EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT WE ARE IN A MODERN GOLDEN age for American whiskey . But the unanswerable question is how much longer the boom times will last . After all , the U . S . has seen the rise and dramatic fall of bourbon more than once . Is another drop off in consumer interest around the corner ?

Most people , including yours truly , would disagree . Not in a world where brands like Eagle Rare and Weller Special Reserve fly off shelves and appear on the secondary market . Hard to imagine this fervor coming to a sudden halt .

Big distilleries certainly do not think so . Planning for the future , they have built in continued growth . Both Buffalo Trace and Woodford Reserve are doubling their distilling capacities . Other industry leaders like Heaven Hill and Bardstown Bourbon Company have also invested significantly to increase production in recent time . ( Turn to page 24 for our 2022 American Whiskey Trends piece .)

However , just because these facilities make more distillate does not mean that consumers will buy more bottles . Consider the recent slowdown in craft beer . Over-innovation in that category confused many people , helping point customers towards simpler , lighter hard seltzers ( which then provided a gateway to canned RTDs ). Craft beer has also suffered for not being bourbon , though . Beer , in general , is losing more and more consumer dollars to distilled spirits . Not just whiskey , but the broader spectrum , as premiumization lifts the entire category . Gains in tequila , cognac and other spirits have come at the cost of breweries .

Perhaps most promising for the future of American whiskey is a continued deficiency of consumer knowledge in the category . Which is another way to say that people remain very curious , with much left to learn . My personal joke is that I ’ ll start worrying when people stop asking me the difference between bourbon and whiskey . I get that question so often that I want to print and sell t-shirts that read “ Bourbon Is Whiskey .” Email me if interested .

One of the hosts of the great podcast Bourbon Pursuit was asked how long whiskey must remain in a barrel before achieving cask strength . Questions like that keep me bullish for the future . I ’ m not trying to label people dumb . I ’ m calling them openly curious , which is great . American whiskey boasts such amazing depth in distilleries , flavors , styles , characters , and production — with an equally rich history — that consumers have more than enough to sip on for many , many years ahead .

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4 StateWays | www . stateways . com | Fall 2022