Billionaire Beyoncé takes full ownership of SirDavis whisky as LVMH sells out of the brand

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter now owns SirDavis American Whisky outright after Moët Hennessy sold its stake in the brand the two launched together in 2024.

Neither party has disclosed what was paid. LVMH's wine and spirits arm has not commented publicly on the sale, and Beyoncé's camp has said nothing about the price.

A spokesperson for the brand framed it as a beginning rather than an ending, saying SirDavis starts an independent chapter after what it called a nearly four-year collaboration through creation, development and launch. The statement described the business as woman, family and Black-owned, and said the brand would continue to redefine the future of American whisky.

The direction of the transaction matters more than the language around it. Most coverage has presented this as Beyoncé acquiring control. In commercial terms, LVMH sold.

The timing invites the question. Moët Hennessy cut close to 13% of its global workforce last summer as spirits sales fell across the luxury sector, and has spent the period since concentrating on its largest brands. It reported second-quarter results on Monday showing a 5% revenue rise, its second consecutive quarter of growth and the first such run since late 2023. A small American whisky launched two years ago sits well down the list of priorities for a group built on Hennessy cognac, Dom Pérignon and Krug.

Whether Beyoncé bought her partner out or absorbed an exit is unresolved, and neither side is saying.

The brand itself has performed. SirDavis reached 25,000 cases in the United States last year, according to Impact Databank, a respectable figure for a two-year-old premium whisky. It scored 90 points from Whisky Advocate's tasting panel in spring 2025, won awards before it reached shelves, sold out a cocktail kit within hours of release, ran a holiday pop-up in New York and featured throughout the Cowboy Carter tour.

SirDavis takes its name from Davis Hogue, Beyoncé's paternal great-grandfather, a farmer in the American South who made moonshine during Prohibition. The brand was built as a tribute to that history and to her Texas roots.

She was not a name attached to someone else's liquid. The whisky was developed with Dr. Bill Lumsden, director of whisky creation at Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, both Moët Hennessy brands, alongside head blender Cameron George and Beyoncé herself. It is bottled at 44% alcohol from a mash bill of 51% rye and 49% malted barley, finished in sherry casks, distilled in Indiana and then finished, blended and bottled in Texas.

It retails at about $89.99 for a 750ml bottle in the United States, stocked in chains including Total Wine and More. In Britain it sells through Selfridges, The Whisky Shop and Berry Bros and Rudd.

SirDavis was Moët Hennessy's first spirits brand created from the ground up in the United States, which makes the exit more striking than a routine disposal. The group did not buy into an existing label and then tire of it. It built one from scratch, with its own master distiller, and has now walked away from it inside two years.

Beyoncé's business holdings extend well beyond the whisky. She owns Parkwood Entertainment, the company through which she manages her own career and releases, the Ivy Park apparel line, and Cécred, the haircare brand launched in 2024. Taking SirDavis fully in-house fits a pattern of consolidating ownership rather than licensing her name to others.

That is the harder part of what she has taken on. A joint venture with LVMH came with distribution, retail relationships, blending expertise and the credibility of a group that has sold luxury spirits for centuries. An independent brand has none of that by default, and the American whisky market is crowded with celebrity entrants competing for the same shelf space.

Neither SirDavis nor Moët Hennessy has said whether production arrangements will change, or whether Lumsden remains involved now that his employer has sold its position.