George Clooney enters mezcal market

Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney and his business partner Rande Gerber have added a mezcal to their Casamigos Tequila range priced at £44 a bottle.

Housed in matte grey bottles that are finished in a 190-degree oven, Casamigos Mezcal will go on sale on 1 April in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. The ‘joven’ (young) expression is made from 100% Espadin agave from Santiago Matatlán in Oaxaca.

The agave hearts, known as ‘piñas’, are ‘cooked’ in wood-fired earthen pits for six days and are then left to cool for a day. Fanatical about quality, Clooney and Gerber taste every batch of mezcal produced.

According to Forbes, the “subtle” mezcal offers notes of “mint, oregano, and thyme” alongside “tamarind and mango”, and has an “unusually long finish”.

“We were given mezcals to try a few years ago and there was one we really loved and knew would one day become part of our Casamigos family,” Gerber told Forbes.

Clooney and Gerber hit the headlines last June when they sold their fledgling brand to Diageo for $700 million with the potential to earn a further $300 million from the deal based on the brand’s sales performance over the next decade.

According to Gerber it’s business as usual at Casamigos after the Diageo deal. “Our involvement remains the same. Nothing has changed. We love what we do and it’s all we drink,” he told Forbes.

He and Clooney are planning to expand their mezcal range in the near future with older expressions.

Having started out as a pet project to enjoy with friends and family, over the last five years Casamigos quickly earned the celebrity seal of approval and has become the fastest-growing super premium Tequila brand in the US. The brand produced 170,000 cases of Tequila last year.