Report Shows Whisky is Europe’s Best-Selling Spirit

Bottles of whisky are seen on display in the Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection, the world’s largest collection of Scottish Whisky on display at The Scotch Whisky Experience on September 3, 2015 in Edinburgh,Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

A report released by trade body Spirits Europe found that scotch and other whiskies accounted for 31% of all spirits volumes produced in EU-plus countries in 2019, with 8.75 million hectolitres of scotch made and 1.29 million hectolitres of other whiskies.

Scotch brought in €6.58 billion (US$7.43 billion), and other whiskies delivered €1.1 billion (US$1.24 billion).

Vodka was the second-biggest category in terms of volume, at 25%, followed by liqueurs and specialty spirits at 24%.

On a global scale, the whisky industry continues to boom. Since 2015, luxury American whiskey has grown at an annual rate of 41%, while luxury Japanese whiskey has grown by 42% during the same time period. Irish whiskey, meanwhile, has grown by more than 14%.

In the U.S., bourbon distilleries have been expanding en masse, from the big names like Buffalo Trace, Lux Row, Barton 1792 and Heaven Hill, all the way to smaller distilleries like Mythology and High Bank.

The whisky industry received further good news earlier this month, when Europe announced it would be lifting whisky tariffs from the U.S. that it had imposed in retaliation to tariffs placed on Europe by former President Donald Trump.

Furthermore, a recent report from the British Beer & Pub Association showed that spirits and wine outshone beer in the U.K. during lockdown, an unusual occurrence.

Here at Whiskey Raiders, we do more than write about current events in whiskey. We are the only media property reviewing whiskeys and aggregating the scores and reviews of other significant voices in the whiskey world in one place. If you’re interested in getting a shot of whiskey in your morning email, sign up for our Daily Dram Gram!