Strong sales growth in B.C. for American whiskey is stimulating increasing marketing efforts from large U.S. bourbon producers.
Kentucky-based Buffalo Trace Distillery, for example, is sending master distiller Harlen Wheatley to B.C. this week to attend a dinner at Brix Restaurant and Wine Bar on January 20 that will pair five courses of food each with a different bourbon. Tickets are still available.
Wheatley will then instruct some of the dozens of tastings and classes that will be part of the January 21 and January 22 Victoria Whisky Festival, which is sold out.
Overall, whisky sales in B.C. fell 2% to $225,800,591 in the year that ended November 2010. American whiskey, which tends to be corn based as opposed to rye or barley based, grew 9% to $14,019,859 during the same time frame.
High-end American whiskey, which sells for more than $30 per bottle, grew by 35% to $2,170,205.
“Although growing from a small base, this segment of the American whiskey category is the hot part of the overall whisky category,” said Bacchus Group sales manager John Pilley.
“It has been embraced by the downtown bartender community.”
Bars and pubs disproportionately use the high-end whiskey, Pilley added.