Micro Vs. Macro Whiskey: Understanding Craft Distillers and Major Brands in the US

The past 10 years have brought about a whiskey renaissance of sorts. Now, that’s not to say that whiskey ever really disappeared, but the influx of craft distilleries has yielded a major uptick in the number of brands and products being released into the marketplace. This can be attributed to the fact that the number of distillers labeling their product as “craft” grew by over 15% last year, with those numbers showing no major indication of slowing down. This sort of booming growth over the past number of years has brought the sales of craft spirits up to a whopping 7.2 million cases in 2017. Now, that may sound like a lot of liquor to some, but in reality, that volume only makes up about 3.2% of the total US spirits market. So who captures the other roughly 97%?

Many purists tend to turn up their noses at this approach. I recently mentioned my work as a consulting whiskey blender to a man who ran a tasting club, and his response was “you BLEND your whiskey? When you watch Star Wars, do you also root for the Empire?” This is a prime example of how the narrative surrounding whiskey-making has become so convoluted that even some whiskey “experts” don’t realize the overlap in techniques between the big guys and craft distilleries, who both blend for consistency.

Craft brands offer a wide array of artistic, custom labels and bottles to make them stand out on the shelf, conveying a more premium quality. This is important, as the millennial generation doesn’t have the same kind of brand loyalty that their parents or grandparents did. Combine this with the fact that there has been a resurgence of value placed on “artisan” or “craft” products across a wide variety of consumer categories, and you’ve created the perfect storm for craft distillers to break into the market. With both small and major distilleries taking pages from the playbook of the other, one thing’s certain: we’re in for an interesting next decade of whiskey.