy cinnamon and finished with notes of roasted agave.
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More stars turned to building potable beverage labels after George Clooney and business partner Rande Gerber made headlines for selling their Tequila brand Casamigos to international alcohol company Diageo, the alcohol giant that owns Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff in 2017. The pair won $ 700 million upfront and $ 300 million for future sales performance, putting the value of the business at a potential $ 1 billion. Most recently, Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation Gin was acquired by Diageo last year for about $ 610 million.
Others competing in the spirits space include: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who launched Tequila Teremana in 2020 and sold 300,000 boxes in the first year, according to The Spirits Business; Justin Timberlake, who launched his Sauza 901 Tequila line in 2009; and Guy Fieri, who joined rocker Sammy Hagar in 2019 for the Santo Fino Blanco tequila offering with the Los Santo de Hagar tequila portfolio. (Hagar sold a majority stake in its first tequila brand, Cabo Wabo, to the Campari group for $ 80 million in 2012.)
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Michael Bartiromo contributed to this report.