Frankie Arguinzni, an employee at Supreme Liquor in Cambridge, MA, gets down three 1.75 liter bottles of vodka from the top shelf in April 2020. Photo: Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
High-end liquor gained its sharpest increase in sales in at least 40 years after the coronavirus pandemic brought lockdowns across the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reports.
Why it matters: Adults in a peer-reviewed JAMA report said last September that they drank 14% more often over a five day period in 2020 than they did in 2019.
By the numbers: U.S. distillers' revenue grew by 7.7% to $31.2 billion in 2020, according to revenue data from the Distilled Spirits Council.
- The trade body told the WSJ that figure marked the highest jump in sales in four decades, although it fits a long-term trend of rising U.S. spirit sales.