Whiskey’s rebellion still hitting high bar

Americans continued to swim in a whiskey river last year.

Sales of American whiskey rose 7.7 percent in 2016, outpacing the entire spirits industry — helping steal more market share from US brewers for the seventh straight year, a report out Tuesday revealed.

The growth in sales of American whiskeys — which include bourbon, rye and Tennessee whiskey — was led by millennials’ interest in the spirit, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

Millennials continue to be interested in “authentic” consumer products like whiskeys, said David Ozgo, the group’s chief economist.

Overall, sales of distilled spirits rose 4.5 percent last year, to $25.2 billion. Volume shipments increased 2.4 percent, to 220 million cases, the group said at a media briefing.

The gains boosted the domestic market share of spirits to 35.9 percent of adult beverages, up 3 percentage points since 2009.

Beer’s market share slipped to 47 percent — down 3.5 percentage points since 2009.

Wine’s market share has been pretty consistent at about 17 percent.

While sales of American whiskeys have risen in recent years, to 48.4 million cases last year, it pales in comparison with the spirits’ heyday in the seventies.

In 1970, American whiskey consumption peaked at almost 80 million cases. But when factoring in a near doubling of the US adult population since then, the 46-year-old number is equal to 153 million cases, the group said.

US whiskeys are also setting the export pace, accounting for 70 percent of the $1.4 billion in domestic distilled spirits shipped overseas last year.