A Decade of Change
This week, we are launching the Lost Lantern Fall 2024 Collection, consisting of 10-year-old single cask whiskies from four distilleries across the country. Ten years ago, when these whiskies were distilled, both Nora and I were already in the spirits industry, although we had not really had the idea for Lost Lantern yet. And the industry we were in was almost completely different than what we see today.
The Glory Days of Vodka
Ten years ago, the spirits industry was quite a different place than it is today. So many things that we now take for granted were just then emerging as new trends, and have since come to fruition. And some tastes, then ubiquitous, have now largely faded away.
Today, Lost Lantern’s purpose is to encourage whiskey lovers to discover great new whiskies from all across the country. Ten years ago, well before Lost Lantern started, it was honestly still an uphill battle to get many people to take American whiskey seriously at all–and yes, that includes Kentucky bourbon. Back then, the dominant force in the industry wasn’t whiskey at all, but vodka. There were near endless proliferations of new flavored vodkas all the time… some of them totally outlandish, made with artificial flavor compounds to taste like cheap bakery sweets, and some made with true craft and care, like St. George’s Green Chile Vodka, still the only vodka regularly found at our home bar.
It is very hard to describe the degree to which the industry’s energy was centered around vodka. I got my start writing about the business of spirits, and vodka was the dominant force for every retailer, almost every bar, and the vast majority of producers too.
Bourbon’s Slow Ascent
To the extent that whiskey was on the radar at all, most of the action centered around Scotch. Then as now, blended Scotch was the driver in the industry in terms of sales volume, but single malt was where the excitement and innovation was. Distilleries like Glenmorangie and Ardbeg were increasingly releasing new special editions with unique finishes. Many distilleries that were not previously widely available in the U.S., like Mortlach (hardly a small independent distillery!), came out with their own ranges. And the first wave of new Scotch distilleries, led by Bruichladdich and Arran, began to emerge into their prime. And companies like Compass Box and Wemyss Malts fought hard to revitalize blended Scotch and blended malt as a force in whiskey artisanry.
As for bourbon? The boom that we’re seeing now, that now feels like it has been going on for ages, was just starting to really get going. To be fair, bourbon sales have been on the rise for many years now, since well before 2014. But it was much more recently that they truly hit critical mass. That bourbon tourism in Kentucky started to become a major industry. That more and more Kentucky bourbons became hyper-rare and hard to get. And bourbon was still very affordable! Now-hyped whiskies like Blanton’s were easily attainable for their official price. Booker’s was $50 and one of the more expensive bourbons on the average shelf, minus a handful of super old whiskies. Many $20 bourbons still had 6-8 year old age statements, and $50+ ones would be in the double digits. There were still a handful of very expensive bourbons, of course: even back then, Pappy Van Winkle was very hard to find and the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection went for much more than its official pricing. Old Forester Birthday Bourbon and Parker’s Heritage Collection were already highly sought-after. But most of the time, it was fairly rare to see a bourbon over $100, or even close to it. It was a different world.
Craft’s Early Days
And as for whiskey from other parts of the country… Jack Daniel’s was its own beast, as it is now. George Dickel was in the same boat as the other Kentucky distilleries and was building a devoted following. And MGP was by then well-known in the industry, but not nearly as much so by regular whiskey drinkers. Sourcing whiskey back then was very commonplace, but many more companies openly and actively lied about their whiskey. They said they made it themselves when they didn’t. Many places are still fairly deceptive or at least not particularly transparent, but back then, there was often simply no way to tell beyond trusting what a brand said.
As for craft whiskey… it was still in its infancy. In fact, some of our younger partners, like Andalusia and J. Rieger & Co, hadn’t even opened yet, and many others hadn’t released anything! Others, from the first big wave of craft distilleries, which opened from around 2008-2010, were starting to hit their stride, despite a very high degree of public skepticism and indifference just about everyplace except Texas (a state that has always done a great job of supporting its distilleries). There were also a great many new distilleries putting out very young whiskey, often made by non-professional distillers who were still learning the ropes. While places like Balcones, Westland, and Cedar Ridge were already putting out great and exciting whiskey (not to mention places like St. George and McCarthy’s, which have been around a lot longer), many small distilleries put out whiskey that was not up to the standard of what we see today. This is part of what helped earn craft whiskey a relatively bad reputation in its early days. But even distilleries that were a little uneven at first kept working hard at and perfecting their craft.
A Changed Media Landscape
The whiskey world was much smaller in 2014. There were fewer major players, there were far fewer engaged, excited, and curious whiskey drinkers, and there were fewer ways to learn about new whiskies. Traditional media, places like Whisky Advocate (the magazine that I wrote for before Nora and I started Lost Lantern), had huge influence. By 2014, the glory days of independent whiskey blogs had begun to pass, and the energy online was starting to move more towards large, organized sites like VinePair that had true editorial teams. Reviews and awards mattered a great deal. It was well before the days of the whiskey influencer. Even though social media already felt ubiquitous at the time… it had come nowhere close to the extent we see today.
A Different World
So much has changed, obviously. It’s striking to think back on how important vodka used to be. It is still, of course, a major seller and major revenue driver across the industry. Scotch has unfortunately gotten much more expensive, in large part because of tariffs. But American whiskey, and increasingly tequila, is where the action is. It is by far the most developed spirits section in just about any spirits retailer these days. It is increasingly even taking space from wine, which (spoiler alert) has much better margins for stores than spirits do.
But at the same time, it feels like we may be at a peak in the whiskey boom. I won’t say the peak–I think whiskey has many years of growth ahead–but a short-term high point. The pandemic brought so many new people into whiskey, and the excitement around it has been louder than ever. But there have been signs of fatigue lately. Too many brands. Too many special editions or limited offerings. High prices.
At the same time, more great whiskey is being released than ever before, and it’s coming from all over the country. And a lot of whiskey from those newer distilleries can now compete with what comes from Kentucky… not by doing the same things, but by doing very different things and by doing them well. We’ve seen age statements across the country creep up. And many distilleries across the country, places like Balcones and Frey Ranch and Starlight, now have their own truly devoted followings nationwide.
To newer whiskey drinkers, Kentucky is still generally the default for American whiskey, but whiskey from other states is not strange. It’s normal. It is now quite uncommon for someone to insist to us at a festival that bourbon can only be made in Kentucky. This used to happen constantly. Give it a few more years, and the new default will be that great whiskey can come from all over the country.
That is a message we have pushed and encouraged since we started. And we will continue to. There may be ups and downs and growing pains for the industry along the way, but this new world of American whiskey is here to stay.