A famous face can sell the first bottle of anything. The second bottle is a different sale entirely.

For most of the last decade, that distinction barely mattered in tequila. Americans could not get enough agave, and a celebrity name on the label looked like a shortcut to the top shelf.

George Clooney and Rande Gerber proved the model when Diageo (DEO) agreed in 2017 to pay up to $1 billion for Casamigos, the tequila they co-founded with Mike Meldman. Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and dozens of other stars followed with bottles of their own.

Then the boom stalled. U.S. sales of tequila and mezcal slipped 4.1% to $6.4 billion in 2025 after years as the industry’s fastest-growing segment, according to the Distilled Spirits Council data.

The pullback has hit the brand that started the celebrity rush hardest. Yet one of the younger names in the pack is posting its best numbers ever.

Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila is on pace for its biggest sales year since its 2021 launch, 818 Spirits President Lanay Jacobs said in an interview with Food Dive published Oct. 15. My read of the numbers is that the gap has less to do with Jenner’s fame than with where the bottles sit and how big they are.

Sazerac gave 818 Tequila the shelf space it lacked

Sazerac, the private company behind Fireball and Buffalo Trace, announced a minority investment in 818 on April 28 and took over the brand’s exclusive U.S. sales and distribution. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Tequila continues to be a bright spot in spirits, driven by strong consumer interest across a growing range of occasions and price points,” Sazerac Chief Marketing Officer Sara Saunders said in the announcement. “818 Tequila stands apart due to its cultural relevance and commercial momentum.”

Jenner called the deal “the perfect next step as we continue to accelerate,” in the same release.

Jacobs says the partnership is already paying off. 818’s volume sales grew 73% in the four weeks ending Sept. 5, while the over-$25 tequila category declined 0.4%, according to NielsenIQ data cited by the company in Food Dive’s report.

That made 818 the fastest-growing tequila brand priced above $25, Jacobs said. She credits more in-store displays from Sazerac’s sales force, plus brand events at Coachella and college tailgates.

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“As a leadership group, we were ready for the next step, and that was to start scaling the brand in a big way,” Jacobs told Food Dive. “Sazerac was the perfect partner to do that.”

One caution on that 73% figure: It covers four weeks, comes from the company, and starts from a far smaller base. Impact Databank puts 818 above 100,000 cases a year, according to Shanken News Daily, while Casamigos moved about 1.9 million cases in 2025, according to The Spirits Business data.

Casamigos shows how fast a celebrity brand can fade

Casamigos sits at the other end of the chart. Its U.S. net sales fell 27.7% in Diageo’s fiscal year ended June 30, with depletions down 23.1%, according to the company’s annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Don Julio, Diageo’s other big tequila, slid 19.2%. The company blamed “a softer category, increased competitive intensity, and tough comparatives,” adding that “both brands lost share.”

The squeeze reaches well past one company:

• U.S. tequila and mezcal revenue fell 4.1% in 2025, according to the Distilled Spirits Council, as reported by CNBC.
• Diageo’s U.S. tequila net sales dropped 21.1% in fiscal 2026, according to its SEC filing.
• 87% of tequila buyers will not pay more than $55 for a blanco, and bottles above $100 fell 18% in late 2025, according to The Tequila Report.
• Tequila prices across the category are down between 1% and 2% as drinkers trade down, according to Brown-Forman CEO Lawson Whiting on the company’s earnings call.

Brown-Forman (BF.B) owns Herradura and El Jimador, so Whiting sees the price fight up close. “If you look at the different price points within tequila, over $30 is tough,” he said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call, as TheStreet’s Daniel Kline reported on Sept. 25.

That puts 818, which retails for $30 to $50, according to Shanken News Daily, right in the tough zone. So why is it growing?

Why small bottles matter when Gen Z drinks less

I think the answer is bottle size. 818 sells 750-milliliter, 375-milliliter and 50-milliliter bottles, and Jacobs told Food Dive that people often do not want to pay a premium when they are trying something new.

That is the same playbook behind Jack Daniel’s. A fan with a $20 bill “would rather buy a smaller size bottle than have to go to a cheaper brand,” Whiting said on the same call.

Small formats solve a specific problem for 818. Fewer young adults drink at all, with only 50% of Americans ages 18 to 34 saying they drink, down from 58% in 2023, according to Gallup.

The ones who still drink lean toward spirits. Liquor is now the preferred drink for 38% of young adults, edging out beer at 36%, Gallup found in its July survey.

That makes the first sip worth fighting for. Jacobs said 66% of 818’s customers last quarter came from outside tequila, often from vodka or whiskey.

Once tequila drinkers settle on a brand, they tend to keep it. 90% of engaged tequila drinkers stick with a single go-to bottle, according to The Tequila Report’s 2026 research.

A 50-milliliter bottle is a low-cost way to win that loyalty before a rival does.

“Consumers are being more discerning about their choices and when they drink, and they’re choosing brands that resonate with them,” Jacobs told Food Dive.

The Fireball maker is buying its way to younger drinkers

818 is one piece of a larger Sazerac plan. The company has bought or invested in ready-to-drink brands BuzzBallz, Dirty Shirley and SipMargs, which skew young, and has added Svedka vodka and Dalho soju, according to Food Dive.

That bet tracks with the market. Spirits-based ready-to-drink cocktails grew 30% in value in the 12 months to March 2026, even as core spirits fell, according to SipSource data reported by The Spirits Business.

Diageo is seeing the same shift. Its U.S. ready-to-drink and cocktail sales jumped 35.1% in fiscal 2026, led by canned and ready-to-serve Casamigos drinks, according to the company’s filing.

Even Casamigos is seeing growth outside the standard bottle, suggesting drinkers have not quit tequila so much as changed how much they buy at once.

The next test for 818 comes over the holidays, when big bottles and gift sets usually carry spirits sales. Diageo has also flagged a “price repositioning” for Casamigos in its annual report, which could put a cheaper celebrity tequila right next to Jenner’s on the shelf.

If 818 keeps growing after that, it will say more about Sazerac’s trucks and those tiny bottles than about the name on the label.

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