Constellation Brands CEO Bill Newlands was extolling how recession-proof premium-priced Corona and Modelo beers have proven.

In an interview Newlands said, “Consumer demand has been very strong. We have the benefit in this industry in this category of being somewhat recession resistant And we have seen no slowdown at a consumer level of purchasing against our brands.”

Newland noted that Constellations beer brands, led by Corona, Modelo and Pacifico, vastly outperformed the company’s wine business in the most recent quarter.

Sales were up 15% for the beer segment as the 25% operating income growth was further supported by price increases. An important metric Wall Street tracks on beer companies, beer depletions, was up 8.9% from a year ago.

Newland also pointed out Constellation was the biggest quarterly share gainer in market dollars. Among share-gaining high-end beer brands, it had four of the top fifteen. And it projects that for the fiscal year ending February 28th, beer sales will grow by 8%-10%.

In a client note Deutsche Bank analyst Steve Power’s said, “Considering the business’s strong momentum year to date through September, with incremental pricing coming to market and planned brand investments, beer revenue should hold in reasonably well.”

The performance of its beer brands has helped Constellation’s stock outperform the S&P 500 by roughly 12% so far this year.

The beer-recession-resilience however seems limited to premium brands. While Corona and Modelo’s sales have been brisk, the phenomenon has not extended to lower-priced brands, where it appears more economically challenged customers have had to reduce their spending amid rising inflation.

Kate Bernot on the Good Beer Hunting blog wrote, “Beer volume sales in chain retail this summer were markedly lower than any other summer in the last five years, with four-week sales periods between April and September down anywhere from -5% to -10% compared to 2017.”