Dominic Roskrow, Director of Craft Distillers’ Alliance, in the UK, informed us this week about a new initiative benefiting small, independent UK whisky producers, allowing them to sell even a single bottle of whisky directly to British consumer and trade customers.
ADI is growing at 30% a year, the current number of DSPs is close to over 400 with another 50 under construction. We feel in 2013, we will easily break the 500 mark for Craft Distilleries. We expect more than 800 people in attendance at our 10th Anniversary Spirits Conference & Vendor Expo in Denver, CO. Conference information, registration and the annual Judging of Artisan American Spirits can be accessed on our website.
On the surface, America’s distillers are waging a heated competition for the favor of consumers.
Below the surface, their representatives are waging an even more heated battle against moves by numerous states to bring in more revenue to offset shortages caused by the current economic malaise.
2009 marked the 70th anniversary of the Los Angeles International Wine and Spirits Competition and the third year of judging spirits. 2009 was the first year that all spirits categories were included and as a result the number of spirits entries jumped to 199, 36 received gold medals. New categories such as flavored vodka and Agave spirits were included, but the greatest response was 55 entries in the category of 100% Blue Agave Tequila.
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