9 min read
Here is a question that comes up every time the market softens, usually from someone smart looking at the category from the outside. New-fill barrels are going for a fraction of what they cost a few years ago. Shelf prices on the finished bottles have barely moved. So sourced-whiskey brands must be printing money right now. Buy the cheap barrel, sell at the same old price, pocket the difference.
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2 min read
Most operators in this industry are well connected. They have their brokers, their relationships, their sources, and barrels move through those channels every day. What is harder to come by is signal: knowing which of the barrels in circulation are...
4 min read
Ask a whiskey operator to name the risks to their brand and you will get a predictable list. The liquid might not be good enough. The price might be wrong. The story might not land. Demand might soften. Every one of those is real, and every one of...
6 min read
Most people choosing how to make their whiskey are answering the wrong question. They ask which path is most legitimate, or which one a serious brand would take. Neither question has a useful answer, because every one of these paths has built real...
9 min read
Every whiskey brand claims a story. Few of them are the same kind of story.
4 min read
The whiskey and spirits industry has never had a shortage of content. What it has a shortage of is signal.
5 min read
The bourbon glut story has gone fully mainstream. It is in the Wall Street Journal. It is in hospitality industry newsletters. It is moving through LinkedIn feeds alongside Airbnb travel data and restaurant color trends. The headline writes itself:...
7 min read
On April 30, 2026, President Trump announced the removal of the 10% tariff on Scotch whisky imports to the United States. He posted it on Truth Social, framed it as a personal gesture to King Charles III and Queen Camilla following their state visit...
3 min read
For most of the last decade, whiskey brands were rewarded for moving quickly. If you had good liquid, a credible story, and enough capital to get to shelf, the market usually absorbed the rest. Demand covered timing mistakes. Distribution smoothed...
7 min read
The announcements came in close succession. Jim Beam paused production at its main Clermont campus for all of 2026. MGP followed, idling Lux Row Distillers in Bardstown and Limestone Branch in Lebanon starting May 1, for up to twelve months. Diageo...
