Are Single Barrels An Endangered Species?

Despite evidence to the contrary, single-barrel sales are alive and well.

Increasingly, I read and hear people claiming that single-barrel whiskey sales are slowing. Most cite their research as conducted in liquor stores where they shop often enough to know the same bottles are in the same places and gathering new dust with each visit.

I’m unsure whether to be impressed with their eyesight or concerned about their shopping frequency, so I’ll not go there. So, to the real question: Are single barrel sales sliding?

So, why are these “picks” gathering dust?

It's not likely when you consider the challenge of getting a pick at Buffalo Trace. Same at any large Kentucky distillery, from what I’m told by employees who run those programs.

So, why are these “picks” gathering dust? Are there too many on the market now? It used to be that legacy distillers, especially those with old barrels ripe for store pick harvest, supplied the bulk of those options. But as newer distilleries saw the money spent on those one-of-a-kind casks, they joined the scrum.

Another factor might be that many of us own too many of them. A long-held bottle collector’s rule was to buy three of what you like: one to drink, one to shelve and one to trade. Reckon how many times one was drunk and two were shelved and spouses warned, “DON’T bring any more WHISKEY into this HOUSE!”?

The bottom line is I’m not convinced of a sales slowdown, especially as a broad industry concern. I claim that with a little insight gained working for a client, the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. In 2021, our team picked 10 single barrels. The following year, the number rose to around 15. In 2023, the number eclipsed 20. This year, it will be no less than 30 and possibly 40—all single barrels picked by our team and sold at each distillery’s booth.

A liquor retailer friend, whose opinion is valued, said, “That’s too much. You’re overdoing it. No way you’re going to sell all those bottles.” Perhaps he’s right. We’ll see in September.

But nearly every distillery the KYBF has approached wants to supply a single barrel, and a few have offered two. A barrel pick manager at one the largest distilleries, which we’ve picked from, said, “Demand is insane! We’ve constantly got groups coming through here for picks. It’s hard to keep up.” A pick manager at another said his employer sells 250 picks yearly and wants to double that to 500 next year.

To be fair, here’s why the KYBF might not be the best case study for this. Kentucky law allows distilleries to sell package liquor under the KYBF’s event license. So, distilleries bring cases of single barrels to the event without moving them through the second or third tier. If any bottles remain unsold, they’re moved back to each distillery’s gift shop and sold there. Kentucky laws and the KBYF has made it easy for them.

Still, I'll be surprised if a full sellout doesn’t happen. Here’s why.

I can’t disclose dollar sales from last year, but the number was bonkers! Distilleries offering single barrel bottles sold out, and distilleries who didn’t wanted in for 2024. Single-barrel bottle sales were followed by a tsunami of standard line and special release sales, which made the KYBF the highest-grossing liquor sales site in Kentucky that weekend.

Since a large portion of the KYBF’s 7,000 attendees are from out of state, it’s not crazy to assume that single-barrel bottles—at least a huge concentration of them—aren’t always available where they live.

The fact is single barrels are about the only modern unicorns available to most drinkers these days. And I don’t foresee the novelty of getting something that unique and for a decent price remains strong fading soon.