In Person of Interest we talk to the people catching our eye right now about their projects past and present. Next up, we chat with Cameron George, blender and global head of advocacy for SirDavis Whisky, about how the brand is redefining whisky for a new generation of fans.
Whisky has long been a language of heritage. Its grammar is shaped by Scotland’s Highlands and Kentucky’s rickhouses, its tone one of tradition and exclusivity.
When it launched last year, SirDavis American Whisky set out to change that cadence. At its core is the belief that whisky can be both deeply serious and widely welcoming, an art form as much as a spirit. That vision comes from its founder, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, who understands how legacy, ritual, and performance resonate far beyond the stage. Much like her Cowboy Carter tour reimagined her country album as a multicity, summer-long musical rodeo, with SirDavis, she asked a deceptively simple question: What would it look like to reimagine whisky for a new generation without losing an ounce of integrity?
The answer lies in the work of a team of people, including Cameron George, the brand’s blender and global head of advocacy. George’s path to SirDavis began humbly—as a dishwasher in Seattle—before he rose through the city’s most respected bars to eventually become a sought-after educator for Moët Hennessy. Along the way, he apprenticed with Bill Lumsden, PhD, the pioneering head of distilling behind Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, who would later guide the creation of SirDavis.
For George, whisky became an emotional medium, capable of evoking place, story, even voice.
Now, at SirDavis, he holds a rare dual role: blending the whisky itself and shaping how it shows up in the world. That means fine-tuning casks alongside Dr. Lumsden one day, then raising a glass with concertgoers at the Cowboy Carter tour the next. It’s a convergence of craft and culture, technical mastery and artistic vision.
In this conversation, George reflects on how SirDavis is reshaping the definition of luxury, how whisky can carry a voice as resonant as a song, and why this brand is built for legacy.
What’s the story that led to this role and working on this brand?
As I worked my way up through Seattle’s whisky and cocktail bars, I discovered my passion for education, which led me to LVMH, where I oversaw advocacy and education for Moët Hennessy’s spirits portfolio on the West Coast. In that role, I first met Dr. Bill Lumsden, one of the most visionary minds in modern whisky. Later, as Ardbeg’s first national ambassador and “Master of Smoke,” I had the life-changing opportunity to learn directly from him. He reshaped how I thought about whisky, not just as a spirit, but as an experience that can evoke emotion, memory, and place.
When I was invited to join SirDavis, it was a full-circle moment. I had the chance to work with Dr. Bill again and help realize a vision from Mrs. Knowles-Carter that challenged us to reimagine what whisky could be: bold yet refined, category-defining and simply delicious.
How has working so closely on the brand changed your understanding of whisky—technically, creatively, and even philosophically?
It’s crazy to think we’ve been out in the world for almost a year already. Dr. Bill likes to say that “to prove every new idea, you’ll disprove two theories you already had.” I have found myself coming back to that time and time again as we look toward future iterations of the product.
For example, I went in assuming our proof would rise during aging, like in Kentucky or Tennessee. But in Houston [where SirDavis is finished, blended, and bottled], the high humidity means alcohol evaporates faster than water, so proof actually drops, similar to Scotland. That changes the flavor profile in a way I didn’t expect. It showed me how much more complex evaporation and aging are than the industry often assumes.
Creatively, I had to unpack this idea that whisky has to look or feel a certain way to be taken seriously. We were never trying to imitate tradition, but reimagining it. That meant trusting our own palates, our own references, and our own culture. I started seeing whisky less as a product and more as a cultural medium, like music or fashion. That changed my entire viewpoint.
How did you all approach designing the brand’s voice—across packaging, storytelling, and education? What did you want to communicate about the whisky, and what did you want to leave unsaid?
Whisky can be serious and respected, but it can also be vibrant and welcoming. That duality shows up in everything we do. One night, we’re placing gold in global awards. Next, we’re raising a glass at the Cowboy Carter tour or pouring cocktails at the Houston Rodeo. We conduct deep-dive tastings that honor the process behind every layer of this spirit, and then let the whisky speak for itself in a more playful setting the next day.
What we chose not to say was just as deliberate. The founder’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the bottle. That wasn’t an oversight. It was a statement that this isn’t a celebrity project. It’s a legacy brand with deep roots, made by people who care deeply about the craft and the community we’re building. That quiet confidence is the message, and if we’ve done our job right, it’s loud and clear.
I found the continuity between Beyoncé’s love of honey and this whisky so striking—even down to the resonance in her voice. When you're building a blend, what does “voice” mean to you?
I absolutely hear our founder in the blend. SirDavis can sing with the stadium-level power of a bold, upfront rye heat. But it can also croon its way into silky honey notes and dried apricot on the finish. Just like her music, every note earns its place, and the silence between them is just as intentional.
I believe that within a whisky there are several voices working together, so it’s more about harmony than any one individual voice. So when we’re blending, it’s almost like conducting a choir. It’s about making sure every layer, cask, and maturation is tuned just so. When you get it right, it’s like that perfect chord—balanced but unmistakably complex.
SirDavis features prominently in the ‘Cowboy Carter’ experience. What are people curious about, and how is that curiosity shaping your advocacy work?
We get a lot of questions about flavor, such as why it’s spicy, what makes it smooth, etc. That opens the door to educating consumers about whisky fundamentals, like how grain choices impact taste. For example, rye tends to be spicier than bourbon. So we’re not just explaining SirDavis, we’re teaching people how to approach whisky itself, sipping slowly instead of taking shots.
Has working on SirDavis reshaped your thinking around what luxury whisky means in 2025?
For a long time, luxury in this space meant exclusivity through rare bottles, high price tags, old age statements, and gatekeeping that kept certain people and stories out. SirDavis challenges that. It’s still crafted with precision and depth, but it’s also rooted in cultural relevance, accessibility, and storytelling.
Luxury means intentionality. It’s about the integrity of the liquid itself, but also the experience around it—where it shows up, who gets to enjoy it, how it makes people feel. We’re redefining luxury not as something out of reach, but as something with richness, meaning, and presence. I’m proud SirDavis is part of that conversation.
We’ve seen SirDavis’s founder launch two brands last year—SirDavis and Cécred—both grounded in legacy, reverence, and technical excellence. Your role with SirDavis sits at the intersection of all three. What’s different about having blending and brand advocacy combined in one role?
Blending and advocacy rarely sit in the same role, and that’s what makes working on SirDavis so unique. In my role, I’m not just crafting the whisky behind the scenes with our team, but also engaging directly with bartenders, collectors, and new-to-whisky drinkers. That two-way dialogue gives us real-time insight into what’s resonating, which we bring back into the blending process.
On the other hand, being hands-on with the liquid allows us to spot subtle shifts batch to batch, and those details help us educate more meaningfully, whether someone’s just discovering whisky or has been collecting for years. It’s a constant feedback loop between creation and conversation, and it keeps both sides sharper.
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What’s the one thing about SirDavis that people always overlook—but that you wish they didn’t?
People don’t always say it out loud, but you can feel this lingering assumption from some that a celebrity whisky can’t be serious. That it’s all marketing, no depth. And I get it. That’s been the case before in this industry.
We didn’t slap a name on a bottle. We built a whisky from scratch, hands-on, rooted in craft, with flavor structure and balance that stands up next to anything on the shelf, and the award wins to prove it. When people finally taste SirDavis, often they’re pleasantly surprised. And that moment of surprise is everything.