2025 felt like a genuine turning point for the liquor industry. During the pandemic years, secondary prices spiralled, everyday bottles became allocated, and new releases carried eye-watering retail tags. In the cooling years that followed, many of us waited for the pendulum to swing back toward the consumer. In my view, 2025 was the year it finally did.
Non-age-stated bottles have begun to be phased out with long-standing American and Scottish whiskies regaining their age statements. Competition aggressively ramped up in both the budget and mid tiers of the market, creating what is, in my opinion, a year defined by the consumer.
That victory did not come easily for producers. The pandemic cash injection triggered aggressive expansion across the industry. Buffalo Trace committed over US$1 billion to lift output by 150 percent. Jim Beam poured US$400 million into its Booker Noe distillery. In Scotland, Miltonduff and Aberlour invested roughly US$120 million to add nearly 10 million litres of annual capacity. Capacity ballooned, warehouses filled, and whiskey flowed.
Demand, however, failed to keep pace. With global economic conditions tightening, distilleries now hold more aging stock than ever. In 1985, just under 5 million barrels were in storage in Kentucky. By 2025, that figure had climbed to an estimated 16.1 million. The mid-1980s are remembered as a glut era for bourbon, an oversupply that ultimately led to older whiskey finding its way into ordinary bottlings, lifting quality across the board. With more than triple the maturing inventory today, many industry watchers are quietly wondering if history is repeating itself.
While 2025 has not tipped fully into a glut, the early signals are unmistakable. The most telling sign is the return of age statements to core range products that spent years hiding behind NAS labels. Heaven Hill fired an early shot with its 7-year Bottled in Bond in 2019, followed by Beam restoring the 9-year age statement to Knob Creek a year later. It took time for the market to catch up, but by 2025, the rest of the industry clearly did not want to be left behind.
The result has been a wave of affordable, age-stated, readily available core expressions. Old Fitzgerald 7 Year, Wild Turkey 8 Year, Old Grand-Dad 7 Year, Willett 4 Year Purple Top, Bulleit 7 Year Bottled in Bond, and Maker’s Mark 7 Year Cask Strength. These releases bring transparency back to labels that long relied on ambiguity, often at only a modest price increase. Old Fitzgerald 7 carries a US$59.99 MSRP. Maker’s Mark 7 lands at US$44.99. Wild Turkey 8 sits at the same price point.
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That US$40 to US$60 bracket has quietly become the industry’s new battleground. It is where consumers must ask an uncomfortable question. Is that ultra-rare US$200 bottle really four times better than a Wild Turkey 8 Year? In 2025, more often than not, the answer is no.
Where brands want to retain their existing line-ups, we have also seen new releases filling the gaps. Buffalo Trace, most notably, shook the bourbon world with the introduction of a 12-year-old Eagle Rare. Shortly after, it released the Sazerac Bottled in Bond litre and the Sazerac Full Proof. While the secondary market has gone a little crazy for these bottles, their MSRPs are only marginally higher than their younger counterparts.
Outside of bourbon, some of the world’s biggest brands have also started to shift in this pro-consumer direction. Take Scotch whisky giant Macallan, a brand long associated with stratospheric pricing. Since 2017, it has released an annual Classic Cut expression, offering higher proof than the usual 40 to 43 percent ABV of its core range. But in 2025, Macallan flipped the script entirely by launching a 12-year, age-stated Sherry Oak Collection 110 Proof in the US market.
For whisky geeks like myself, Macallan has been hard to justify in recent years. New releases were either young, NAS, and unremarkable, or $200,000 decanters aimed at ultra-high-net-worth collectors. So to see a 12-year age statement, at a sensible strength, fully matured in sherry casks? I never thought I would see the day.
Of course, we all love our expensive, limited, allocated, hard to find whiskies. But the current market is packed with exceptional bottles at highly competitive prices. We are not in a full glut era. You still cannot walk into your local liquor store and pick up a George T. Stagg for MSRP. But you can find Wild Turkey 8 Year, Maker’s Mark 7 Cask Strength, and Heaven Hill 7 Year for around $45.
Personally, the new Bulleit Bottled-In-Bond was amongst my favourite value picks of the year. Staple. Tasty. Available. Transparent. In 2026 these attributes will be the most critical for distilleries to focus on.
And for consumers, that is a genuine win.
