4 min read
Proof Points: What's Moving the Barrel Market Right Now
The whiskey and spirits industry has never had a shortage of content. What it has a shortage of is signal.
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5 min read
The Category Making News Is Not the Category You're Building In
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
Whiskey Has Never Started a Trade War. It Only Ever Pays for One.
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
Why Timing, Not Liquid, Decides Who Wins the Next Whiskey Cycle
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 Pause That Creates Space: Production Cuts, Contract Distilling, and the Brand Builder's Window
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...
4 min read
Before the Tariffs Lift: How Smart Operators Are Building International Buyer Relationships Now
American whiskey exports fell 19% in 2025, a decline of $250 million, according to the DISCUS 2025 American Spirits Exports Report. The headline number is striking. The detail underneath it is more useful for operators trying to make decisions.
5 min read
The Label Knows First: What TTB Approvals Reveal About Where Whiskey Brands Are Heading
There is a number that does not get talked about enough in whiskey circles: the monthly count of new label approvals coming out of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). It is not a glamorous data point. But tracked over time, it works...
5 min read
Brown-Forman Now Has Two Suitors. Here Is What That Means for the Rest of the Market.
The spirits industry's biggest story just got more complicated. Two weeks after Pernod Ricard and Brown-Forman confirmed they were in active merger discussions, Bloomberg reported last week that Sazerac has entered the picture with its own approach....
3 min read
What Does a Bourbon Barrel Broker Do? The Shifting Model
Bourbon’s popularity has surged in recent years, drawing in brands, distilleries, investors, and collectors from around the world. At the center of that growth sits the barrel market. But despite its importance, the role of the bourbon barrel broker...
2 min read
How to Start a Whiskey Brand: Exploring Your Liquid Options
One of the earliest and most consequential decisions when starting a whiskey brand is where the liquid will come from. While it is unrealistic for a new founder to know exact case volumes before launch, it is still essential to think beyond the...