$250 million committed and in just 14 months, it’s bankrupt! So what caused this rapid collapse? Soft sales in American whiskey? Over-extension on its investment? Hubris? Ignorance?
I am declaring 2025 the year of the Big Bottle Share. Bottle shares are a cornerstone of the whiskey community, but with so many folks stocked to the gills with bottles hoarded from the pandemic and subsequent bourbon boom…
Discover which bourbon trends the Bourbon & Banter team believes should disappear or stay in 2025.
Recent releases of Kentucky Owl and Wiseman whiskies weren’t building brand confidence either. What made the Kentucky Owl bourbon created by founder Dixon Dedman and partners Mark and Sherri Carter so fantastic were deep stocks of rare, old and high-quality sourced barrels. Either those dried up…
If the biggest, best-connected bulk supplier in the market is turning away from that portion of its business, does that open the door for other contract suppliers? Or are they also facing excess inventories that will force them to slow down?
This week, Buffalo Trace announced the release of its Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. Of the five bottles in the group, none exceed $149.99. You read that right. MSRP is $149.99.
Smaller producers, NDPs especially, are more concerned. Whiskey shelves at liquor stores are crowded, and getting attention for their brands is more difficult than ever, especially when powerhouse producers can reduce prices to keep sales moving.
Back to the evolving data on what defines moderate drinking. It seems researchers are wisely reconsidering the long-held rule of two for guys and one for gals each day. Viewed through a new lens, it appears some of past researchers’ methods look a bit unreliable…
But does such enthusiasm truly reflect the health of the bourbon category? Are events like the Bourbon Festival and WhiskeyFest and myriad other whiskey-centric events around the country truly indicative of the category’s health?
In the past decade, American distillers have turned to unique cooperage to differentiate their whiskeys. In some cases, it’s worked wonderfully, especially when real experts in the management of maturate and blending are pulling the levers.
