In his song, “Young Forever,” Jay Z envisions a life where “you never get old and the Champagne’s always cold.” He may not be able to do much about aging, but he may be able to help with the chilled bubbly.
Just days after the British beverage giant Diageo swapped whiskey for tequila, taking control of the Don Julio tequila brand from Jose Cuervo, a new company led by Jay Z has acquired Armand de Brignac Champagne from Sovereign Brands.
“We are proud to announce that Sovereign Brands, a New York-based wine and spirits company owned by the Berish family, has sold its interest in the Armand de Brignac (‘Ace of Spades’) Champagne brand to a new company led by the globally renowned Shawn ‘Jay Z’ Carter,” Sovereign Brands said in a statement.
Yvonne Lardner, global director of brand communications for Sovereign, added in an emailed statement: “We have had a wonderful relationship with Jay Z throughout the years since he first discovered Armand de Brignac. He became interested in owning the brand and made us an offer we simply couldn’t refuse.”
Further details of the deal, including the name of Jay Z’s company, were not disclosed.
Jay Z’s interest in the Champagne, nicknamed “Ace of Spades” for the logo on its label, is not new. A gold bottle appeared in his 2006 music video for “Show Me What You Got.” (The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that Jay Z heard about the Champagne through a friend and liked it enough to feature it in his video.)
And in September 2012, Jay Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, held a fund-raiser with his wife, Beyoncé Knowles, at the 40/40 Club in Manhattan for President Obama that included a tower of 350 bottles of Armand de Brignac Champagne. Owners of the “Vault” suites at the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn, home of the Brooklyn Nets, have access to a Champagne bar serving Armand de Brignac. (Jay Z used to be a part owner of the Nets.)
The Champagne, a fixture in many nightclubs, is also popular among athletes. Various sports teams, including the Dallas Mavericks and the Boston Bruins, have celebrated championships by taking big gulps from enormous metallic bottles of Armand de Brignac. David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox popped a 15-liter bottle of the Champagne after his team won the World Series in 2013.
A bottle of Armand de Brignac Brut Gold retails for $300. A 30-liter bottle, which weighs 100 pounds and is equivalent to 40 regular bottles, can sell for over $200,000.
Armand de Brignac is made by the Cattier house, which was established in 1763 in Chigny-les-Roses, France.