Recent News
Trade War Tariffs Made Whiskey Cheaper — Except in Kentucky
The Counterintuitive Economics of Tariffs: How a 2018 Trade War Put Cheaper Whiskey on Most American Shelves — But Not in Kentucky or Tennessee When the Trump administration lit the fuse on a global trade war in 2018, the conventional wisdom inside the spirits industry was that everyone would lose
Diageo Forced to Reformulate Indian Spirits After Flavor Ban
Diageo's India Reckoning: How a Flavoring Crackdown Forced the World's Biggest Spirits Company to the Reformulation Table India's alcohol industry does not often make headlines the way Kentucky's bourbon country or Scotland's whisky distilleries do, but what has unfolded over the past several week
Whiskey War: America Hits Back at Canada
Something has been building along the northern border for a year and a half now, and it finally came to a head. The U.S. government has slapped a 50% tariff on Canadian spirits, and the man running the country's biggest liquor trade group says it's about time. Chris Swonger, who serves as Presi
A Three-Day Pause Could Save American Whiskey
Canadians and Americans have been fighting over booze for a year and a half now, and it's finally starting to look like somebody blinked. On the night of August 18, 2026, President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account that he was hitting pause on a massive tariff hike that was set to ham
India Bans Diageo Spirits Over Flavouring and Labelling Violations
India's Food Safety Regulator Drops the Hammer on Diageo — and the Ripples Reach Every Bottle on the Shelf For decades, the global spirits industry has treated India as the great frontier — a billion-plus consumers, a rapidly expanding middle class, and a domestic whisky culture so enormous it dwa
Canada's Ban on American Spirits Is Reshaping Whiskey Sales
When Trade Wars Come for the Whiskey Shelf: How Canada's Ban on American Spirits Is Reshaping the Brown Liquor Landscape There is a particular kind of dissonance that hits you when you walk into a government liquor store and find a wall of empty shelving where the bourbon used to be. No Jim Beam.
Tariffs on Scotch Are Gone, Here's What Changes
The price you pay for a bottle of Scotch, or the tab you run up at your favorite bar, is about to look a little different. President Trump has moved to remove Section 301 tariffs on Scotch whisky and other UK whiskies, and the industry groups that represent the people who make, sell, and pour these
Trump's 50% Tariff on Canadian Whisky Reshapes Trade
A Trade War Poured Neat: Trump's 50% Tariff on Canadian Whisky Changes the Game The U.S.-Canada spirits trade, once a model of continental cooperation, has entered its most turbulent chapter yet. The Trump administration announced that a 50 percent tariff on Canadian goods — including whisky, wine
US Tariff Removal Transforms Scotch Whisky's Future
Scotch Whisky Gets Its Moment: The US Tariff Removal That Changes Everything For more than a year, the Scotch whisky industry watched one of its most important commercial relationships deteriorate in real time. American importers absorbed cost shocks. Scottish distillers saw order volumes shrink.
Distilled Spirits Council Statement on Trump's 50% Canada Tariff
American whiskey makers just got caught in the middle of a fight that has nothing to do with the whiskey itself, and now they're bracing for another hit. President Trump has signed a proclamation putting a 50% tariff on spirits coming in from Canada, and the group that speaks for the U.S. distilled
