Houston’s hometown hero Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has launched a new whiskey that celebrates her Texas heritage. The “Texas Hold’em” songstress has teamed up with Moët Hennessy to launch SirDavis, a whiskey named in honor of Beyoncé’s paternal great-grandfather Davis Hogue, according to a release.
The story goes that Hogue, a farmer and a moonshiner in the South during Prohibition, hid his whiskey bottles in the empty knots of cedar trees for friends and family to find. After learning about this history, Beyoncé, who is reportedly a fan of Japanese whisky, was inspired to create her own version. Four generations later, SirDavis “whisky” (The brand’s name seems to pay homage to the international inspiration by dropping the “e” traditionally used to denote American whiskey) will be sold around the world in Hogue’s memory.
“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 says in a statement. “When I discovered that my great-grandfather had been a moonshine man, it felt like my love for whisky was fated. SirDavis is a way for me to pay homage to him, uniting us through a new shared legacy.”
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25581496/Screen_Shot_2024_08_20_at_12.46.54_PM.png)
Award-winning master distiller Bill Lumsden helped concoct the whiskey, hand-selecting the bespoke mash bill composed of 51 percent rye and 49 percent malted barley. Lumsden then incorporated techniques to impose textures reminiscent of Japanese and Scotch whiskies, with the deep flavor of classic American rye. Matured in sherry casks, the whiskey gets its final touches in the Lone Star State, where it’s finished, blended, and bottled in a sleek, ribbed glass design stamped with a black medallion with a bronzed horse.
The whiskey has already made some waves in the spirits world. Before its launch, the SirDavis team anonymously submitted the whiskey to various spirits competitions, where it won Best in Class for American Whiskey from the 2023 SIP Awards and a gold medal from the New York International Spirits Competition.
Priced at $89 per bottle, SirDavis is now available for pre-order online. It will be sold in various stores across the U.S., London, Paris, and Tokyo, and in select airports in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco starting in September.
While Beyoncé’s foray into the liquor world is a new venture for her, plenty of celebrities have made a name in the spirits industry. Supermodel Kendall Jenner and actors Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and Matthew McConaughey have their own tequilas. Actor Ryan Reynolds owns a gin company, and rapper Drake co-owns a whiskey company.
