Is the madness ever going to end? Are those unicorn bottles going to continue to climb in price for the future? How did we end up here? Past guest Chuck Cowdery, a bourbon authority, enlightens us to how the history of bourbon being an unwanted commodity created stocks of well aged whiskey that led us to the market we see today.

Show Notes:

• Let’s talk about the past and the bourbon, crisis, was it an overall understanding that bourbon might be extinct?
• At what point did you come in to see some of this first hand?
• How did advertising work for bourbon? How did you get it into the hands of elders?
• How did no one see this coming? Like literally no one.
• You talk about the resurgence of bourbon was partly because of the lack of drinkers because it led to the unintentional benefit of very well-aged whiskey
• What were distillers doing with this better aged whiskey?
• Do you think exports are the biggest benefactor?
• What were bourbon brands doing at the time to appeal to the Japanese and European markets?
• So people are buying whiskey again, how are distillers ramping up production?
• Was there a surge of more NDPs and independent bottlers buying sourced whiskey?
• Why do you call this a “not so attractive” trend?
• At what point did we start seeing the “shortage”? or is there really a shortage?
• Have NDPs died off because they can’t source or contract distill now?
• Will craft distillers put a dent in the market or are they just looking for their piece of the pie?
• Do you think any of these companies will be “under water” on their investments when the bourbon matures for sales in 4-12 years? Especially when they have to compete with the big boys as they are expanding.
• Do you think we are going to see people drop off because we don’t have a lot of well-aged whiskey now? We have distillers and craft distillers removing age statements. How will that effect the future?
• What’s the key to making this trend last?