The Beverage Information & Insights Group selected this year ’ s winners using the following criteria , based on brands ’ projected case sales for the 2020 calendar year .

Rising Stars are less than five years old and have grown each year of their existence , reaching at least 20,000 9-liter cases in 2020 .*

Fast Track Brands are at least five years old and have exceeded 100,000 9-liter cases sold in 2020 , with double-digit growth over the past three years .

Established Growth Brands are top sellers in their category , at least five years old and moving a minimum of 400,000 9-liter cases in 2020 . They have also shown growth in sales over each of the last three years .

Comeback Brands are previous winners that have rebounded in sales to at least their previous winning level , following a recent decline .

For more information about the Growth Brands Awards and other industry data / analysis that ’ s available from the Beverage Information Group , visit Bevinfostore . com or contact research analyst Marina Velez at mvelez @ epgmediallc . com .

* A Note about 2020 : Recognizing that some brands depend more upon on-premise sales compared to others , we ’ ve adjusted our Growth Brands Awards accordingly . For this year only , we considered both a brand ’ s overall sales and its off-premise channel sales in determining whether its growth qualifies for an award . We also revised our Rising Star criteria to account for months of lost sales that could hamper a new brand ’ s growth . Brands that won under these exceptions are official Growth Brands winners , but they do not count toward our Supplier of the Year criteria .

These drastic changes to consumer buying behavior can certainly cause confusion for anyone seeking a picture of the overall industry , which is why we ’ re here to help . Once again , we ’ ve assembled a list of the wine and spirits brands moving the industry forward . This year that list includes 101 spirits and 78 wines .

We spoke to this year ’ s winners about what makes them successful , from their promotions and activations , to support from distributors and overall consumer marketing . We congratulate all of the 2021 winners . Although we ’ re unable to honor them once again at the WSWA Convention as we normally would , we ’ ll share a virtual award presentation in late May at Cheersonline . com / insider .

FASTEST-GROWING GROWTH BRANDS

Source : The Beverage Information & Insights Group * Minimum 5 years old

18 • Summer 2021 www . cheersonline . com