Campari Group has agreed to sell its Bisquit & Dubouché Cognac and Cabo Wabo Tequila brands to Cobblestone Brands, a privately held spirits company based in Dublin, Ireland. The two companies confirmed the agreement on July 29, 2026, alongside Campari's first-half financial results.
Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed. Both sides say closing is expected by October 31, 2026.
What the deal transfers
According to statements from both companies, the agreement covers intellectual property and certain finished-goods inventories for both brands, along with the real-estate assets tied to the Bisquit & Dubouché business in France. It also includes a transitional manufacturing agreement covering Cabo Wabo, which is currently produced under contract in Mexico rather than at a facility Campari is including in the sale.
Cobblestone, founded by chief executive Brian Fagan, had until now built its portfolio organically or through smaller tuck-in deals: Four Corners American Gin, launched in 2023, and Star & Key Rum, a single-estate Mauritius rum, followed by the 2025 purchase of the Knappogue Castle and Clontarf Irish whiskey brands from Pernod Ricard's Irish Distillers unit. Cobblestone has described the Bisquit and Cabo Wabo purchase as the most significant deal in the company's history, saying that on closing its portfolio will span Irish whiskey, cognac, tequila, rum and gin across more than 30 markets.
Cabo Wabo's route from Sammy Hagar to Campari
Cabo Wabo Tequila was launched in 1996 by former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar, originally to supply his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Mexico. Campari acquired an 80% stake in the brand in May 2007 for roughly €60 million, then valued near $80 million, with the remaining 20% held by Hagar and his partner Marco Monroy; Campari took full ownership in 2010.
The tequila is currently distributed across more than 20 US states. Production has run at Destiladora San Nicolas in Arandas, Jalisco, under NOM 1440, the same registered distillery that produces Campari's other tequila brand, Espolón. That plant is not part of the assets changing hands, which is why the agreement carries a transitional manufacturing arrangement for Cabo Wabo rather than an outright transfer of a production site.
Bisquit & Dubouché's cognac history
Bisquit & Dubouché, founded in 1819, is among the older cognac houses still trading, with the Château Bisquit estate in the town of Cognac. Campari bought the business, then trading as Bisquit Dubouché et Cie, from South Africa's Distell Group (now part of Heineken Beverages) for €52.5 million, about $62 million at the time, in a deal announced in December 2017 and completed in early 2018. That transaction included the brand's warehouses, blending cellars and bottling plant, along with maturing stock. Cobblestone said Bisquit has retained a strong base in South Africa, one of cognac's faster-growing markets, alongside distribution in Europe, Asia-Pacific and global travel retail.
Part of a broader Campari retrenchment
The Cabo Wabo and Bisquit sale is one of several divestments Campari has made as chief executive Simon Hunt pursues what he has called a strategy of fewer bigger bets, including disposal of non-priority brands, while concentrating resources on core labels such as Aperol, Campari and Skyy. In its first half of 2026, the group reported organic net sales of €1.51 billion, up 2.7% from the same period a year earlier.
Campari disclosed on the same day that it is also negotiating the sale of Bellonnie et Bourdillon Successeurs, the Martinique-based rum producer behind Trois-Rivières, La Mauny and Duquesne, to an unnamed French industrial buyer, a deal the company expects to close alongside the Cobblestone transaction by the end of 2026 at a combined value of about €30 million. Campari had acquired that rum business, then held through Rhumantilles, in 2019 for roughly €60 million. Earlier disposals under the same review included the sale of the Averna and Zedda Piras liqueur brands to Illva Saronno for €100 million in December, and the sale of the Cinzano vermouth and sparkling wine business to Caffo Group 1915 for €100 million the previous July.
What this means
Cabo Wabo has never appeared in this publication's blind tastings, and no purity finding is on record for it. Its sister Campari brand made at the same Jalisco distillery, Espolón, is in our database and carries a Verified Pure status, which makes the transitional manufacturing arrangement worth watching: whether Cabo Wabo's liquid sourcing changes once Cobblestone takes commercial control is not yet documented.