Good morning! Welcome to the last installment of In Good Spirits before we all get buried in snow. We hope that you were all able to get lots of bread and milk before the grocery stores ran out, and more importantly - we hope your bar is well stocked.

As long as we all can dig ourselves out by Tuesdsay:

Don’t forget to grab your tickets to Ember & Alma’s exclusive tequila event featuring Mijenta Tequila! It’s this coming Tuesday, January 27th starting at 6:00 PM. The event includes: Tastings for 5 different expressions of the incredible Mijenta, 3 unique cocktails, delicious appetizers and finger foods, a bit of education, good friends, and a ton of fun. I can personally attest to how fun these kinds of events are at Ember & Alma, it is more than worth your time and money. And if you do come, make sure to say hi! I’ll be there. Click here to save your spot - tickets are almost gone!

Vintage Cocktails Could Be Your Ticket Through Time

If you had the opportunity to taste an espresso martini made exactly the way it was when it was invented wouldn’t you like to? Well you’re in luck. A new trend is sweeping in and it draws on a lot of what consumers are looking for these days. Since people are drinking less, the drinks with the most appeal are also an experience. Cocktail enthusiasts aren’t seeking inexpensive drinks as a rule despite rising costs wearing us all thin. With most only intending on one or two drinks the whole evening, guests want something worth their investment.

Enter: the liquid time capsule. Bars all over the US are grabbing up vintage bottles of spirits and liqueurs to transport their guests into bygone eras one sip at a time. Depending on the number of vintage spirits and the era from which they came these drinks can run anywhere from $25 to $70 a piece - so you likely wont be sipping them all night long. Bars that are exploring this trend are making drinks from the 1950s - 1990s using elements directly from the decade that they are emulating.

The entire construction and feel of these drinks is of course intriguing, but the thing most fascinating to me is the evolution of the spirits. Certain products have changed drastically over time - not just in appearance but in formulation. One example is the bottles of Campari being used in the Vintage Negroni at La Dolce Vida in Beverly Hills, California. The Campari they are using is not only vintage but it’s formulated for the Italian market in the ‘80s - meaning it’s more bitter than what would have been exported to the US. It also gets its coloring from carmine dye (if you didn’t know carmine dye is essentially made from bugs) which was discontinued as a dye in 2006 in favor of artificial colors. Another is that Bénédictine used to be aged longer and had a higher proof in decades past so the vintages used in these historically inspired cocktails have distinctly different flavor notes than the modern offering.

This trend is obviously not going to be around for too long, there are only so many vintage bottles to be found, but it is certainly an experience to consider if you’re lucky enough to be offered it.

The ‘First’ Agave Spirit Produced in the Black Forest

Selva Negra saw 40% growth in 2025 compared to 2024. Agave spirits have been in the spotlight for the last couple years so it might not be completely anomalous to see growth like this for an agave-based spirit, but the origin of it is a surprise. Selva Negra (Black Forest, in Spanish) is a “mezcal-inspired spirit produced using 100% Salmiana agave from Mexico.” It claims to be the first agave spirit made in the Black Forest.

The company is still small and is not yet available in US markets. Agave spirits made outside of Mexico are something that we have been expecting to see more of since so many countries have been experimenting with growing and distilling with agave. Since agave is a labor and time intensive plant to grow it stands to reason that establishing an agave-based spirits company could very well mirror that effort.

We had previously mentioned that a French wine producer was making plans to convert farmland intended for grapes into agave crop fields to contend with drought. It will be interesting to see how other countries use agave to make their own unique spirits and how the plant itself might change when planted in previously unheard of landscapes.

A Quick Update on the Sea of Troubles Churning In the Spirits Industry

We don’t like to dwell on the negatives but this is a newsletter so we do want to keep you informed. Here’s a brief overview of the major stories involving spirits, distilleries, and other industry players.

The current spirit glut has hit a new high. Five major spirits companies (Campari, Pernod Ricard, Diageo, Remy Cointreau, and Brown-Forman) are sitting on $22 billion worth of aged spirits. This is the largest amount of unsold inventory in a decade. It’s not entirely bad news, the surplus could end up benefitting consumers. The drinks giants will likely have to drop prices to unload the unsold products. It doesn’t, however, help ease the fears of job loss for industry workers lower on the corporate ladder.

The Stoli Group, producers of Stoli Vodka and Kentucky Owl, have filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy and announced plans to sell off its US brands’ inventories. In a press release Stoli Group said: “Over the past thirteen months, the Group worked to construct a viable reorganization plan aimed at preserving jobs, stabilizing operations, and protecting long-standing commercial partnerships”. The Group’s factories are reportedly unaffected by these decisions as of this writing.

This feels like it’s not actually an update but I swear there is at least a small piece of new info in here. Uncle Nearest has filed an emergency motion to end the court-appointed receivership they are under. The motion asserts that the receivership is causing irreparable damage to the brand’s image. None of this sounds new because it mostly isn’t, but as of January 20th Fawn and Keith Weaver filed a motion to fast-track a hearing on their request. Only a day before that filing The Spirits Business reported on an investor group that had expressed interest in the purchase of Uncle Nearest. The investor group, NexGen 2780, cited similar reasoning behind wanting to purchase the brand, hoping to salvage the brand’s image amidst the messy financial drama.

Rogue Ales & Spirits, which suddenly shuttered at the end of 2025, is facing a class action lawsuit alleging that they violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act). The act requires employers to provide 60 days’ notice of plant closures and layoffs affecting 50 or more people. The lawsuit, filed January 20th, alleges at least 300 people were not properly notified before having their employment terminated.

This is a long one so make sure you carve out some time if you want a little whiskey history this weekend. This video from Whiskeyland TV on YouTube is the most accessible way currently to watch the documentary on Old Forester but it is reportedly going to be available on select streaming platforms soon. The documentary was made and released to celebrate Old Forester’s 10 year age statement Bourbon, 1924, in its Whiskey Row series. Old Forester is claimed to be the only Bourbon brand to exist before, during, and after Prohibition.

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