Bourbon producers’ headache

(London, Kentucky) He was a captain in the Army, returning from a tour in Iraq. She was a manager in a bank. They wanted to change their lives. They started making bourbon.

They called their whiskey MB Roland.

“My husband’s name is Tomishewski, it sounds more vodka, so we used my name,” Mary Beth Roland tells me at her boutique in Cave City, in southern Kentucky.

Started 20 years ago, their artisanal production has ridden the best years of the industry. But the good days have passed.

Distillers in the state where bourbon was born have 16 million barrels of this signature whiskey in stock. Annual sales are around… 3 million barrels.

“In 2022, we sold everything we had on the shelves. This is no longer the case. » So that from 600 barrels per year, production increased to 300.

This particular whiskey takes its name from a county near Louisville named Bourbon in honor of the King of France, who had supported the Revolution. It must be made with at least 51% corn alcohol, and aged in smoke-blackened oak barrels.

Bourbon went out of fashion in the 1980s, but it experienced extraordinary growth at the turn of the 2000s. In 2014, Suntory, a Japanese whiskey giant, acquired one of Kentucky’s main distilleries, Jim Beam, for some 15 billion. Bourbon had become in. Exports have exploded, going from 478 million to 2.4 billion per year in the last 25 years.

Major brands have increased production and dozens of new players, like Mary Beth, have entered the market.

A market that is now contracting very quickly.

Jim Beam announced in December the complete shutdown for one year of its production at its Clermont distillery, in the suburbs of Louisville. We no longer know how to dispose of all these barrels stacked in huge black warehouses that look like chicken coops, where they age for at least two years, sometimes four or more.

Walking around Kentucky, you can see such warehouses, set up in the middle of nowhere, sometimes 200 km from the parent company, simply because land large enough to accommodate them was found.

Obviously, the Canadian and European boycott has something to do with it. Sales in Canada fell from 203 million to 60 million in the last year. In Europe, the main export market, a customs agreement with the United States was concluded, but sales fell by 35%: losses of more than 200 million.

“We don’t export, but the boycott in Canada and Europe still affects us,” says Santos Garcia, of the small Linkumpinch distillery, which has also halved its production.

The Democratic governor of this very Republican state, Andy Beshear, denounced the president’s policies. But he tried to convince Canadian governments that by boycotting bourbon, we were targeting the wrong target. The industry provides 23,000 jobs, from distillers to farmers to barrel makers. And judging by voting intentions in Kentucky, Republicans aren’t exactly upset by Trump’s policies. Rather, Canadians are blamed for these retaliatory measures.

Much was made of this boycott, which was costly. But on total annual sales of 5 billion, export losses are not catastrophic. The distillers’ problem lies elsewhere, and it runs deep.

Since 2023, alcohol consumption has declined markedly in the United States. Particularly among 18-34 year olds.

Will, a tall, redheaded 23-year-old, was placing cases of beer in the liquor store when I entered. Bourbon may be as iconic to Kentucky as horse racing, Louisville Slugger baseball bats, Muhammad Ali and bluegrass, but Will has no interest in the spirit, which survived Prohibition by being classified as a prescription drug – no more than a gallon per 10-day period, however.

“Nah, people of my generation, we don’t drink. » He points to a case of Michelob Ultra. “Maybe because they sponsor the FIFA World Cup…”

For 90 years, Gallup has measured Americans’ alcohol consumption by survey. The figures for 2025¹ are the lowest ever recorded. After a post-pandemic peak, the proportion of adults who consume it has fallen to 54%, a record. And those who drink do so less. Among young people, consumption has decreased even more.

Recent studies on the dangers of alcohol have had their effect. Two thirds of 18-34 year olds say that even in moderation, alcohol is harmful.

The legalization of marijuana in 40 of the 50 states also has something to do with it.

“They think it’s less dangerous, that they can drive their car [après avoir fumé de la marijuana] », dit Santos Garcia.

“All we can do is be relevant; we choose our grains, our cooper, we don’t make generic bourbon,” says Mary Beth Roland.

She shows me around all her vintages, corn-rye, corn-wheat, explains to me the subtleties of aging… I ask her if she sets an example, if she drinks it every day.

” But no ! Only on weekends! »