Younger americans continued to drink their fair share if whiskey. Long believed to be an “old man” drink, Whiskey is becoming more popular amongst Generation Y.
Sales of American whiskey rose 7.7 percent in 2016, outpacing the entire spirits industry — helping steal more market share from US brewers for the seventh straight year, a report out Tuesday revealed according to a recent NY Post Article.
The growth for American whiskeys include bourbon, rye and Tennessee whiskey. The catalyst for this growth was led by millennials’ interest in the spirit, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
Millennials are mainly interested in “authentic” consumer items as whiskeys fall into this category.
Overall, sales of distilled spirits rose 4.5 percent last year, to $25.2 billion. Volume shipments increased 2.4 percent, to 220 million cases as cited in the NY Post.
The gains boosted the domestic market share of spirits to 35.9 percent of adult beverages, up 3 percentage points since 2009 according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States report.
The report also showed that the beer market share slipped to 47 percent — down 3.5 percentage points since 2009.
Source: NY Post
Wine’s market share has been pretty consistent at about 17 percent as Millennials make up for 50% of wine sales inn the U.S.
Sales of American whiskeys rose to 48.4 million cases last year, however, it is far behind Whiskeys consumption during its heyday in the seventies. “Before it was about sipping Whiskey” says Dan Caruso, founder of Dan Caruso Media and a self-proclaimed Whiskey connoisseur. “Now Millennials make Whiskey part of their usual drink rotation” according to Caruso.
In 1970, American whiskey consumption peaked at almost 80 million cases, while the US adult population has doubled since then. So although Whiskeys are making a comeback, its far from its peak in the 70s.
US whiskeys are also setting the export pace, accounting for 70 percent of the $1.4 billion in domestic distilled spirits shipped overseas last year according to the latest survey.
