An analysis from University of Kentucky economists says the cost of bourbon has been on a recent decline.
Ken Troske is the chair at UK’s Department of Economics. He analyzed consumer data on Scotch and bourbon whiskeys and presented his findings to the school’s recent Economic Outlook Conference.
He found the cost of bourbon has gone up by nearly 40% from 2006 to 2020. But since the 20s began, prices have been coming back down.
He says bourbon sales have reflected a similar trend. Domestic sales of whiskeys fell 1.8% last year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council.
But Troske says those trends aren’t totally set in stone, depending on the quality of the bourbon.
“The declines in prices tend to occur at the more modestly priced bottles of Scotch and bourbon. Those premium and ultra premium bottles seem to, in both bourbon and Scotch, have been stable, or even increasing,” Troske said.
Consumer data wasn’t analyzed as part of the report, but Troske theorizes one reason why could be because of changing demographics.
“Baby Boomers are leaving the market, not drinking as much, or reaching the age where they're passing away. And so, I think that's some of the effect that we see now,” Troske said. “But I still think the baby boomers that are drinking this stuff are still pretty wealthy enough to have been shifting towards… the premium stuff because of their income levels.”
Troske says that currently, exports aren’t a big share of bourbon production. But that could change as distillers look to expand their presence globally. He says tariffs could harm that long-term goal.
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