As Kentucky’s Distilleries File for Bankruptcy, Celebrate America’s 20 Most Popular Whiskey Brands

Kentucky’s whiskey industry is in trouble. The beloved alcohol is facing a major challenge as multiple distilleries (LMD Holdings, Garrard County Distilling, and Kentucky Owl) file for bankruptcy. The culprit behind the $25 million combined debt is a sharp decline in bourbon sales, a result of Gen Z. The younger generation prefers low-alcohol drinks, such as hard seltzers. This has resulted in a massive supply of aging whiskey; up to 14 million barrels. Trade tariffs from the EU and Canada haven’t helped matters. Such a serious downturn threatens over 23,000 jobs and highlights a need for a more diverse product line, along with better export conditions.

Whisky or whiskey (the spelling varies depending on its place of origin) is made all over the world these days, from Germany to Taiwan to Mexico to the states. India boasts the world’s fastest-growing whisky distillation industry. 

The best-known producers, however, remain the ones that most whisky/whiskey-lovers think of first: Scotland, Ireland, Kentucky and Tennessee, Japan, and Canada. Those places also represent the whiskies that sell the most, at least in America.

To compile a list of the 20 most popular whiskies in America, 24/7 Wall Street reviewed a ranking published by the BevAlcInsights division of the online alcohol delivery service Drizly. The site has recorded the bottles it sold most often – it serves more than 2,500 cities in 41 states – between September 2022 and August 2023. (Two of these are among the most valuable liquor brands in the world.)

Note that the same whiskey sometimes appears in two places on the list, representing two different size bottles. More than half the examples are Bourbon or Tennessee whiskey; two are Irish and there’s one Canadian, with the rest being Scotch. Prices are approximate and will vary from city to city and even store to store.

This post was updated on August 6, 2025 to include the news of several Kentucky whiskey distilleries filing for bankruptcy.

20: Evan Williams Bourbon