Millennials turn away from whisky

Spirits sales may be booming in the United States, but Scotch whisky is taking a hit.  

The United States' Distilled Spirits Council reports spirits have taken market share from beer for the seventh consecutive year.

The spirits industry now has 35.9% of the total alcohol market versus 47% for beer and 17.1% for wine. In the 90s, beer made up close to 60% of the alcohol market.

Volume for US whiskey—which includes bourbon, Tennessee, and rye—jumped 6.8%, with revenue up 7.7% to $3.1 billion. Volumes were also up in the double-digits for Irish whiskey and cognac, and increased slightly for Canadian whisky.

But Scotch only increased 0.5% for single malt, with a slight decrease for blended.

According to the latest joint Global Scotch Whisky Insights report from just-drinks and the IWSR it's Millennials who are to blame: "Scotch is beginning to lose ground to its rivals, thanks to a number of factors, including generational trends and a failure to connect with the new generation of Millennial consumers."

However, it's not all doom and gloom for whisky. While some mature blended Scotch markets, including the US, UK and France, will remain stubbornly static.

However, whisky blends are still expected to break through the 90-million-case barrier by 2020.

"This expansion will be driven by explosive growth in markets including Mexico, India, Global Travel Retail and, especially, Poland - where blended Scotch volumes are set to double by 2021," just-drinks reports. 

The report also predicts single malts will also experience "impressive growth" in Canada, Japan, China and India.