The other day, I had a dear old friend and some out-of-town guests over for drinks on the porch. The conversation included talk about the future of the Bourbon boom. I have always said that the so-called Bourbon boom would level out and it appears to be doing so now. Heaven Hill reported that their sales have shrunk by 2% to 4% in the last year. They are offering buy outs for many bottling line employees and plan to reduce their number of bottling line employees through these buy outs and increasing automation of the bottling line. Other major distilleries are experiencing a similar situation.

Does this mean that Bourbon sales are going to tank? I think not. Bourbon sales are still quite strong over-all. To me, this is the stabilization I was expecting. Bourbon tourism is still strong and a lot of Bourbon is still being made across the country. I think this fact is the reason for the reduction in sales. There are many other options when purchasing a bottle of Bourbon. Heaven Hill’s major brands face competition from all of these other brands now and it is not surprising to see a consumer purchase a local brand instead of a bottle of Evan Williams or Elijah Craig or some other brand that Heaven Hill produces. People are still purchasing Bourbon but not necessarily a major brand.

There are still the overseas markets that are growing. There are still people taking the Bourbon Trail and purchasing bottles. There are many books and magazines, as well as, online blogs written about Bourbon and other whiskeys. There are still a plethora of YouTube videos about Bourbon and other whiskeys. Bourbon is still very popular with consumers.

This leveling off will be good for consumers. It will allow distilleries to age whiskey longer as demand has shrunk somewhat and production is still high. You will start seeing more availability for brands that are hard to find. You will also see prices reflect this increase in inventory of brands. There will probably be an increase in age stated brands. Age statements became a rare sight when demand was so high, the distillers could not keep up with the demand and took age statements off the bottle and used younger whiskey in the bottle. Distilleries are still selling a lot of whiskey and making a profit. As long as they are making a profit, there is no reason to make dire predictions or panic.

This leveling off of sales will be a good thing in the long run. The consumer will still get very good whiskey at a fair price. They will find many brands that are allocated now in more places. The brands will have older whiskey in the bottle. It will be difficult for distillery employees as companies shrink their bottling lines to reflect this shrinkage of demand, but that is to be expected. Look for more distilleries to offer buy outs to employees in the future.
Bourbon and whiskey sales are still strong and we will not see the bad days of the 1960s through the 80s. There are many craft distillers that may not experience this shrinkage of sales at all. What will happen with the small distilleries is that the ones making good whiskey will survive and those that are not will go out of business. There will be more whiskey on the market for non-producing companies and their product should get better as well. It is going to be interesting times for the distilling industry.

Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller