American Whiskey Continues to Boom, Rye Leads the Way

The story DSCUS told during their scheduled economics report call was all about premiumization, premiumization, premiumization—in other words, our continued willingness to pay more for whiskey. “Adult consumers, particularly millennials, continue to gravitate toward high-end and super premium spirits products,” said David Ozgo, DSCUS chief economist, in a prepared statement.

There was good news for pretty much every category of American whiskey (except white/corn whiskey, which was down -0.5%), but some segments saw particularly robust growth. Super-premium spirits, which DSCUS defines as costing about $30 or more at retail, saw volume grow 18.3% in 2017. Rye whiskey also boomed, seeing 16.2% volume growth and selling 900,000 nine-liter cases cases. For context, in 2009, just 100,000 cases were sold – that’s an 800% increase in less than a decade.

Another bright spot for the spirits industry was exports. Buoyed by a weak dollar, overseas sales of U.S.-made spirits were up more than 14%, reaching $1.63 billion. “American spirits, particularly whiskeys, are the toast of the global cocktail scene,” said council senior vice president for international affairs Christine LoCascio. “International adult consumers are exploring more expensive U.S. spirits driven by their fascination with American whiskey’s heritage, as well as its mixability and versatility in cocktails.” The U.K., Germany, Brazil, France, and Spain were the largest export markets for American spirits in 2017.

What does all this mean for us, the consumer? We can continue to expect to be aggressively wooed by whiskey brands, which will continue pouring money and energy into new whiskeys, new ways of engaging customers, more expensive bottlings in that super-premium segment, and, increasingly, a push towards online ordering and fulfillment. In other words, we’re looking at a lot more of the same—and perhaps an easier time tracking down a decent Manhattan cocktail abroad.