From Popularizing Post Malone To Launching Luxury Tequila Don Londrés, Dre London’s ‘Liquid Gold’ Now Shines Bright On His Entrepreneurial Instinct And Newly Revealed Legacy As A Father

For too long, Dre London has seen his reputation intimately tied to managing Post Malone and piloting the Grammy Award-nominated musician to a global megastar. But during the weekend of Formula 1 Grand Prix in Austin, where tens of thousands of zealous sports fans and alcohol-loving celebrants crowded the live music capital of the world for the car racing event and Posty’s concert, the UK-born entertainment business mogul decided to wield his entrepreneurial hammer, bringing luxury tequila brand Don Londrés to the center stage.

In a packed private room on the backstage of Moody Center, where Post Malone brought his ongoing Twelve Carat Tour, London was seen pouring the premium tequila out of a slender, yet curvy bottle, clinking glasses with a group of closed friends against blasting club beats and dim blue lights. The product — dubbed as “liquid gold” by London himself — seems to have already received a taste tester nod from the consumer, hospitality, and art worlds despite its recent launch.

The discovery of Don Londrés is almost as instinctual as how London unearthed the genre-bending artist: A sprinter van driver, who directed London to Tyga’s Palm Springs house on one night, became so drunk that he ended up passing out in the rapper’s pool. The following day when the pair decided to return to LA, he started enthusiastically introducing his tequila lawyer friend to London, pitching him as a potential business partner.

“The gut feeling about this tequila hit me the same way I approached Post when his name wasn’t even Post Malone,” London said, recalling how there weren’t any other managers proactively scouting for the budding singer back in 2014. Before London realized, he was already in Jalisco, Mexico, with the lawyer tasting his first batch of liquid distilled by the reputable tequila-producing González family that would later become the prototype of Don Londrés. It all happened during the peak of the pandemic in 2020.

“I found it! I struck oil when no one was flying nowhere,” London told me, “that’s how I defined ‘liquid gold’.” Then it took a whole other year for him and the González family to seal a manufacturing agreement and pass the regulations to sell in the U.S., followed by countless trial and error attempts to nail the most desirable flavor possible.

If there’s one philosophy London has been committed to throughout his entrepreneurial journey, from creating independent music label London Music Group to founding leading music management firm London Entertainment Group, it would be “there’s no shortcuts,” he stressed, noting how he plans to put more effort into the consumer products space. “You have to have some form of knowing what the world needs. That’s how I feel about this tequila.”

In London’s own vision, Don Londrés is decisively a modern, lifestyle brand, and an affordable luxury at its essence, offering smooth and creamy tequila crafted using 100% blue agave without adding other types of sugar. These agave plants grow on the highlands of Jalisco, the coastal Mexican state that accounts for more than 80% of the tequila production worldwide.

Owning supply chain is key to delivering Don Londrés’ premium quality, according to Francisco González, who began working at his family distillery as a delivery boy since the 60s, and took over the multi-generational business after his father fell ill in 1985. “We grow our own yeast, which is very important during the fermentation process. We’re very meticulous in our production, making sure all our tequila is naturally made without additives,” he said, while explaining to me about how additives are oftentimes used in mass produced tequila to ease off their variations in taste. “We’re excited to partner with a true artist for the first time who’s equally passionate about bringing the best tequila to the world.”

For London, these secretly kept liquor-making practices, which have now passed onto González’s son Francisco González Jr., render a larger-than-life experience — or more accurately, something that was unfathomable before he became a father about a year ago.

“I saw that family connection [when I met with the González’s]; they brought me to a new place where I got to understand what heritage means,” London explained. “Then I launched Don Londrés into different states, starting to meet distributors who have kept licenses within their families for over 100 years. They taught me something much bigger — I’m creating a new moment for the next generation of people who look like me, but never had the opportunity to do something like this in the past,” hinting at the Black community’s historically low representation in the liquor industry.

Among the new generation is London’s own daughter, who was born around the same time when Don Londrés was introduced to the market. “It’s the first time I’ve ever mentioned my daughter in public. It was only after I had my daughter, I started to look at things in a different way. At the end of the day, there’s nothing that outweighs life. I’m bringing a young lady into this world so she can be that woman who continues my legacy — Don Londrés will be no longer just a product, it will be a lifestyle, an energy, and everything above.”

He continued: “People in America didn’t know me before Post Malone. I came from another country, but I came here with my first foot forward that I’m going to make it myself, and do the best I can for our next generation and for my heritage.”

It was already past midnight when Post Malone continued headlining the Circuit Series After Party, presented together by Bootsy Bellows, Sports Illustrated and Don Londrés at the Austin-American Statesman. Between his top tracks from “Circles” to “I Like You,” the iconic rapper grooved and cheered along with thousands of fervent, screaming partygoers holding their phones with flashlights just to snap a starstruck moment. At one point, his initials P.M. appeared on the stage LED screen emanating dazzling gold lights that much resembled the hue of a well-aged Reposado.

Post Malone, Don Londrés: Dre London turned both into a shiny reality.