ASM Biweekly: Unbuttoning Black Button & These Kids are Alright

A distillery announces its closure via Instagram on a Tuesday. A distributor files Chapter 11 on Thursday. By the time the next issue of Artisan Spirit Magazine lands, three more things have happened that change the story.

That’s the problem with a quarterly magazine in an industry moving this fast.

We take our sweet damn time with Artisan Spirit, but we do it on purpose. The quarterly is built for the things worth slowing down for: distilling education, compliance, science, and business insight that should still be useful years from now. And as this industry contracts, good distilling education is disappearing right along with the distilleries themselves. We intend to stick around and keep serving that part of the industry.

But some stories can’t wait three months.

So we built something to close that gap.

This is the first issue of Artisan Spirit Biweekly. Every two weeks: closures, new operations, mergers and acquisitions, and the regulatory and retail news worth your attention. All sourced, dated, and tracked against a database we’ve been building all year. Think of it as the Wall Street Journal of distilling, along with the extra care to conduct exit interviews with distillers faced with closing their plants.

A running record of where this industry is headed. This issue is just the first public look at that project.  

Welcome aboard.

Cheers,
Brian Christensen
Editor & Publisher, Artisan Spirit Magazine 

Get this newsletter right to your inbox every two weeks with our Biweekly+ tier and above, you can also sign up for our abbreviated TLDR newsletter.

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Recent Closures

• White Dog Distilling Co. & Bourbon Bar (Cincinnati, Ohio) closed June 14th citing never rebounding from pandemic and continued decline in sales. Owners are hopeful to relocate to a warmer climate area. Read More
• Falcon Spirits Distillery (Richmond, California) announces a temporary closure on their Instagram page after 17 years of operation. Teases production being shifted to a new location. See Post
• The Block Distilling Co. (Denver, Colorado) announces their impending closure in "2-3 months" on their Instagram page. Promise large sales on existing inventory and special one-time releases in their final months. They cite the industry being in "the dumps" and bad timing for their need to close. See Post
• Independent Stave Company (ISC) owned Alabama Cooperage, previously known as Jack Daniel’s Cooperage, will close in September, resulting in 71 job losses. Read More
• Moonshine University is permanently closing by the end of the year. Read More
• Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy leaving $300 million of unsecured claims in limbo. RNDC cites being unable to slim their stock fast enough after COVID era at-home drinking dried up, high interest rates, and rising costs as their primary reasons for filing bankruptcy. Read More

Stills Firing Up

Newly granted licenses according to TTB license data unless otherwise stated.

Distilled Spirits Plants (1)

• Tiger Mama Distillery LLC, dba Tiger Mama Distillery, Eugene, OR, DSP: OR-S-20169

Importers (18)

• TD Imports LLC, Tempe, AZ, Importer: AZ-I-21233
• CNS Beverages Corp, Coronado, CA, Importer: CA-I-24419
• Kokomii LLC, Alhambra, CA, Importer: CA-I-24418
• Always Forward Imports LLC, Westminster, CO, Importer: CO-I-21355
• Los Caballeros Tequila LLC, Fort Collins, CO, Importer: CO-I-21356
• Catalina Oso LLC, St. Petersburg, FL, Importer: FL-I-23217
• Sonadores Imports, LLC, Clearwater, FL, Importer: FL-I-23215
• Sunday Group US Hub LLC, Miami, FL, Importer: FL-I-23216
• 8eight8 LLC, Honolulu, HI, Importer: HI-I-21069
• Force Software LLC, Holiday Hills, IL, Importer: IL-I-21588
• Sterling Hemingway, LLC, Indianapolis, IN, Importer: IN-I-21101
• Altali Distribution, Inc., Sterling, MA, Importer: MA-I-21309
• Heritage Wine LLC, dba Heritage, North Bethesda, MD, Importer: MD-I-21276
• Raices Villa Imports LLC, Arden, NC, Importer: NC-I-21304
• Centroamerica'n Import LLC, San Antonio, TX, Importer: TX-I-22331
• IPC Global Supply LLC, dba IPC Global Supply, El Paso, TX, Importer: TX-I-22329
• Pana Enterprise Inc., Laredo, TX, Importer: TX-I-22330
• Paradis Vineyard and Winery, LLC, San Marcos, TX, Importer: TX-I-22328

Wholesalers (19)

• Giro LLC, Chandler, AZ, Wholesaler: AZ-P-21327
• CNS Beverages Corp, Coronado, CA, Wholesaler: CA-P-27547
• Kokomii LLC, Alhambra, CA, Wholesaler: CA-P-27546
• Sonadores Imports, LLC, Clearwater, FL, Wholesaler: FL-P-23314
• 8eight8 LLC, Honolulu, HI, Wholesaler: HI-P-21080
• BGB Holdings LLC, dba Heritage Wine & Liquor, Manhattan, KS, Wholesaler: KS-P-21480
• JLH USA LC, dba Broadway Liquor, Wichita, KS, Wholesaler: KS-P-21479
• Silver Lake Wine & Spirits, LLC, dba Silver Lake Wine and Spirits, Silver Lake, KS, Wholesaler: KS-P-21478
• Altali Distribution, Inc., Sterling, MA, Wholesaler: MA-P-21446
• Heritage Wine LLC, dba Heritage, North Bethesda, MD, Wholesaler: MD-P-21449
• Cecils Wine and Spirits Inc, dba Cecils Package Store, Cleveland, MS, Wholesaler: MS-P-21356
• Raices Villa Imports LLC, Arden, NC, Wholesaler: NC-P-21724
• Proto, LLC, dba Proto Wines, McMinnville, OR, Wholesaler: OR-P-22106
• Adams Beverages of South Carolina, LLC, Rock Hill, SC, Wholesaler: SC-P-21585
• Banjino's, LLC, Austin, TX, Wholesaler: TX-P-22671
• Otro Mas, LLC, Richmond, TX, Wholesaler: TX-P-22670
• Pana Enterprise Inc., Laredo, TX, Wholesaler: TX-P-22673
• Piney Woods Distillery LLC, Henderson, TX, Wholesaler: TX-P-22672
• Fruit Bat Spirits LLC, Wausau, WI, Wholesaler: WI-P-21311

M&A News

• Sazerac purchases UK based vodka and vodka RTD brand Au.
• Campari Group plans on selling Bisquit & Dubouché Cognac and Cabo Wabo Tequila to Irish headquartered Cobblestone Brands. Campari is also eyeing a sale of Trois Rivières, Maison La Mauny, and Duquesne rums to a “French private industry player”.
• KEG 1 River City has signed a letter of intent to acquire RNDC’s Kentucky assets. Read More
• Manhattan Beer & Beverage has taken over much of Opici/RNDC's New York State brand rights Read More
• Nevada-based Apogee 21 won the bankruptcy auction for Luca Mariano Distillery — $19.5M for the 529-acre campus, production facilities, and approximately 6,600 aging bourbon barrels. Deal not yet fully funded; Apogee still needs to secure financing. Read More
• Apogee 21 signed a letter of intent to buy Rod & Hammer's whiskey brand and distillery, including canning line, inventory, tasting room, and trademarks. Read More
• Sazerac Company (via subsidiary Tom Collins Distilling) won a $20 million court-ordered master-commissioner auction for the former Garrard County Distilling property in Lancaster well below the property's $27.9M appraisal. Read More

An original Artisan Spirit piece
Unbuttoning the Collapse of Black Button Distilling

By George B. Catallo

When a distillery grows from $3 million dollars of annual revenue to over $32 million in four short years, you wouldn't typically expect their doors to be shuttered permanently only 18 months after hitting that milestone. Sadly for Black Button Distilling, that was the unfortunate reality.

Black Button Distilling opened in 2012 making it the first distillery to open since prohibition in America’s first boomtown: Rochester, NY. Known as the Flour City, Rochester had a storied history with farming, milling, brewing, and distilling. Founder and Master Distiller Jason Barrett brought some of that history back to life. Barrett had a dream, as many do, to fulfil his passion and make the bourbon he himself would want to drink — he made that dream a reality. He not only made bourbon, he also made vodka, an array of gins, rye, single malts, and more. He even won over the harshest whiskey critic he’s ever known, his own grandmother. She left behind her lifelong favorite Canadian whisky for his bourbon.

Black Button’s products grew to be beloved in Rochester. Their seasonal lilac gin made in honor of the annual Rochester Lilac Festival was a springtime staple, their bourbon cream was even reported to outsell Bailey’s at some Rochester retailers. They saw growth year over year, which included the purchase of their own farm in 2018.

(See Artisan Spirit's interview with Barrett about the farm in our Winter 2018 issue)

All that growth did not go unnoticed. Black Button entered a strategic partnership with Constellation Brands in 2019.

The landlord for Black Button’s original space, Rohrbach Brewing Company, was seeing similar growth and notified Barrett that at the end of his 10 year lease they would not be able to renew as Rohrbach needed the space. Thankfully, Barrett was given more than a year of advance notice and saw opportunity, “That growth led us to decide to build the largest distillery in New York, capable of 40 barrels a day.” The Black Button team got right to work planning and building that dream facility that the company moved into in 2023.

The company had been profitable from 2013 through 2023, which marked their best year. It was around this time that Black Button and Constellation Brands’ strategies and directions shifted apart and they ended their strategic partnership on good terms. The new facility gave them more capacity to make not only their own products but to do significantly more contract work and copacking. They even opened up a large offsite bonded warehouse to accommodate the large volume of spirits they had in inventory.

Unfortunately the fall from their best year to their worst was swift and Black Button closed their doors in 2025. But what happened? “The final 18 months of Black Button was certainly a bit of a tragedy.” Barrett reflected. “We wanted more space. We'd grown from $3 million to $32 million in revenue in just four years, we wanted to keep growing, and we were turning away work because we didn't have the space. It all made sense on paper.”

“The build-out cost was only supposed to be about half of what we'd actually made in profit the year before,” Barrett said of the move to the new facility. “We expected that by the time we finished building the distillery, we'd be able to fully pay for it.” To fund the build in the meantime, Barrett took out bank loans using his barrel inventory as collateral. Unfortunately for Barrett and Black Button, the build did not go as planned. When they got into their new space to renovate, they found a gigantic void in the ground where solid concrete was supposed to be. “Six hundred tons of stone had to be poured into that void to secure it, and that put us woefully behind and way over budget. Renovating a historic building turned out to be a bigger challenge than we were ready for.” Their troubles didn’t end there. 

The spirits industry overall was taking several big hits at that time including the market correction of the COVID boom. “The build-out ran many millions of dollars over budget, and the value of our bourbon barrels dropped significantly at the same time.” Barrett continued, “We just weren't able to overcome those challenges with our bank — it wasn't an industry they were particularly familiar with, and the shifts in the market were very upsetting to them.”

After a long year of fighting for survival, Barrett was faced with a hard reality, “In the end, when the bank pulled the funding, we had no choice but to let the staff know we were unable to continue.” Barrett brought in a special-situations banker to try and help. “Ultimately they found a private equity group that ended up buying the assets from the bank for pennies on the dollar. That was the end of my time with Black Button.” 

At the end of our call I asked Barrett if there was any important insight he had to share that he gained from this experience.

“I've now had a year to reflect on this.” Barrett continues, “you really want to give thought to: Does your organization have a single specific  reason to exist? What's your unique selling proposition, your unique value creation? Because if there isn't a really strong reason for being, you're very vulnerable.” 

Through his years pursuing his passion of making bourbon he learned that the market for his bourbon “pretty well capped out at around $3 million in revenue.” To push past that growth cap Barrett built out other divisions within Black Button, which unfortunately led the company to feel a bit unwieldy and disjointed. “Focusing on the business you're really in, and knowing what that business is, I think is an important thing.”

“At the end of the day: running a tasting room is running a restaurant. Running a production facility is manufacturing. Running a sales operation is people management and marketing. Those are three different companies, three different skillsets.” Barrett went on to say that co-packing and back office staff equated to what was essentially a fourth and fifth business. “At some point you just can't keep splitting ownership's time and dollars so many different ways,” Barrett concluded, reflecting on his hard learned lessons.

Now that Black Button is a bittersweet chapter left behind him, full of fond memories and bitter headaches, Barrett is now consulting distilleries and brands with his new venture CentrisUSA.

About the author: George is ASM's assistant editor and a consultant from Rochester, NY. He has more than 15 years experience in the wine & spirits industry which has spanned on and off premise management, distillation, brand development, and more.

The TLDR;

• Lake America? Mom and dad are fighting, the scuffle at our northern border over alcohol trade continues with little to no progress towards a resolution.
• President Trump signs proclamation banning import of most Canadian alcohol (interestingly this ban includes bourbon, tequila, mezcal, and pisco) in containers smaller than four liters. Companies that bottle in the United States, such as Crown Royal, are exempt from the ban as their totes of bulk spirits are significantly larger than four liters.
• In an email obtained by Artisan Spirit, Southern Glazer announced to its on and off premise retail accounts in upstate New York that their delivery days have been cut back. Southern Glazer did respond for comment on the specifics of the changes or if the scale of the changes extends beyond New York into other markets.
• Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) introduced the bipartisan Lawful Hemp Protection Act to try and create an alcohol-like three tier system to be regulated by the TTB before the November 12th funeral date for cannabis drinks. 
• “Nobody is drinking anymore” unless it’s in cans. Canned RTDs continue to show growth as other categories slump through the summer.
• "More flavors than Baskin-Robbins." The Brown family, of Brown-Forman fame, in turmoil fighting over company performance and failed acquisition attempts.
• Braveheart 2.0? English malt whiskies given similar protected status to Scotch causing an uproar from Scotch distillers.

But it’s not all bad! 

• Gen Z is catching up, 74% of Gen Z now drinks, behind 76% average across all generations. (See below)
• President Trump announces removal of tariffs on Irish Whiskey
• Diageo pilots 20% abv Smirnoff vodka, Captain Morgan Rum, and Gordon's Gin at 250 Tesco locations in the UK pursuing the "zebra striping" crowd. While there is no current public plan to bring these spirits to the US, this is a trend worth keeping an eye on.
• RTDs deliver 38% of innovation dollars from just 22% of items.

An original Artisan Spirit piece
“Nobody’s Drinking Anymore”: A Series Examining the Why of Consumer Drinking Trends

By George B. Catallo

Part 1: These Kids are Alright

Boomers and the silent generation are aging-out of the drinking population (and out of the population in general), millennials (the heavyweight drinking champions of the world) and Generation X are slowing down, but for the last few years the generation who had us most worried — Generation Z. 

Their drinking habits significantly lagged behind other generations. But of course they had, they came of age while the world was shut down and it changed their whole trajectory in life in every way. No college parties, no clubbing, no concerts: But now they're catching up. New data shows that 74% of legal drinking age (LDA+) Gen Zers are regularly drinking, which is just 2% behind the general population.

If they're drinking now, why are sales still in a slump? Well, they're still only 17% of the drinking population and they are the most likely generation to heed alcohol related health guidance (49%).

The good news? Their share of the drinking population will grow every year as more of them come of age. They are also the most social drinkers, 18% of Gen Z reported that their last time consuming alcohol was with 5 or more other people.

But what are they drinking? Cocktails, and more than any other generation. 84% of Gen Z reported drinking cocktails in the last 6 months, and yes that includes canned cocktails.

While it may not feel like it yet, this is great news. We are successfully cultivating a new generation of distilled spirits drinkers. Now our task is to find ways to capitalize on their interest in cocktails to build an interest in spirits overall. This will take time and careful strategy to position conventionally packaged spirits as their next go-to.

We need to embrace the trends without overextending ourselves into them. Kodak thought digital photography was a fad, Blockbuster passed on buying Netflix, BlackBerry bet on physical keyboards over touch screens, and Xerox despite inventing the first personal computer kept their focus on copiers. Oh, and remember Nokia's indestructible brick phones? They thought people wanted that more than smartphones.

We need to adapt to the market or be swallowed by it. Does that mean everyone needs to rush out and buy a canning line? No. But we need to take a hard look at which way we're paddling and make sure that it isn't upstream — the current is too strong.

Data comes from IWSR, the global leader in beverage alcohol data and insights.

Retail Trend Tracker

Our retail trend tracker is a work in progress. We are building connections with retailers around the country to get insights into what spirits products are hottest in each market. Not just from wholesalers, not just from think tanks, not just from analysts — from the people face-to-face with the consumers putting your products to their lips.

Here's an example of what this will look like:

Northeast

Rochester, New York: Super Lyte (Stateside Brands) A zero sugar sport drink and vodka RTD. Recipe 21 Vodka (Sazerac). Reported by Parkway Discount Wine & Liquor

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