In celebration of their good fortune, the milkman Tevye and the butcher Lazar Wolf famously sing “To life, to life, l’chaim” while drinking shots of schnapps to their “good health and happiness” in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.” The spirits industry also has plenty of reasons to celebrate as the category experienced accelerated growth for the seventh straight year, with supplier sales up 4.5 percent, volume up 2.4 percent and retail sales of nearly $78 billion in 2016, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Distilled Spirits Council.
The association reports that volume for American whiskey — bourbon, Tennessee and rye — was up 6.8 percent to 21.8 million cases and revenues increased 7.7 percent to $3.1 billion. Much of this growth is fueled by high-end and super-premium Irish whiskeys, which grew 736 and 3,456 percent, respectively, since 2002, it adds.