The distilled spirits industry in the United States has had another challenging year. The government shutdown tested the industry’s resolve by delaying certificate of label approvals (COLA) while the on-again, off-again tariffs made doing business nearly impossible as the costs for materials like bottles and corks coming from overseas could vary wildly on any given day. Meanwhile, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States reported that the US lost more than 20 per cent of its distilled spirits plants between 2024 and 2025, though there was only a one per cent decrease in both volume and sales of American whiskeys during that time. Kentucky has not been immune to those market challenges, yet the Kentucky Bourbon Trail reported 2.7 million visitors in 2025 — a sure sign that Kentucky bourbon is not slowing down any time soon.
“We still have distilleries that are making the adjustments they need to realign inventory,” says Kentucky Distillers’ Association president Eric Gregory. “You’ve heard the Jim Bean announcement last year, and you’ve got a few more distilleries that have scaled back production like BBC [Bardstown Bourbon Company] and Green River. We still remain hopeful that we can get the Canada problem resolved. That would be a great shot of adrenaline for the industry to be able to resume sales there. In the meantime, people remain cautiously optimistic and cautiously anxious at the same time as to what it’s going to look like in the next couple of years... It seems to be the general consensus to give us a couple of years, this year and next year, to really right the ship again or realign inventories and hopefully get some of the trade and other things settled. At that point, we can start to talk about more of a stable prediction on what the future looks like.”
Despite sluggish sales, there have still been numerous positive developments in the Kentucky bourbon industry over the last year.
Heaven Hill Springs Distillery officially opened last September and has been producing whiskey, bringing a portion of Heaven Hill’s distillation back to Bardstown after the devastating distillery fire of 1996. Jackson Purchase Distillery became a Heritage Member of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association and began releasing an aged whiskey under its own brand name. Pursuit Spirits opened its visitor experience on Louisville’s Whiskey Row along with Trial + Error, a cocktail speakeasy in the basement. Buffalo Trace opened the John G Carlisle Cafe at the distillery, a much-needed lunch spot for visitors, and also rolled out its 9 millionth barrel since Prohibition in September 2025.
Koetter completed its first seven-storey K-Rax rickhouse at Whiskey House of Kentucky, a completely new design with improved safety features compared to more traditional styles. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail added more than 11 new stops for 2026: WhistlePig locations in both Louisville and Brandenberg; Uncle Boojie; J Mattingly 1845; Dark Arts Whiskey House; LF Heritage Distilling; Left Bank Distilling; Chicken Cock in Louisville; the Green River tasting room in Louisville; the General George Stillhouse; and the Purple Toad Winery and Distillery. The Bourbon Women Association celebrated 15 years in 2026, marked by bringing together numerous women distillers and blenders to create a collaborative blend at Whiskey Thief. Kirin sold Four Roses to Gallo in California, bringing the storied brand back under American ownership for the first time since 1943 when Canadian-owned Seagram’s bought it, and the brand has released its oldest whiskey ever at 21 years old. The Blending House opened in Shelbyville, Kentucky as home to both the Spirits Group and Koetter’s prototype K-Rax warehouses. Autumn Nethery was named VP of operations at Jeptha Creed Distillery and Lisa Wicker was named director of distilling at Whiskey Thief Distilling. OH Ingram Distillery is now open to visitors, boasting the world’s only floating barge rickhouse on the river. Potter Jane announced its first aged whiskey, a sourced and vatted product they called “Big Vat Liar” after their promises to never source.
But in addition to the cutbacks at Green River and Bardstown Bourbon Company, there have been numerous scale-backs across the Commonwealth. Barrel Craft Spirits sold its newer facility and moved all its production back to the original facility. Jim Beam paused production at its Clermont distillery and is currently doing all production at its Boston Facility, the Booker Noe Plant. And Brown-Forman shuttered its cooperage after decades of operation.
But there’s still good news when it comes to tourism, which seems to have been largely unaffected by the economic downturn.
“Tourism is insulated from the production issues that are going on and the trade issues that are going on,” Gregory says. “I mean, we have not slowed down one iota of promoting the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and the distilleries are all doing really cool things, especially with these new satellite tasting rooms. With the economy, a lot of people are scaling back on big travel plans, including international travel plans, and they’re staying close to home. Well, that helps us because we’re within a six-hour drive of most of the nation’s population. We have started to see tourists picking up from New York City and California and all places in between.”
A lot of those visitors are coming for festivals like the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, Bourbon & Beyond, the Bourbon Classic, and Bourbon on the Banks. New for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival this year is verified face-value ticket reselling, making buying and selling tickets to the event safer for everyone involved with no inflated secondary prices.
This year’s Kentucky Bourbon Festival marks the 35th edition, taking place between 10–13 September. As well as more than 60 distilleries being represented this year, there are also a number of events and experiences dedicated to education, cocktails, and cooking with bourbon.
Another major update to the Commonwealth’s repertoire is retail private barrel selections that are available to folks without any sort of store or bar affiliation. Kentucky Artisan, Whiskey Thief, Angel’s Envy, Buzzard’s Roost, and more are offering full barrels and sometimes even smaller barrels to fit various budgets.
“We’ve been talking for the past 10 years that we thought private barrel selections were going to be the future of tourism experiences,” Gregory explains. “I had gotten a call from the ABC during Covid saying that our private barrel selections were basically illegal, even though we’ve been doing them for 50 years. The term they used was ‘not grounded in statutory authority’, which meant there wasn’t a law. There wasn’t a law that allowed it, but there wasn’t a law that denied it. Kentucky alcohol law is written backwards. If it’s not expressly allowed, it’s prohibited. They were looking out for the best interest of the distilleries. So we changed a lot of laws on that, not only to legalise private barrel selections, but you can now start offering them through your gift shops and not having to go through the three-tier system for a portion of them.”
And that’s what keeps visitors coming back to Kentucky. Distilleries are always working to add new experiences and spaces for bourbon enthusiasts. Private barrels are just the tip of the iceberg.
“The distillers are constantly reinventing themselves to continue to attract new visitors and repeat visitors,” Gregory says. “I think Walter Zausch has really done a fantastic job, not only at his distillery in Frankfort, growing his own corn, and offering thieving from a barrel — he was the first one to do that and now that’s really caught on big. The Whiskey Thief tasting room in Louisville is unlike any other one. It stays open later at night. It features jazz nights. He’s really setting the bar for tourism in Louisville right now. On top of that, you’ve got distilleries that are doing more behind-the-scenes tours and exclusive tours with high-end tastings. People now understand that you can’t just come and do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in the long week anymore. The days of renting a car or getting a tour company to take you down and visit all the distilleries and get your passport stamped, get your free t-shirt are over. There are almost 70 participating distilleries now, and we’re encouraging people to slow down and really savour the experience and to come back.”
“In 10 years, I would like to think that the Kentucky Bourbon Trail will be drawing upwards of 5 million people a year,” Gregory says. “We would love to get more California and more New York visitors, but internationally, it’s still basically an untapped market for us. If they’re going to come, there’s a lot to do with trade policy and feelings towards America like we’ve seen in Canada that could have an impact on that. We’ve got to continue to do more to overcome any anti-American sentiment. In the next 10 years we’ll hopefully get back to the zero to zero tariffs, the reciprocal trade that’s really helped drive the bourbon revolution from the turn of the century. History has thrown everything at us, including Prohibition...and we’ve always come out stronger on the other side.”
