George Clooney created a tequila company on a whim and now it’s being sold for $1 billion, CNBC is reporting.
The idea behind Casamigos, the brainchild of Clooney and his two friends, Rande Gerber (Ci
ndy Crawford’s husband), and Michael Meldman, was born when Clooney and Gerber boug
ht neighboring properties in Mexico and got into drinking tequila.
“We’d go out to bars and restaurants and bartenders would recommend them. Some were good, some not so good, and some expensive. There came a point where George turned to me and said, ‘Why don’t we create one that’s perfect for us?'” Gerber said.
Gerber and Clooney spent two years meeting with distillers and trialed 700 different samples of tequila until they found the perfect recipe. They wanted to find a drink they could drink all day long without having a burning aftertaste to it or feeling hungover.
“George doesn’t need the money, I didn’t need it, Mike didn’t need it — it wasn’t the reason behind launching a tequila. We wanted everyone to be able to drink it and not be exclusive,” he told Business Insider – a 750ml bottle now costs between $45 and $55.