After Celebrity-Adorned Liquor Ventures, This Entrepreneur Goes Solo

Forbes

29-04-2025

Tequila Purisima, which sells for $400 for a single decanter or $1,200 for a set of three, launches ... More this month and will be available for direct shipping to 48 states and international markets.
Entrepreneur Brent Hocking's first tequila venture, DeLeón, debuted in 2009 and was sold to liquor giant Diageo and Sean 'Diddy' Combs in 2013. Three years later, his next boozy business was built with another rapper, Drake, a whiskey called Virginia Black.
Hocking's third liquor debut, he promises, will be completely celebrity free. 'Everything is about accessibility and celebrity, and nothing is about quality anymore,' Hocking tells me during a virtual interview, as he bemoans the dozens of celebrities that have poured into the liquor market. 'The saturation of the marketplace went to hell.'
This month, Hocking is re-entering the tequila category with the launch of Tequila Purisima, which sells at astonishingly high price points for a tequila: $400 for a single decanter or $1,200 for a set of three. Tequila Purisima will be available for direct shipping to 48 states and international markets, but only via a mailing list.
'It's going to be an extremely tightly-held project,' says Hocking, of his decision not to work with any mass retailers for the launch.
While celebrities have financially backed liquor brands for the past few decades—rocker Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo tequila and actor Dan Aykroyd's Crystal head vodka are among the early trend setters—it was the 2007 combination of Diddy's financial and marketing partnership with Diageo to bolster the flailing Ciroc vodka that proved the formula could work. 'The success of what a celebrity can do with alcohol should really be credited to Diddy with Ciroc,' says Hocking.
That case also highlights the pitfalls. Diddy and Dieago joined focus again to buy DeLeón, an early entrant into the super-premium priced tequila market. But the relationship soured after Diddy sued Diageo over allegations the company had poorly marketed Ciroc and DeLeón by treating them as inferior 'urban' products. That case settled in early 2024.
TORONTO, ONTARIO - APRIL 12: Founder and CEO of Virginia Black Decadent American Whiskey Brent ... More Hocking and songwriter, rapper and actor Drake attend the Canadian Pre-Launch of Virginia Black Decadent American Whiskey held at LCBO at Yonge & Summerhill on April 12, 2016 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo byfor Virginia Black Decadent American Whiskey)
Later that year, the music titan faced federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges and has faced allegations in civil court of drugging people. He has denied the allegations. Diageo has since fully extracted itself from the Diddy partnerships: taking full financial control of DeLeón for $200 million and offloading Ciroc in a deal that traded ownership for a stake in NBA star LeBron James' Lobos 1707 Tequila.
When investors and brands work with celebrities to launch new liquor brands, they tend to point to two other blockbuster deals as proof points: actor Ryan Reynolds' $610 million deal to sell Aviation Gin and George Clooney's $1 billion deal for Casamigos tequila, both also sold to Diageo, whose mainstay portfolio includes Captain Morgan rum and Don Julio tequila.
The Casamigos deal, in particular, has led to dozens of celebrities jumping into the tequila category, which has been a strong seller in recent years. Model Kendall Jenner's 818 and actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Teremana are among them.
'I don't care if it's the best tequila in the world, I do not want to drink it if it is a celebrity tequila,' says Hocking, describing the shifting mindset he hears in the marketplace from consumers. 'There is that backlash.'
When Hocking created DeLeón, his price points were nearly unheard of for tequila, selling for $150 for blanco and up to $1,000 for some of the aged expressions. The price points for Tequila Purisima are even loftier, mostly to be sold to the wealthy and private collectors.
From 2014 through 2024, volume for the highest priced 'super premium' tequilas—which include Casamigos, Don Julio, Patrón, and Herradura—more than tripled, according to data by industry trade advocate the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. Total growth for the overall tequila category was a bit more modest over that same period, but still doubled.
From 2014 through 2024, volume for the highest priced 'super premium' tequilas more than tripled. ... More Entrepreneur Brent Hocking says the growth for higher-priced tequilas justifies his view that another brand like Tequila Purisima, seen here, can entice consumers.
Hocking says the growth for higher-priced tequilas justifies his view that another brand like Tequila Purisima can entice consumers. He says he fully controls the production process at a distillery in the Mexican town of Purisima and lauds the high sugar count agave he procures, water that's sourced from 400-meter-deep spring wells and a cooking process for the agave that lasts more than three days in steam ovens to turn the starch into fermentable sugars.
Tequila Purisima's packaging includes a bottle with ripples meant to evoke the flow of water and a faux python box that's a reference to the snake on the Mexican flag.
As for why he's returning to the tequila business after a 12 year absence, Hocking has a pretty simple response. 'I needed something to drink.'