From Hollywood tequila empires to K-pop soju startups, here’s who actually makes a bottle worth buying, and who’s just renting their face to a licensing deal.
Long before George Clooney turned a tequila hobby into a billion-dollar exit, the drinks industry treated celebrity involvement as a marketing line item, not an ownership stake. The generally agreed starting point for celebrity-branded spirits as we know them today is Sean Connery’s 1991 deal with Suntory, in which the actor was paid a reported US$1 million to front a campaign for the conglomerate’s whisky in Japan in a pairing of Hollywood gravitas and Japanese craft that later inspired the plot of Lost in Translation. It was, notably, an Asian brand that got there first.
For most of the next two decades, that was the model: a famous face, a licensing fee, zero equity, zero involvement in what was actually in the bottle. The shift began in 2007, when Sean “Diddy” Combs negotiated a 50/50 profit-sharing partnership with Diageo on Cîroc vodka rather than a flat endorsement cheque. Reportedly the first of its kind, this risky deal was the one that taught the industry a famous name could move real volume when the celebrity had skin in the game (so long as the celebrity stayed famous and out of jail).
The real gold rush, though, started in 2013, when Clooney, his business partner Rande Gerber, and property developer Mike Meldman founded Casamigos as a small-batch tequila for their own friends in Cabo. When Diageo bought the brand in 2017 for a deal worth up to US$1 billion, every publicist, agent, and A-lister with a favourite spirit took notice. The category hasn’t slowed down since — Ryan Reynolds sold Aviation Gin to Diageo in 2020 for US$610 million, Conor McGregor sold a majority stake in Proper No. Twelve for US$600 million, and the list of famous names with their own label now stretches from Idris Elba to K-pop’s biggest stars.
That’s right, this isn’t just a Hollywood-and-country-music phenomenon any more but one that’s been exported to Asia as a finished product. Korean stars in particular, thanks to their global appeal, are now building their own brands from Seoul outward, and the same is happening from Bangkok to Beijing. Below are ten of the labels actually worth knowing, tasting, and in a few cases, adding to your own bar cart.
The 10 Best Celebrity-Owned Spirit Brands
Just because the brand finances a celebrity’s yacht trips to Saint Tropez doesn’t mean what’s in the bottle is worth your time and money. However, passionate creatives who just happen to have global clout are increasingly getting in on the production as well as the marketing.
1. Brad Pitt’s The Gardener Gin
The Gardener is Brad Pitt’s first spirit (above), launched with master distiller Tom Nichol and the Perrin family, the Rhône Valley winemakers behind Château Miraval, the estate Pitt once co-owned with Angelina Jolie and still sources botanicals from. It’s a French Riviera-style gin built around Provençal thyme, rosemary, and olive leaf rather than the juniper-forward London Dry template, which makes it a genuinely different pour rather than another celebrity gin chasing the same G&T crowd.
2. Ryan Reynold’s Aviation American Gin
While Aviation Gin‘s creation predates Reynolds’ involvement — it was created in 2006 by Oregon distillers Christian Krogstad and Ryan Magarian — his 2018 investment and now-legendary self-deprecating ad campaigns turned a well-regarded craft gin into a genuine category leader, culminating in Diageo’s 2020 acquisition.
Unlike many celebrity spirits, Reynolds was very involved in production decisions, not just the marketing, and the gin itself does his efforts justice. It’s a softer, more floral, cardamom-and-lavender-forward style than a classic London Dry, making it excellent in a Martini and forgiving for gin sceptics. It belongs on the shelf of anyone building a proper collection — a bottle we’d happily slot into our own home bar essentials guide alongside the classics.
3. Margot Robbie’s Papa Salt Coastal Gin
Papa Salt is Margot Robbie’s gin, founded with her husband and producing partner Tom Ackerley, alongside Josey McNamara, Regan Ashley Fielding, and CEO Charlie Maas, a group of friends who reportedly built the brand around the coastal Australia in which they grew up. The gin leans into that origin story with native Australian botanicals — wax flower, hibiscus, wattleseed, pink peppercorn, and oyster shell alongside the usual citrus peel — giving it a genuine sense of place, paired with a citrus-and-spice palate that finishes on real minerality.
5. Bryan Cranston & Aaron Paul’s Dos Hombres
Breaking Bad‘s Walter White and Jesse Pinkman turned their on-screen chemistry into an actual distillery partnership, launching Dos Hombres mezcal in 2019 out of Oaxaca. Unlike many celebrity spirits assembled by an existing producer and rebranded, Cranston and Paul actually spend time in Mexico with their maestro mezcalero, and the brand has built credibility among mezcal purists rather than just casual buyers riding the show’s fame. The espadÃn expression is smoky but approachable, a good entry point for drinkers used to tequila who haven’t crossed over yet.
6. Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head Vodka
Launched in 2008, Crystal Head Vodka is arguably the original modern celebrity spirit as pure design object. The skull-shaped bottle co-created by Dan Aykroyd and artist John Alexander is filled with pristine vodka filtered seven times, including through Herkimer diamond crystals. It’s easy to dismiss as a novelty gift-shop bottle, and the packaging certainly does the heavy lifting, but the vodka itself — made from Canadian peaches-and-cream corn — is clean and genuinely mixable, which is more than can be said for most celebrity vodkas that followed it.
7. George Clooney’s Casamigos
No brand did more to legitimise celebrity spirits than Casamigos, founded in 2013 by Clooney, nightlife entrepreneur Rande Gerber, and property developer Mike Meldman, reportedly because the trio wanted a smoother tequila for their own long nights in Cabo San Lucas. Diageo’s 2017 acquisition remains the deal every celebrity spirit launch since has chased and rarely matched. The tequila itself earns the hype, delivering gentle, slightly sweet agave notes with none of the harsh bite cheaper blancos carry, which is exactly why it became a bar-cart staple rather than a novelty gift.
8. Ricky Gervais’s Dutch Barn Vodka
Ricky Gervais became co-owner of Yorkshire’s Ellers Farm Distillery in 2023, and Dutch Barn Vodka is the result, a distinctly British apple vodka distilled from the farm’s own orchard rather than the neutral grain spirit most vodkas start from. It’s an unusually low-key celebrity play, with only a touch of Gervais’s trademark comedy in the branding, and more emphasis on the farm-to-bottle production story and a genuinely soft, faintly fruity character that separates it from the vodka pack. The brand has also expanded with new releases like Black Cherry and Spiced Ginger as well as canned cocktails.
9. Jay Park’s Won Soju
The Korean-American rapper and entrepreneur launched Won Soju in 2022, and it sold over a million bottles within six months — a pace no Western celebrity spirit has matched in its first year. Rather than the diluted, sugar-heavy soju most bars pour, Won is distilled and positioned as a premium, sipping-grade spirit, part of a wider push by Korean producers to have soju (now also available as a canned highball) taken as seriously abroad as sake or shochu. Jay Park built the brand from genuine cultural authority and has been vocal about wanting to change how the West sees the category.
10. Sung Si-kyung’s Kyung Takju 12°
Veteran K-ballad singer Sung Si-kyung took a different route entirely, using his well-documented love of Korean traditional drinks to launch Kyung Takju 12°, a makgeolli under his own brand, Kyung. Where most celebrity spirits chase Western categories — gin, tequila, vodka — Sung went the other way, elevating rice wine, a category long dismissed domestically as a cheap, low-alcohol drink for older generations.
At 12% ABV it’s notably stronger than typical 6–8% makgeolli, aimed at drinkers who want the traditional flavour with more backbone, and it sold out repeatedly through 2024 and 2025 despite a brief production suspension over demand it couldn’t keep up with.
11. Shah Rukh Khan’s D’YAVOL
D’YAVOL is Bollywood’s biggest star, going into business with his own son. Shah Rukh Khan and Aryan Khan co-founded the luxury spirits house, which is backed by Radico Khaitan and Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath, and its single-estate vodka has picked up gold medals from Spain to Singapore, with the line expanding into blended malt Scotch and tequila. Spirit collectors keep circling back to the packaging — sleek, black-and-gold, unmistakably premium — as much as the liquid itself.
12. Sam Heughan’s The Sassenach
Named for the nickname his Outlander character earns onscreen, The Sassenach is Sam Heughan’s blended Scotch, made in partnership with Scotland’s Galloway distillery. It survived a messy 2021 trademark dispute over the name and came out the other side with genuine whisky-world credibility and is considered smoother and more approachable than most celebrity Scotch, with honey and orchard-fruit notes that reward sipping neat. Heughan is a hands-on brand ambassador rather than a silent investor, regularly touring tastings himself.
13. Jason Momoa’s Meili Vodka
Meili Vodka pairs Aquaman star Jason Momoa with designer Blaine Halvorson (of Mnml Supply) on a sustainability-first spirit distilled from glacial water and packaged in a lightweight, low-carbon bottle. Momoa has been unusually vocal in interviews about wanting an actual environmental case, not greenwashing, but the result also stands on its own two feet, with bright caramel, toasted grain, and a distinct high-rye spice profile, making it better suited to mixed drinks than sipping solo.
14. Kiefer Sutherland’s Red Bank Whisky
Kiefer Sutherland’s Red Bank started in Canada, where it became one of the country’s best-selling whiskies. Sutherland, also a working country musician, leans into a road-worn, blue-collar image rather than Hollywood polish, and the whisky follows suit as it’s unfussy, warm, and crafted for a neat pour or a simple Old Fashioned rather than showing off.
15. Dwayne Johnson’s Teremana Tequila
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Teremana is one of the best-selling celebrity spirits globally,s made in small batches in Jalisco and recently expanding with limited “Craft Editions” bottle designs. The blanco is especially popular for its smooth texture and easy-drinking, which explains why it’s outlasted most of its celebrity-tequila rivals. Johnson has stayed heavily involved in the marketing, and the brand’s continued global expansion suggests real staying power.
16. Jenson Button’s Coachbuilt Whisky
Formula 1 champion Jenson Button teamed with whisky expert George Koutsakis to launch Coachbuilt, a blended Scotch that trades on motorsport’s coachbuilding heritage rather than Button’s fame alone. The brand has leaned hard into that world, releasing a 30-year expression with Rolls-Royce and 18- and 50-year-old blends with Williams Racing and in the process has created a genuinely rare, collectable whisky praised for its blending quality.
17. Lewis Hamilton’s Almave
Lewis Hamilton’s Almave is a non-alcoholic blue agave spirit made in Mexico with master distiller Iván Saldaña, built from real agave and traditional copper-still distillation rather than the flavoured-water approach most zero-proof spirits take. It now comes in three expressions — Ambar, Blanco, and Humo — the last a smoky mezcal-style alternative. This is one of the few non-alcoholic spirits that actually tastes like the category it’s replacing, with the spirit making its Southeast Asia debut this year.
The Bottom Line
What separates the brands worth your money from the ones riding a famous face alone comes down to the same handful of questions: is the celebrity actually involved, does the liquid hold up blind, and is there a real story behind the bottle beyond the marketing budget? If you’re assembling a home bar that can hold its own against any of this, our guide to the eight essential home bar bottles is the right place to start before you start chasing celebrity labels.
Which of these ten would actually earn a spot on your shelf — and which Asian celebrity do you think should launch a spirit next? Let us know in the comments, and share this with the friend who still thinks tequila only comes in a plastic bottle.
