{"id":17735,"date":"2020-11-11T09:21:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T15:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=17735"},"modified":"2020-11-11T09:21:50","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T15:21:50","slug":"michael-jordan-and-four-other-nba-owners-just-started-a-tequila-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=17735","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan and Four Other NBA Owners Just Started a Tequila Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Inside Story Of How Michael Jordan And Four Other NBA Owners Launched The Super-Premium Tequila Brand Cincoro<\/h1>\n
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Michael Jordan and Four Other NBA Owners Just Started a Tequila Company<\/h1>\n

How on-court rivals came together to produce an excellent new spirit<\/h2>\n
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M<\/sup>ichael Jordan\u2019s table wasn\u2019t ready\u2014and it wouldn\u2019t be available for another 40 minutes. It was a hot summer night in 2016 at Pasquale Jones, the trendy pizza joint frequented by Jay Z and Beyonc\u00e9 in Manhattan\u2019s Nolita neighborhood, and the billionaire Charlotte Hornets owner was about to have dinner with a few colleagues who were in New York for NBA owner meetings: Lakers co-owner Jeanie Buss<\/a>, Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wes Edens<\/a> and Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck<\/a> as well as his then-fianc\u00e9e Emilia Fazzalari. But the reservation had mistakenly been made for the following week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A wood-fired oven blazed inside the small space as they waited. Although they all owned valuable NBA teams<\/a>, the group were virtual strangers: All had exchanged pleasantries in the past but had never really sat down to get to know each other. With no room at the bar, the group found themselves cramped by the hostess stand and started talking about tequila, Jordan\u2019s spirit of choice, which the Italian restaurant didn\u2019t serve but they had all been drinking when they met up earlier at Soho House. It\u2019s the only spirit that feels like an upper, they agreed, and it\u2019s low-calorie and can yield a lighter hangover. By the time they were seated, this multibillion-dollar table was discussing the specific characteristics they wished they could find on the shelf\u2014a tequila with a smooth, long finish like a fine cognac or whiskey.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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“Cincoro’s Starting Five: Michael Jordan with cofounders Wyc Grousbeck, Emilia Fazzalari, Jeanie Buss and Wes Edens.”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat was when we realized there was an opportunity in the market to create a new tequila, a better<\/em> tequila,\u201d says Fazzalari, who spent 29 years in financial services, in part developing information platforms for the energy sector, and has been heading up the project as CEO. \u201cWe let our hair down and became true friends that night.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, Fazzalari, Grousbeck and Edens laugh about their haphazard origin story at a boardroom table in New York\u2019s Greenwich Village district covered with glass flutes filled with Cincoro Tequila, a portmanteau of the Spanish words for five<\/em> and gold<\/em>. Their parent company, Cinco Spirits Group, is named in honor of the five partners who bonded over tequila at dinner\u2014and coincidentally the same number as players on a basketball team. Their four tequilas\u2014a blanco, a reposado aged 8 to 10 months, an a\u00f1ejo aged for 24 to 28 months, and an extra a\u00f1ejo, aged for as long as 44 months\u2014launch this month in 12 markets and will go nationwide in January.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Cincoro's<\/strong><\/div>
\u201cThe biggest problem we are going to have is the supply,\u201d says Edens, co-CEO of the $39 billion private equity firm Fortress, taking a sip and leaning back. \u201cI\u2019m in the logistics and infrastructure business,\u201d he continues with the confidence of an NBA All Star, \u201cLogistics are going to be a problem because the stuff is so good. It really is.\u201d<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adds Grousbeck, nodding with hometown pride: \u201cWe sold 300 cases in Massachusetts in the first three days.\u201d The first reorders came through as well\u2014from Florida, where it was on sale for just a week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, Cincoro claims it has sold out in four markets even before its official launch party\u2014a Pappy Van Winkle-like strategy in which low production leads to a cult-like following driven by scarcity. The company won\u2019t disclose its inventory, just that it has produced several thousand cases.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tequila-fueled gamesmanship aside, the idea for Cincoro came at the right time. The United States consumes more tequila than any other nation\u2013about 18.3 million cases last year, or 56% of global consumption, according to consultancy IWSR Drinks Market Analysis. But that amount is still just 10% of all spirits purchased in the U.S., a figure that drops to a paltry 1% when looking globally. The ultra-premium side of the American tequila market (where the starting price is $45 a bottle) is also growing fast\u2014a 19% increase each year since 2013. So the runway for Cincoro is huge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This spirits category is driving a lot of interest, in addition to competition, according to Adam Rogers, research director at IWSR: Within the ultra-premium tequila segment, new brands less than five years old have grown 46% over the past year, compared with a rate of 9% for existing brands. These startups accounted for 38% of the ultra-premium growth last year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Cincoro-Extra-Anejo-Closeup-by-Danil-Gorskikh-Secondary\"<\/strong><\/div>
Investor demand is there as well, especially for a celebrity-backed brand. Casamigos\u2014founded by George Clooney and Rande Gerber<\/a> in 2013\u2014sold to Diageo for $1 billion in 2017, a deal valued at 20 times revenue<\/a>. Last year, BDT Capital acquired a majority stake in Casa Dragones, the maker of a $285 clear joven tequila aged for five years, for an estimated $62.5 million, according to Pitchbook.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cincoro is now among of the most expensive tequila brands sold today. Its a\u00f1ejo retails for $130, a higher-priced alternative to Don Julio 1942 (at $120). And Jordan\u2019s favorite in the new line, Cincoro\u2019s Extra A\u00f1ejo is in rare air\u2014at $1,600 a bottle. Exorbitant to be sure, but still less than peers like Clase Azul Ultra ($1,700)<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are competitive, and we are creators,\u201d says Fazzalari, explaining that there are more than 100 tequila distilleries in Mexico that make tequila for 1,800 brands worldwide. \u201cA lot of them are contract distilleries. You can walk in and pick a tequila and put it in a cool bottle and do a marketing play. It never even occurred<\/em> to us to do that. From that first dinner, we wanted a tequila that tasted<\/em> great. That was something we were going to create.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But is Cincoro really worth that price tag? Its agave is hand-selected from two regions in Jalisco, the highlands (known to have soils high in iron oxide, which can create sweet, more floral notes) and the lowlands (mostly volcanic rock, which adds minerality). Often 6 to 8 years old when harvested, the agave is cooked for 35 hours. Despite Fazzalari\u2019s dismissal of a marketing play, Cincoro is manufactured in an existing Jalisco distillery which bottles 96 other brands, according to Tequila Matchmaker<\/a>, which tracks facilities and the brands they produce. In fact, the distillery manufactures more contract brands than any other in the industry, and some are even blends of highlands and lowlands agave<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Pina Paradise: Cincoro Master Distiller Augustine Sanchez in the agave fields of Jalisco, Mexico.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cinco Spirits Group<\/small><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After distillation, Cincoro\u2019s tequila is aged in ex-American whiskey barrels for a period it claims is longer than other brands. Whereas Casamigos\u2019 a\u00f1ejo, for example, is bottled after 14 months, just over the regulatory minimum, Cincoro\u2019s a\u00f1ejo is matured for another 10 to 14 months. Its extra a\u00f1ejo is a combination of tequilas between 40 to 44 months. (If you do the math, that dinner at Pasquale Jones was just 38 months ago. So Cincoro\u2019s current extra a\u00f1ejo was produced from the distillery\u2019s private reserves that were hand-selected by the brand\u2019s master distiller. In the future, the extra a\u00f1ejo will be developed from Cincoro\u2019s inventory of aging tequilas.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The partners won\u2019t say whether they have plans to build their own distillery, but they have already invested several million dollars in the company. And they will need at least $10 million more if they want to grow, or expand to Asia, which Fazzalari says is within their sights. They may choose to make that investment themselves or bring in additional partners.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The tasting team, headed up by Jordan, Fazzalari and Edens, tested more than 1,000 different tequilas before deciding on their own blend. But it took time to achieve the flavor profile the six-time NBA champion was after. \u201cThe challenge was finding that balance between smoothness and finish, because what we noticed was that as we were making it smoother, sometimes you lose the finish,\u201d says Fazzalari. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to get an ultra-smooth tequila with a long complex finish with a fine flavor.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

To help reach the team\u2019s lofty goals, Cincoro has attracted some of the best talent in the industry to join the brand. Fazzalari now has 19 employees, including the former head of marketing at the Stoli Group and an executive vice president who was integral to launching Grey Goose and later built Patr\u00f3n from 100,000 cases a year to 2 million. When Chris Spake, who\u2019s now director of brand and trade development, interviewed with Cincoro, Fazzalari mentioned that if he were hired, she would need him to go down to the distillery in Guadalajara immediately. When she called the next day to hire him, he was already at the airport about to board a plane. He knew his references would check out. \u201cI have tasted every tequila. I had never tasted anything like this before,\u201d says Spake. \u201cNo one can replicate this, even if they try it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

And as with most ultra-premium spirits, selecting the perfect bottle was paramount to giving the brand a mystique. Jordan focused on the design with his longtime collaborator Mark Smith, Nike\u2019s vice president of innovation special projects. He envisioned something \u201csleek, contemporary and unique\u201d from the beginning, and Smith brought it to life, working with artisanal glassmakers in Mexico for three years until the design met the team\u2019s high standards. Each detail was strategic. The glass bottles have five sides shaped loosely like an agave leaf, with a base that tilts up at 23 degrees in a subtle nod to Jordan\u2019s iconic jersey number. The stopper is an inverted replica of the bottle cast in crystal, down to the 23-degree angle at the top. The extra a\u00f1ejo bottle is even more exotic, made from a hand-polished black crystal adorned with gold.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it came time to find distribution, Lloyd Sobel of Breakthru Beverage told Fazzalari not to get her hopes up because he rarely said yes on the first try. But then he took a sip of Cincoro. \u201cI actually left the meeting and went back to my office and got a brand that would be in competition to see, face-to-face, how it would hold up, and it blew it away,\u201d says Sobel. \u201cCincoro is competing in an area with tremendous growth and a limited competitive set. There are only a handful of other brands that have that potential, but the juice is so superior.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even with the boom in the tequila market\u2014and the frenzy to acquire the Next Big Brand\u2014the five partners say they have no plans for a quick exit. \u201cWe talk about more children to come. We all have a very long horizon,\u201d Fazzalari says. \u201cWe\u2019ve already thought about other types of tequila that are going to be really special and other spirits.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Michael Jordan Tequila: How good is it? IT’S GREAT!!!!<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Per Sip Whiskey<\/a>, Cincoro Tequila is made using agaves sourced from private farms in both the Highlands and Lowlands of Jalisco, Mexico. The different soil qualities of these regions create unique flavor profiles in the agave grown there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Additionally, using their proprietary cooking process, the agaves are first cooked in a traditional clay oven for 35 hours and then in a small artisanal autoclave for about 15 hours. The combination of two agave appellations and two cooking methods creates the unique Cincoro flavor profile.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The name Cincoro comes from the Spanish words for \u201cfive\u201d and \u201cgold\u201d\u2014cinco<\/em> and o<\/em>ro<\/em>\u2014for the five founding partners and their \u201cgold standard\u201d tequila. The bottle comes in four different tequilas called Blanco, Reposado, A\u00f1ejo and Extra A\u00f1ejo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Per Esquire<\/a>, Blanco is $70 a bottle; Reposado (aged eight to 10 months) is $90; A\u00f1ejo (aged 24 to 28 months) is $130; and Extra A\u00f1ejo (aged 40 to 44 months) is a whopping $1,600.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The A\u00f1ejo bottle was a big winner at the New York International Spirits Competition<\/a>. Cincoro bottles have a 23-degree tilt at the bottom of the bottle. It\u2019s safe to say Jordan was behind that, as he wore No. 23 with the Chicago Bulls<\/a> and Washington Wizards<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jordan, Buss, Edens, Fazzalari and Grousbeck bonded over a mutual love of tequila at a 2016 dinner, which they credit as the founding day of their partnership.<\/strong><\/p>\n

William Goodman of Spy.com<\/a> had the pleasure of trying Jordan\u2019s Cincoro Tequila, and he was surprised by how good it was:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Good news there: One sip of Cincoro\u2019s a\u00f1ejo tequila and I was pleasantly surprised. The aroma is subtle but conjures notes of vanilla, caramel, and dried fruit upon an initial sniff. From there, the taste itself is sweet, but not in a way that\u2019s overpoweringly so. Cinnamon and dark chocolate notes swirl around your palate before finishing extremely smooth with almost no bite.<\/strong><\/p>\n

All-in-all, it\u2019s an extremely promising start for a project that could be readily and easily written off as just another celebrity endeavor. Instead, Cincoro is earning glowing reviews. And if The Last Dance<\/em> reminded us of anything, it\u2019s this: you underestimate Michael Jordan at your own peril.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, it looks like Michael Jordan has once again topped himself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The six-time NBA champion and Finals MVP is not only arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, but MJ is now dominating the tequila game.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Inside Story Of How Michael Jordan And Four Other NBA Owners Launched The Super-Premium Tequila Brand Cincoro Michael Jordan and Four Other NBA Owners Just Started a Tequila Company How on-court rivals came together to produce an excellent new spirit Michael Jordan\u2019s table wasn\u2019t ready\u2014and it wouldn\u2019t be available for another 40 minutes. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1225,2405,330,112,11,1160,1161,1122,8,144,2897,1006,1314,2432,1456,1156,110,2875,2416,13,2404,2205,72,2252,2262,2406,107,14,191,106,104,187,124,1299,1,39,189,1291,1282,537,2805,12,108,7,1292,17,89,9,1114,10],"tags":[3238,3240,3241,75,3239],"class_list":["post-17735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2016-wimbledon","category-all","category-basketball-sports","category-boxing","category-business","category-college-baseball","category-college-world-series","category-cricket","category-entertainment","category-f1-racing","category-footballer","category-futbol","category-global-business-entrepreneurs","category-global-gamers","category-global-news-updates-and-more","category-global-sports","category-golf-sports-news","category-gymnastics","category-hall-of-fame","category-health","category-high-school-sports","category-hockey","category-horse-racing","category-ice-skating","category-international-skiing","category-mbs-hss","category-mlb-sports-news","category-most-commented","category-nascar-racing","category-nba-sports-news","category-ncaa","category-ncaa-basketball","category-ncaa-football","category-ncaa-swimming","category-news","category-nfl","category-nhl","category-olympic-swimming","category-olympics","category-racing","category-rugby","category-scitech","category-soccer-sports-news","category-sports","category-swimming","category-tennis","category-track-field","category-us","category-wnba","category-world","tag-cincoro-tequila","tag-emilia-fazzalari","tag-jeanie-buss-and-wes-edens","tag-michael-jordan","tag-wyc-grousbeck","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}