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| One of six column stills at the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, TN. |
Blogger gives me a rudimentary idea of how many people look at this blog and what, specifically, they look at.
Typically, the two most popular posts are old ones. The most recent post is usually third.
The perennial winners? "Bourbon Distilleries, Ranked by Capacity" from September of 2017 and "The Truth About Tito's and All Vodka" from October of that same year.
I don't know why the vodka post is so popular. Maybe it's because the truth about vodka isn't widely reported. I'm glad people read it, but I don't have anything to add. I did update it, at the end of the post, after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
I know why the other one, about distillery capacity, is so popular. Vendome has a link to it on their website. It deserves an update. Although not a lot has changed, what has changed is big. (It will be up to Vendome if they want to change the link.)
I should mention that the data I'm reporting is not "industry data," it's mine, based on a database I've maintained for years that tracks one simple metric, capacity as determined by the size of the distillery's beer still(s). It's an imperfect metric but it has the advantage of allowing apples-to-apples comparisons.
A distillery can produce less than its beer still's capacity, and everybody does, especially now, but it can't produce more.
You can go back to that 2017 post for more about the database and how I use it.
Brown-Forman's Jack Daniel's Distillery remains #1, although I don't believe it has gotten any bigger since 2017. That's one of Brown-Forman's problems right now. Jack Daniel's is huge but it's a mature brand here in its home market, without a lot of room to grow. It has huge potential outside the U.S., so the recent change in tariffs on whiskey is welcome.
In addition to the Lynchburg distillery, which only makes Jack Daniel's products, Brown-Forman has three other U.S. whiskey distilleries, all in Kentucky.
Sazerac's Buffalo Trace Distillery has moved up two places into second, since bringing its second 84" beer still online.
That moves Heaven Hill's Bernheim Distillery in Louisville to #3 and Suntory's Booker Noe Distillery in Boston, Kentucky to #4. Brown-Forman's second-largest distillery, in the Louisville suburb of Shively, remains at #5.
Number six is no longer a tie, since Suntory has taken the 72" column at Clermont out of the running. Sazerac's Barton 1792 in Bardstown has sole possession of #6.
This is a good place to mention that those four companies, Brown-Forman, Sazerac, Suntory, and Heaven Hill (the Big 4) continue to dominate the American whiskey space, as they have for decades.
The next two are unchanged in terms of rank. Four Roses in Lawrenceburg, now owned by Gallo, is #7 and Suntory's Maker's Mark in Loretto is #8. Heaven Hill's new Bardstown distillery is the new #9, moving Campari's Wild Turkey in Lawrenceburg to #10 in a tie with Middle West Spirits in Columbus, Ohio. Bardstown Bourbon Company, now owned by Lofted Spirits, is #11. Jackson Purchase, in Hickman, is #12. The other Lofted Spirits distillery, Owensboro's Green River, is #13. The Lawrenceburg, Indiana distillery sometimes known as Ross & Squibb, owned by MGP, is tied at #14 with Whiskey House of Kentucky in Bowling Green.
There is a tie at #15 between two Diageo distilleries, George Dickel in Tullahoma, Tennessee and Bulleit in Shelbyville, Kentucky. That would have been a three-way tie except Diageo's newest distillery, in Loretto, is currently off-line.
At #16 we have Campari's Wilderness Trail Distillery in Danville. Tennessee Distilling Group, in Columbia, Tennessee, is #17.
We'll end it there. As things change, I'll let you know.
It's interesting to note that Gallo, new to the bourbon game, comes in at #7 with the highest-ranking distillery not owned by one of the Big 4. Also now looking like players are Campari and Lofted Spirits, each with two listed distilleries. Lofted is now the biggest contract distiller, supplanting MGP.
I'll conclude with a reminder that this ranking is based on capacity, not production. In this new environment, that's going to vary widely. I've removed from the list distilleries that have announced they won't distill in 2026, but how much the remainder will distill in 2026 is up-for-grabs, since it seems like everybody has more than enough already in barrels.
