17 Products and Trends We See Coming in 2020

Gear Patrol | January 11, 2020

Craft whiskey gets serious (and tasty)

“Craft whiskey sucked. Largely because ‘craft’ means squat, but also because running a whiskey business on a small-scale that makes any money at all has, historically speaking, proved next to impossible. A distiller needs a huge amount of cash to get started — for barrels, stills, experienced staff, rickhouses, connections with distributors, bottling facilities, etc. — but cash alone is nothing. Time is the enemy. Nobody is clamoring for one-, two-, three- or four-year-old brown — what kind of startup can’t sell a respectable product four years into operation? Thankfully, we’re now enough years removed from the whiskey boom for those once-nascent distillers to have opened up shop, made their bets and put their own whiskey rest, mature, sell and, potentially, stand a fighting chance against the macro-whiskey titans. Watch brands like New Riff, Willet (their own stuff, not the sourced bottles), Old Elk, Westward and Balcones carve out more territory in liquor stores — and your bar cart.” — Will Price, Assistant Editor

Full article at gearpatrol.com