Whisky Advocate: The State Of American Whiskey In 2025
American whiskey sales declined in 2023 for the first time in more than 20 years, and 2024 was even worse. Headlines in the trade and popular press say the Bourbon boom is over. But the sky is not falling.
There is no glut now and one is not inevitable if the industry takes this opportunity to correct. The major brand distillers will adjust their production according to their own needs, as they always have. They are, for the most part, vertically integrated, self-contained entities. That’s Brown-Forman, Suntory, Sazerac, Heaven Hill, Wild Turkey, and Four Roses. Because they make what they sell and sell only what they make, they have very little exposure to the contract distilling market.
Likewise, most craft distilleries are not exposed. Like the big guys, if they sell only what they make and make everything they sell, the oversupply problem doesn’t affect them either. But there is, at the moment, too much whiskey in the rest of the market. Can history tell us what to do next? Whisky Advocate has the full story.
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