![A Look Back at the Last 25 Years of Whisky [Part III: 2020-2025]](/get/files/image/galleries/25_years_part_3_hero.png?resize=1920x0)
A Look Back at the Last 25 Years of Whisky [Part III: 2020-2025]
The last five years of whisky's 25-year retrospective brought more celebrity whiskies, older releases, new distillery openings amid declining sales
December 16, 2025 –––––– David Fleming
In the last five years of this retrospective, we again see a sea change. This time, it includes acquisitions, the impact of the pandemic, and reports of distillery closures, bankruptcy, and downsizing. Simultaneously, we celebrate more women in the industry, a record high for bourbon tourism in Kentucky, higher age statements, and more.
2020
❖ Teeling introduces its Single Pot Still expression, the first single pot still whiskey made in Dublin in more than a century.
❖ In a surprise move, two major master distillers resign to dabble in craft whiskey. At Jack Daniel, Jeff Arnett departs to launch Company Distilling in Tennessee, and Brian Nation of Irish Distillers resigns to join O’Shaughnessy Distilling in Minneapolis.
❖ Diageo, which had largely stayed out of the craft whiskey acquisitions game, buys Texas-based Balcones. Jared Himstedt, who was at Balcones from the beginning, stays on and continues in his role as master distiller.
❖ Blue Run Spirits is launched in Kentucky with former Four Roses master distiller Jim Rutledge serving as advisor, and quickly garners attention for making high-caliber limited-release whiskeys. Its Blue Run Trifecta would finish at No. 12 in Whisky Advocate’s Top 20 Whiskies of the Year two years later.
❖ Brother’s Bond is launched by actors Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley.
❖ With the onset of the pandemic, bar and restaurant sales are decimated, but liquor store sales rise with the surge in at-home drinking. The levying of tariffs by the first Trump administration puts a major damper on single malt scotch whisky sales, which were the hardest hit by the tariffs.
❖ Michter’s sees the passing of two historic figures: Dick Stoll, the last of the old-time Pennsylvania distillers who made whiskey at Michter’s in Pennsylvania until its closing in 1990 and had reentered the industry by partnering in the new Stoll & Wolfe Distillery in Lititz, Pennsylvania; and Willie Pratt, master distiller emeritus of Michter’s in Kentucky.
❖ WhistlePig sells a minority stake to Moët Hennessy.
❖ Wild Turkey Rare Breed launches a rye, which finishes at No. 5 in the Whisky Advocate Top 20.
❖ MGP, seeking to diversify from being a contract distiller and start building its own brand stable, acquires Luxco, giving it a haul of well-known brands including Rebel, Old Ezra, Blood Oath, David Nicholson, Daviess County, and a 50% stake in Yellowstone bourbon. Those are added to its George Remus, Rossville Union rye, and Eight & Sand whiskeys, with Penelope Bourbon added in a 2023 acquisition.
❖ Larceny Barrel Proof, Batch B520, is Whisky Advocate’s Whisky of the Year.
2021
❖ Brora Distillery in Scotland’s Northern Highlands, which was dormant since being shuttered in 1983, is reopened by owner Diageo. Master distiller Stewart Bowman seals the bung on cask 001 of the new era, the first whisky to be laid down there in 38 years.
❖ Minneapolis-based Tattersall Distilling expands to a larger facility in neighboring Wisconsin, about 40 miles from its home base.
❖ Johnnie Walker Princes Street, the immersive brand home for Johnnie Walker, opens in a former department store in downtown Edinburgh. The location has eight levels of Johnnie Walker-centric attractions including tours, tastings, mixology sessions, bars, and a retail space, among other amenities.
❖ Using old distilling manuscripts, Colorado distiller Leopold Bros. has a pre-Prohibition-style three-chamber still built, and releases Three Chamber rye, made with heritage Abruzzi rye. The project exemplifies the craft world’s zeal for reviving old styles, methods, and grains.
❖ The U.S. suspends its 25% tariff on single malt scotch in March, and exports to the U.S. for the full year show an 8% rise in value.
❖ Lagavulin Offerman Edition 11 year old Guinness Cask Finish is Whisky Advocate’s Whisky of the Year.
2022
❖ Kentucky-based Wilderness Trail, known for using the sweet mash process and bonded aging for all its whiskeys, is acquired by Italy’s Campari Group, which also owns Wild Turkey and Canadian whisky maker Forty Creek.
❖ Bardstown Bourbon Co. acquires Green River Spirits Co. in Owensboro, Kentucky, in one of the state’s oldest distillery buildings, built in 1885.
❖ The Kentucky Bourbon Trail’s visitor numbers exceed 2 million for the first time in its history.
❖ Pittsburgh-based craft whiskey maker Wigle is sold to the Nutting Corporation, owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.
❖ Two other major distillery departures are announced, as Denny Potter and Jane Bowie leave Maker’s Mark to form Potter Jane Distillery, while Jackie Zykan resigns from Old Forester to join Royce Neeley in launching Hidden Barn bourbon, where she stayed until 2025.
❖ With more whiskey supply in the pipeline, Knob Creek releases an 18 year old. It also marks the start of many more ultra-aged American whiskey releases on the market as supply rises in Kentucky and elsewhere.
❖ Jack Daniel’s Bonded is Whisky Advocate’s Whisky of the Year.
2023
❖ American whiskey sales show a decline for the first time in many years, according to Impact Databank, and would show a decline in the next year as well. But super-premium bourbons ($25 and above) continue to grow, so American brands are mostly holding their own, with some exceptions. But craft spirits are the hardest hit, with the American Craft Spirits Association reporting that its members saw their sales decline by a collective 3.6% for the year. It’s the first time in the craft movement’s young history that annual sales post a decline.
❖ Westland co-founder Matt Hofmann announces his departure, having served as master distiller since its establishment in 2010. And at Brown-Forman, Chris Morris, longtime master distiller at Woodford Reserve, becomes master distiller emeritus, and Elizabeth McCall moves into the master distiller’s role.
❖ J. Mattingly 1845 opens a new 23,000 square foot distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. The company was started in 2010 by Jeff Mattingly, whose ancestor John Graves Mattingly opened the family’s first distillery in 1845.
❖ North American brewing giant Molson Coors acquires Blue Run Spirits, the Kentucky-based whiskey maker founded three years earlier.
❖ Lowlands distillery Rosebank, owned by Ian Macleod Distillers, restarts production after 30 years of being shuttered.
❖ Chivas Brothers, owner of single malts Glenlivet and Aberlour, and blended scotch Chivas Regal, announces plans to open a new distillery on Islay.
❖ Japanese whisky maker Suntory celebrates its 100th anniversary.
❖ Amid continued confusion over the details of the Kentucky Vintage Spirits Law, state liquor authorities raid the most well-known vintage bottle seller Justins’ House of Bourbon, for alleged improper shipping and labeling of shipments. The case wouldn’t be settled until the following year, with Justins’ paying a fine and permitted to start selling vintage bottles again.
❖ John Lunn, the talented whis key maker whose stellar career included work at George Dickel, Avery’s Trail, Popcorn Sutton, and Sazerac’s A&J Bond Distillery, passes away unexpectedly at the age of 53.
❖ A single bottle of Macallan sells for $2.7 million at Sotheby’s in London, marking a new record price for a bottle of whisky sold at auction. It was the Macallan Valerio Adami 1926, one of 40 made under that label, released by Macallan in 1986.
❖ Catoctin Creek buys back the minority stake it sold to Constellation Brands in 2016, becoming fully independent once again.
❖ Glenglassaugh Sandend is Whisky Advocate’s Whisky of the Year.
2024
❖ With inventories rising amid slower sales, whisky lovers are being treated to a far wider array of ultra-aged offerings. With Knob Creek’s 18 year old and 10 year old already in the mix, Jim Beam puts a 7-year age statement on Jim Beam Black, Old Grand-Dad releases a 16 year old, and Widow Jane releases a 20 year old, to name a few. Having already raised the age of Quinta Ruban from 12 to 14 years, Glenmorangie now raises The Original from 10 to 12 years, and reworks its Nectar D’Or expression to become The Nectar, a 16 year old with a more complex barrel finishing program.
❖ Compass Box creator John Glaser departs the company, ending a 24-year run that saw some of the most creative releases of the era. Other whiskey makers are also on the move. Former Westland master distiller Matt Hofmann, who departed the firm in 2023, joins Washington distiller Talking Cedar. Angel’s Envy co-founder Wes Hender son, who left in 2022, launches a new whiskey brand called True Story and announces plans for a major new distillery to be built on the site of the old Kentucky Castle Hotel in Versailles. Former Laphroaig general manager Barry McCaffer moves to South Korea to make single malt at the new Lighthill Brewery & Distillery. Another former Laphroaig distillery manager and Lochlea Distillery whisky maker, John Campbell, decamps for California to take the reins at smoky whiskey maker Sespe Creek. And Chip Tate, who founded Balcones before his very public ouster in 2014, signs on as master distiller for innovation with Foley Family Wines and Spirits, which owns Nevada’s Minden Mill Distillery.
❖ Macallan releases the TIME:SPACE collection, then the world’s oldest whisky at 84 years. It would be topped by Gordon & MacPhail’s 85 year old Glenlivet the following year.
❖ The lights come back on at Port Ellen Distillery on Islay after a closure of nearly 40 years. After being shuttered since 1983. It was entirely rebuilt, but the distillery’s twin pagoda roof and most of the warehouses had been preserved. Over in Speyside, Dallas Dhu announces that it will start making whisky again, having been closed since 1983.
❖ At long last, the federal government’s Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau officially accepts rules created by the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission to define American single malt as a category.
❖ Stoli Group USA, which acquired Kentucky Owl from blender Dixon Dedman in 2017, declares bankruptcy. Stoli had announced plans for a major distillery and visitor center in Bardstown to be called Kentucky Owl Park; that project has been shelved.
❖ Whiskey House of Kentucky, a new custom-distilling operation led by former Bardstown Bourbon Co. executives David Mandell, John Hargrove, and Daniel Linde, begins production at its modern complex on a 176-acre site in Elizabethtown.
❖ Nikka celebrates its 90th anniversary with the release of Nikka Nine Decades, a blend of Nikka whiskies from every decade since the 1940s. Also in Japan, Fuji celebrates its 50th year with a limited-edition bottling by master distiller Jota Tanaka. Both Stranahan’s of Colorado and Westward of Oregon toast their 20th anniversaries.
❖ Wild Turkey celebrates master distiller Jimmy Russell’s 70th year in the business with a commemorative bottling and a newly revamped visitor center named in his honor.
❖ More celebrity whiskeys enter the scene as Beyoncé launches Sir Davis, an MGP-sourced rye curated by Dr. Bill Lumsden; country star Dierks Bentley comes out with Row 44 bourbon; and fellow country star Chris Stapleton releases Traveller in collaboration with Buffalo Trace.
❖ Bardstown Bourbon Co. unveils yet another expansion, and this one is its biggest yet, comprising another entirely new distillery adjacent to the current one. The distiller’s annual capacity has now risen from 25,000 barrels in 2017 to 289,000 today.
❖ From Scotland, Ardnahoe’s first release hits U.S. shores, while Lagg Distillery on the Isle of Arran releases its first whisky and Japan’s Kanosuke makes its U.S. debut. From Ireland, young distillers Echlinville, Wild Atlantic, Micil, Killowen, and Blackwater issue their first releases, but all in small quantities with none available for sale in the U.S.
❖ Waterford Distillery in Ireland, launched by former Bruichladdich owner Mark Reynier in 2015, is closed as the company declares bankruptcy.
❖ Sonoma County distiller Redwood Empire buys whiskey maker Savage & Cooke from California vintner Dave Phinney; the deal includes Savage & Cooke’s new distillery on Mare Island, in Vallejo, California.
❖ Lost Spirits, led by Brian Davidson, whose rapid-aging technology caused a minor sensation in 2018, shutters its operation at Area 15 in Las Vegas.
❖ William Grant & Sons Ltd. buys the Famous Grouse and Naked Malt brands from Edrington. vLaphroaig Elements 2.0 Cask Strength is Whisky Advocate’s Whisky of the Year.
2025
❖ In a quarter century of remarkable change in the whisky world, perhaps the most stunning of all is the rise of women to master distillers, master blenders, and other important positions in whisky making. In 2000, there were no women in those senior positions. The early pioneers of the modern era were mainly in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and included Rachel Barrie, who became master blender at Glenmorangie in 2003, Maureen Robinson and Caroline Martin of Diageo, Stephanie MacLeod, who became master blender at Dewar’s in 2006, and Helen Mulholland of Bushmills. In the U.S., Nancy Fraley was at the start of her career in 2000.
By 2025, there was a long list of females in distilling, includ ing Allisa Henley (Sazerac), Elizabeth McCall (Woodford Reserve), Kirsteen Campbell (Macallan), Emma Walker (Johnnie Walker), Annabel Thomas (Nc’nean), Laura Ram pling (Glenrothes), Lexie Phillips (Jack Daniel), Nicole Austin (Di ageo), Marlene Holmes (Milam & Greene), Victoria Eadie Butler (Uncle Nearest), Joyce Nethery (Jeptha Creed), Becky Harris (Catoctin Creek), Kate Doug las (Keeper’s Heart), Meghan Ireland (WhistlePig), Lynne Dant (Log Still), Katherine Condon (Irish Distillers), plus whisky consultants Marianne Eaves, Lisa Roper Wicker, Jackie Zykan, and others.
❖ Buffalo Trace announces that it will add E.H. Taylor as a new permanent member of its Antique Collection in 2025. The announcement coincides with the unveiling of a separate E.H. Taylor release, the limited-edition E.H. Taylor Distiller’s Council.
❖ After a nearly 20-year career at High West, in which he helped reshape the direction and style of American whiskey, Brendan Coyle departs to focus on Dendric Estate, the Utah cidery started with his wife Carly.
❖ Old Forester releases its first-ever bonded rye as part of the 117 Series.
❖ MGP reports that its branded spirits division saw a 5% sales decline for 2024, though it noted significant increases for Penelope.
❖ Heaven Hill opens the new Heaven Hill Springs Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, marking a return to Bardstown after a period of nearly 30 years. Its original distillery there burned down in 1996.
❖ Sazerac unveils its long-awaited new Irish whiskey distillery, Hawk’s Rock, with former Bushmills master blender Helen Mulholland at the helm. Its first release is a sourced 20 year old expression, Garavogue.
❖ In a trend that began toward the end of 2024, numerous distilleries began to cut back on Sazerac unveils its long-awaited new Irish whiskey distillery, Hawk’s Rock, with former Bushmills master blender Helen Mulholland at the helm. Its first release is a sourced 20 year old expression, Garavogue.
❖ In a trend that began toward the end of 2024, numerous distilleries began to cut back on production and in some cases total shutdowns. But despite that, the new releases keep on coming. The credibility of the most successful brands, built up during these 25 years—and in many cases, before then—remains the foundation of it all. And whisky curiosity continues to grow, as more people become acquainted with this great drink. Last year, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail celebrated its 25th anniversary and announced that the Trail received a record-high 2.7 million visitors, a clear indication that interest in whiskey remains strong. In Scotland, the Scotch Whisky Association has reported visitor numbers at the 2-million level in recent years, as whisky remains a major tourism draw in the UK. And other countries, notably Japan, are making their distilleries more visitor-friendly to cope with rising enthusiasm. So while there will be some casualties in a market that had become crowded over the years, America’s interest in whisky probably has never been higher.
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