Bourbon Giant Beam Suntory Angles for Agave With Mezcal Amarás

(Photo: Mezcal Amarás)

Beam Suntory, the spirits giant best known for bourbon staples like Maker’s Mark and Jim Beam, is dipping its toes into the rapidly growing mezcal market.

The company has just inked a “strategic” partnership deal for the US distribution of Mezcal Amarás, an up-and-coming brand founded in 2010 that sources and distills spirit in Oaxaca, Durango and Guerrero.

The exact terms of the partnership have yet to be made public. It’s unknown whether Beam Suntory has purchased a stake in Amarás, only that it will begin distributing products across the US starting July 1st.

The deal follows a two-pronged trend that has swept the agave spirits industry over the past few years: premiumization and corporate mezcal acquisitions.

As tequila’s international status has ballooned year after year, investors have begun looking to mezcal as the next “it” product to capture the cultural zeitgeist. Unlike tequila, which can easily be mass-produced and sold within the budget-friendly market, mezcal leans small-batch artisanal and typically necessitates a slightly higher price tag.

All of this is to say, mezcal falls neatly within the much-talked-about “premium” category that big companies are hungering for.

Rival spirits company Pernod Ricard purchased a majority stake in Del Maguey —perhaps the most recognizable player within the $338 million mezcal market — back in 2017. As of May, Bacardi is now reportedly in talks to purchase Ilegal Mezcal for around $200 million.

Beam Suntory falls somewhere in between the trends. The Japanese-based company owns a handful of recognizable old-guard tequila brands like Sauza, Hornitos and Tres Generaciones while also investing in critically acclaimed premium brands like El Tesoro.

Last October, President and CEO of Suntory Takeshi Niinami frankly stated of the American tequila landscape: “A polarization is happening in the U.S. market: one is toward the premium; the other one is less alcohol drinking.”

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