BUSY DAYS FOR BRANDY

PERHAPS YOU HAVE missed it but the “big thing” in the spirits world these days is . . . brandy. Category sales are way up; the brandy boom is currently bigger than the market surges for American whiskey and Tequila. And while so much focus has been on premium rosé, brandy sales are actually growing at almost the same rate. According to the Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS), sales of brandy (including Cognac) in the US were up 5.4 percent by volume in 2O16. Nielsen data showed that sales in July of rosé by volume were up 5.2 percent over the previous year in the grocery and drug stores it measures. Moreover, as with rosé, brandy sales are rising faster for more expensive bottles. Cognac makes up 39 percent of the US brandy market by volume but 71 percent by value, according to DISCUS statistics. Sales of brandy more than $3O are up 16 percent by volume and these brandies now represent 11 percent of all bottles sold. Just 1O years ago, sales of high-end brandies made up only 5 percent of the US market by volume. And of course, expensive bottles are where the money is. Brandies priced $3O-plus account for 32 percent of dollar sales in the US now. A decade years ago, that figure was just 12 percent. Food for thought as the holiday buying season quickly approaches.