F F O O E E T T A A SSTT
N N O O I I N N U U E E TTHH R E P A P E T I H W Y R T S U D
N I D E T S UPDA
’ K C I L T INS
K L E A H MIC
T WRIT
Y EN B
AE MICH
S L KIN
TLIC
K
INTRODUCTION The Craft Distilling market in the United States is no longer a quaint
curiosity, but is front-and-center and driving some of the
most important trends in the market today. Spirits have been enjoying a resurgence from the “Sex in the City” and “Mad Men” cocktail–fueled lifestyle dramas
leading to trendy mixology lounges now appearing across the country. Although still small as a proportion of total volume and sales, both breakout products like Tito’s Vodka, and innovative firms like Leopold Bros, Corsair Artisan, and my own Coppersea Distilling are redefining the US spirits landscape. As
described
in
previous
editions of this paper, the number of Craft Distillers is doubling every 3 years, and this trajectory held true in 2014 as well. We identified
588
CHART
TAL 1 — TO
IN-PRO
DUCT
AFT D ION CR
ISTILLE
RIES
in-production
craft distilleries at year’s-end 2014,
including
116
new
entrants. When the first edition of this White Paper came out in 2012, those 2011 numbers were 234 total- and 42 new- entrants (since revised upwards). With 588 Craft Distilleries in production and over 100
“legacy” production
LIC A — US
2 CHART
ENSED
DISTIL
SINC LERIES
E 1880
operations,
we
can
say
that
firmly the
number
of US production distilleries is now higher has
than been
it since
Prohibition. As
Chart
2A
shows, the US once had
thousands
(and, earlier, tens-
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