When the World Cup comes to North America this summer, it won’t just be a spectacle of soccer, it will be an extravaganza of corporate sponsorships.
Adidas for sporting goods. Lay’s for snacks, McDonald’s for fast food, and Coca-Cola for sodas. Verizon for telecommunications, Hisense for televisions, and Lenovo for computers. Hyundai–Kia for cars and Qatar Airways for airlines. Bank of America will sponsor banking while Visa grabs credit cards. LEGO is the official toy sponsor, DoorDash the official delivery service, and Valvoline the official “automotive lubricant.”
Then there’s the “official spirits supporter” of the World Cup: Diageo.
In honor of this partnership, the brand released a special World Cup bottling of its top-of-the-line tequila Don Julio 1942 — limited edition, exclusive, a unicorn of a unicorn.
And yet, several other tequila brands are also releasing their own (wink wink) World Cup bottlings.
World Cup 2026™ Edition
Last May, Diageo inked a sponsorship deal for the 2026 World Cup, paying a surely significant amount of money to put signage around stadiums, run ads during games, and add official FIFA marks on bottles for its brands Casamigos, Buchanan’s, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, and Don Julio.
Aside from a little-heralded Buchanan’s bottle and a Casamigos Margarita campaign, so far the company has mainly focused its World Cup promotion on Don Julio 1942. And that’s for a specific reason.
“The World Cup is one of those very rare moments where the entire world comes together in celebration and connection,” says Julian Garcia, the vice president at Tequila Don Julio. “It’s something that we’ve done with 1942 pretty consistently over the years in those iconic moments of celebration, from the Oscars red carpet to Super Bowl championships more recently, to celebrating in the locker room with Messi and the Inter Miami team [after they won MLS Cup in 2025].”
Like all tall-bottle tequilas, the packaging is ornate and the brand’s writing about it is predictably lavish:
“Encased in a luminous gold bottle, crowned with a malachite closure, it embodies the spirit of victory, pride, and elevated celebration.”
In reality, it’s the same tall spire of a bottle nightclub-goers have come to know and love painted gold with a green World Cup 2026 logo. As the liquid is identical to the añejo in the regular bottle of Don Julio 1942, Diageo is really leaning into the bottle design itself as what matters most here, calling it a “collectible celebration piece.”
In that regard, the brand shot a commercial with French legend (and former World Cup champion) Thierry Henry, featuring clips from past World Cups. Called “Made to Be Raised,” it likens the tall bottle to the World Cup trophy itself.
A Spirited Rival
So I was surprised and a little confused when, in April, I received a press release from Clase Azul introducing its own special limited-edition decanter inspired by the World Cup. As Don Julio 1942’s chief rival and the first luxury, tall-bottle tequila, I was curious how it could have a World Cup tequila, one it had dubbed “Spirit of Champions.”
If Don Julio’s team was fastidious about my use of government name and trademark designation, Spirit of Champion’s pitch email was quick to bluntly offer some of its own legalese:
“This is not an official tournament product and is not affiliated with any sports organization.”
But it’s a special bottling nevertheless: a joven of aged and unaged tequilas matured for 28 months in French wooden vats made with oak from the Forest of Tronçais — the belief being that it creates a more subtle wood interaction than typical barrels — complemented by unaged tequila created exclusively for the release.
“I wanted the tequila itself to become the protagonist of the celebration when tasted,” says Viridiana Tinoco, the brand’s master distiller. It’s pretty tasty, with warm notes of cooked agave highlighted by hints of toasted coconut from the wood. “We never develop a liquid first that is later dressed, nor a sculpture that is later filled,” she adds.
“The World Cup is one of those very rare moments where the entire world comes together in celebration and connection. It’s something that we’ve done with 1942 pretty consistently over the years in those iconic moments of celebration, from the Oscars red carpet to Super Bowl championships.”
Of course, the sculpture, uh, bottle is likewise lavish, almost to a silly degree, with the brand’s traditional ceramic “finished in luminous ivory and traced with golden lines” of 24-karat gold ribbons rising and wrapping around the decanter, with malachite inlays and topped by a bulbous golden cap. This “sculptural object” (according to the brand) that is “inspired by the symbolic power of a trophy” is limited to 10,000 1-liter decanters that will run you $1,700 — or about the same cost as a current ticket to Ecuador versus Curaçao in Kansas City.
(Priced at $159.99, Tequila Don Julio 1942 FIFA World Cup 2026™ is just a hair more expensive than the regular 1942 expression.)
“Although Mexico is the host and central inspiration for the edition, the spirit of the championship belongs to the entire world,” says Tinoco. “We wanted to capture that shared energy.”
Summer of Copycats
But wait, there’s more!
Leyenda 1925, a fairly new entrant in the tall-bottle tequila game, likewise has an (unofficial) World Cup bottling. Named “Summer of Champions,” this limited run añejo — just 1,000 bottles — includes a gold soccer ball cork stopper also reminiscent of the top of the World Cup trophy. The bottle is “specifically designed as a keepsake,” according to Juan González, Leyenda 1925’s co-founder. They are also releasing a full line of curated jerseys and pullovers.
The añejo is the same as their standard bottling — 100 percent blue Weber agave aged in American oak — the hope being that the hullabaloo around a Mexican-hosted World Cup may introduce more people to the brand.
“We are not a FIFA sponsor, affiliate, and never imply otherwise,” says González. “‘Summer of Champions’ celebrates the culture, the watch parties, and the shared pride. That energy is something any brand can honor without a license.”
Indeed.
In the same way companies think they can get around Super Bowl trademarks by simply calling it “The Big Game,” there are other World Cup-ish-related tequilas coming out this season that don’t mention The Big Tournament.
Gran Centenario, a Proximo brand, has one of the more clever entrants into the category with Centenario Tri-Nation Fútbol, a reposado aged in barrels from all three hosting countries including Mexican oak (“heritage and depth”), American oak (“sweetness and structure”), and Canadian oak (“balance and a subtle, layered finish”). The $43 bottle has a Mexican national team logo and a soccer ball on the front of it.
If tall bottles aren’t your jam, there is also the Score Tequila Reposado 2026 World Cup Limited Edition. The tequila comes in soccer ball-shaped decanters with different colored versions for the host countries. Though the brand has no website, the tequila appears to be produced at Grupo Tequilero de Los Altos, though it seems likely its use of the World Cup logo is a trademark violation.
Nevertheless, it is selling briskly at $90 a bottle… er, soccer ball.
“‘Summer of Champions’ celebrates the culture, the watch parties, and the shared pride. That energy is something any brand can honor without a license.”
The Liquid Champion
But Tequila Don Julio 1942 FIFA World Cup 2026™ Edition is the only tequila you’ll see at official, FIFA-sanctioned World Cup events this summer. Even if that were not the case, Garcia would not be concerned with the imitators.
In fact, he is remarkably level-headed about all of them.
“Listen, there’s always going to be excitement around these moments that are so culturally significant,” he says. “So I definitely understand the opportunity for others.”
Still, he can’t help but take a dig at his competitors before our phone call ends.
“The reality is that Don Julio is the O.G. that’s been in this conversation and in these moments for a long time,” he says. “So I think it’s one thing to say that you’re inspired by the idea of champions and then another one to actually be the spirit of those champions.”
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