Whiskey Network recently sat down with Pete Marino, President of Lofted Spirits to discuss the state of the bourbon whiskey industry. Lofted Spirits includes two distinct brands, Bardstown Bourbon Company and Green River Distilling Company, in addition to being one of the largest contract distilling companies in the U.S. Here is an edited excerpt of our conversation.
MILLER: The headlines are full of news, both in the trade journals and, at least in Kentucky, the regular media: “People are drinking less bourbon, and as a result, distillers are making less bourbon.” Do you think the bourbon boom has become a bourbon bust?
MARINO: “Mark Twain said the reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated, and I think that’s where we are. There’s no doubt that the industry is going through a tough time. But there’s also no doubt that I believe the bourbon business is going to be a powerful force for decades to come. I came from the beer business. There are a lot of differences between beer and whiskey, but one of the biggest ones is that you have to forecast your needs as a brand so far in advance in the whiskey category. That just doesn’t happen in any other alcohol category.”
“And if you think about five years ago, where were we? We were in the middle of COVID. And there were all these behaviors that were being created because people were scared, they had time on their hands, they had free government money in their pocket, whatever it may be. So there were a bunch of behaviors that were created that were unsustainable. And there were a bunch of brands that started forecasting, if these trends continued, they were gonna need a heck of a lot more whiskey than they (actually) needed. So, there was a glut.”
“The glut is a very real thing. And that glut is being worked through as an industry right now, in largely rational ways. There’s no doubt there’s disruption this year. There will be some disruption next year. But I also am excited and bullish about the long term future of this category.”
MILLER: The downturn is real, as you just said, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting Lofted Spirits. Or it seems to be affecting you less, maybe, than some of some others in the industry. What are you guys doing to make that possible?
MARINO: “I think everything we do, and everything we’ve always done, starts with a focus on quality. Whether that is with our contract customers or whether that’s for our own brands, we have a commitment to quality that is second to none.”
“And when you start with quality in everything you do around the liquid, you’re going to gain the attention of the whiskey enthusiasts, like we’ve been fortunate enough to do. And as we’re now scaling our brands beyond the whiskey enthusiast category and starting it to take it across the country. We’re in 45 states now. I think people recognize quality, and people recognize unique propositions from a finishing standpoint.”
“Some of our LTOs (limited time offerings) have gotten a lot of great attention. And so, I think we’ve got a commitment to quality, and we’ve got the ability to invest in both of our brands, whether it was the Bardstown brand or the Green River brand, we’re able to invest in a sale, in them from sales and marketing, and those efforts are paying off.”
“Mark Twain said the reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated, and I think that's where we are. There's no doubt that the industry is going through a tough time. But there's also no doubt that I believe the bourbon business is going to be a powerful force for decades to come."
MILLER: Lofted Spirits is sort of a hybrid animal, that you’ve got two distinct distilleries and brands, but then you’re also a top 10 supplier to the rest of the world. Does that put you in a pretty good position to live in both of those worlds?
MARINO: “Our DNA is deeply rooted in being a contract manufacturer. That was really how this company was able to survive for the first couple years. Because, in whiskey, you can’t just turn the spigot on day one, unless your proposition is to sell white dog.”
“Part of what we did when we were waiting was we became a contract manufacturer. So that is a deeply important part of our heritage and our DNA, and it’s something that we will never walk away from.”
“Now, we have three revenue streams. We’ve got contract manufacturing. We’ve got our own brands. And then we’ve got our hospitality division. We opened up a Green River Tasting Room on Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville. It’s beautiful. It’s just three doors down from our Bardstown Bourbon Tasting Room. We’ve got two places on the same block. When I think about why I’m bullish on bourbon, or American whiskey in general, another reason is that urban tourism is not slowing down at all. It is increasing.”
“The downturn is real in this moment in time. But when you think about the enthusiasm for the category, and you think about some of these brands that have either been around for generations and are iconic, or some of these new disruptive brands, like ours, or Michters, or several other examples who have been around for 15 years or less. There’s a lot of excitement in this category.”
“And what I think about, what gets people excited about drinking certain categories? Let’s not talk brands, let’s just talk categories. I think people really try to find a blend of flavor and flexibility.”
“If you think about Scotch, for example, Brian, Scotch has a lot of flavor. There’s intensity, there’s variety, there’s smoky, there’s peaty, there’s whatever. But there’s not a lot of flexibility. People drink scotch straight up or on the rocks.”
“But American whiskey has the best combination of flavor and flexibility. There is incredible flavor variety in this category. It’s also naturally sweeter because of the corn, which I think is on trend around the world right now. But we also have incredible, flexibility from a cocktail standpoint, and there’s just a lot you can do with these products.”
“I remember when I first took this job two and a half years ago, my wife said, ‘Ooh, I’m not a big bourbon fan.’
“And I said, ‘Well, okay, but you like Espresso Martinis, right?’”
“‘Oh, God, love them.’”
“‘Have you ever read an espresso martini with bourbon? It’s incredible. Have you ever had a Paper Plane cocktail? You won’t even know it’s bourbon.’”
“My point is there’s great flexibility and variety in terms of cocktails, and there’s incredible flavors that all of these amazing brands in our category are exploring, and promoting with a lot of the different specialty releases. So, I’m really bullish on (the future of) our category.”
MILLER: I came down and toured your bottling facility in Bardstown when it was brand new and wrote about it then. And I just wrote last week about the new announcement that you’re expanding that bottling operation. You guys seem to be speeding up when others are slowing down. Tell me more about this big expansion for 2026 that you’ve got planned.
MARINO: “I’ll take it back to what I said earlier about our commitment to our contract manufacturing customers. Again, it is such a deeply-rooted part of our business. And when our customers ask us to add capabilities, if enough of them are asking about it, we’re gonna take a serious long look at it. If you think about the downturn of consumption and the glut that we’re working through right now. What’s growing, almost across the board are small format packages like 375s, 200 milliliters, down to 50 millimeter packages. We didn’t have a line fast enough or flexible enough to do those small format packages that a lot of our customers were asking us for with any scale or efficiency.”
“So, we worked through it with a number of customers who kept saying, ‘It would be really great if you could do this, and keep us from having two logistics providers. We could condense everything with you guys.’ And so we decided to invest in (the bottling expansion). Some people look at us like we’ve got three eyes, because why are these guys investing in the downturn?”
“But when you think about it, every downturn provides opportunity. We see the opportunity, we don’t plan on going anywhere. When the music stops playing on this disruption, we’re absolutely going to have a great share.”
“We’ve got a great ownership group that is very supportive of what we’re doing, that allows us to invest in capabilities that our customers are asking us for. And so, we’re thrilled to be augmenting our bottling line with this small format line. We’ve got a ton of great interest in it already, and we’re excited about it.”
MILLER: And talking about growth, you’re going to finish the 23rd new barrel warehouse next year in Bardstown. I remember when there were just 2 or 3 warehouses in that cornfield out there. That’s just spectacular to go down to Bardstown and see that you guys are continuing to grow like that.
MARINO: “A couple years ago, we were only in that one facility and then two years ago we bought the property across the street… that’s where the majority of our new warehouses in Bardstown are going to be. We’ve been intentionally growing over the last several years. Notwithstanding this market downturn that we’re living through right now, we’ve got, we’ve got big plans for the future.”
MILLER: Tell me about this alternating proprietorship program that lets you give your non-producing distiller clients, some flexibility in what they’re doing and a lot of tax savings.
MARINO: “That’s another example of our commitment to our customers. We worked in close coordination with the government, to make sure that this was fully compliant. If you have a brand with us, it allows you, the brand owner, to register all the right paperwork and get a DSP (distilled spirits plant) number. When you’re processing your liquid, at our facility, you are technically using your DSP on the day, which allows you to take advantage of that small craft benefit.”
“If there’s something we can do that requires investment from us that is going to make our non-distilling producers and other customers’ lives easier, especially through these tough times, we’re going to do it. Those are two great examples: the alternating proprietorship program and the small bottling line.”
MILLER: Let’s head to the finish line here. What’s on the horizon for Bardstown Bourbon Company, Green River Distilling, and Lofted Custom Spirits?
MARINO: “Both of our brands, it’s all about continued development. And we want to make sure that we continue to grow. We’ve got a couple states left to close out (for distribution); we’re in 45 states now. We’re starting to penetrate Canada a little bit. In the year ahead. We’re gonna look at other international markets. We’re very small right now in the UK and Australia.”
“We’re doing a packaging refresh on Bardstown Bourbon, updating the design to make sure we stand out on the shelf a little bit. We want to make sure that as we expand beyond the whiskey enthusiasts into kind of more passive or lighter whiskey drinkers, that we really stand out.”
“We will continue our commitment to quality, and our commitment to interesting flavors. We’ve got some exciting new innovations coming out next year. And we’re gonna continue to put a bunch of marketing and sales pressure against these brands to make sure that we continue to grow ahead of the category.”
“On the Lofted Custom Spirit side, we’re gonna continue to aim to be the one-stop shop for non-distilling producers who are looking for the best Kentucky whiskey available in the market.”
MILLER: Is there anything else you’d like to touch on that I haven’t asked about?
MARINO: “I think there’s a lot to be excited about in the American whiskey category. You know, I read one article this morning that kind of encapsulates what I was talking about.”
“It was by Jonah Flicker for Robb Report. The headline was ‘American whiskey production has plummeted to a new low.’ The subhead said, ‘This is more bad news for an industry that’s already struggling.’”
“But I don’t think all the whiskey manufacturers, slowing down their production to help get through the downturn, is bad news at all. It’s (certainly) tough news. It is not welcome news because it means the market needs to be in a corrective state. But the fact that we are all, as an industry, trying to work through this glut in the best way possible, is not bad news. Our industry has had this huge spike and is now kind of correcting. I think that that’s good news. I want to make sure I’m being sensitive to this, because it certainly does mean that the industry might not need as many jobs as it did when we were all cranking full speed and selling out everything. But if you look at it through a longer term, macroeconomic lens, I think the industry is working through a challenge. I think they’re working through these challenges in a productive way. And, over the long term, I remain excited and optimistic about the future of this great category.”
MILLER: Thank you, Pete, for your time and best of luck in 2026.
MARINO: “Well, I appreciate this, and it’s good to see you again, and I look forward to having a drink with you in the new year, for sure.”
About Pete Marino
Pete Marino is the President of Lofted Spirits, overseeing the growth of its flagship brands Bardstown Bourbon Company and Green River Whiskey, while scaling one of the country’s most expansive contract distilling businesses, Lofted Custom Spirits. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Marino brings deep experience in brand strategy, emerging markets, and creative storytelling. He previously led Molson Coors’ Emerging Growth division and founded Dig Communications, a successful marketing and communications agency. His background in communications, strategy consulting, and beverage marketing uniquely positions him to help shape the future of American whiskey.
About Lofted Spirits
From bespoke bourbon production to boundary-pushing brands, Lofted Spirits is where tradition meets transformation. Expanding on the work started by Peter Loftin in 2016, and today the number one producer of Kentucky contract whiskey, Lofted Spirits pioneered a world-class, industry-shaking approach to custom contract distillation while developing some of the fastest growing brands in American Whiskey, Bardstown Bourbon and Green River. A unified entity, Lofted Spirits is built to lead the global whiskey industry, delivering exceptional experiences through innovation, trust and transformative industry impact while crafting some of the world’s most desired and awarded whiskies. Lofted Spirits joined the Pritzker Private Capital family of companies in 2022. Learn more at LoftedSpirits.com.
