Jeff Cavanaugh wrote:Fair enough, but I think in the whiskey world - especially in bourbon, but maybe in rye and others too - it's a bit of a different situation. Production has been consolidated to just a few producers (a fraction of the number of brands and labels) since the end of Prohibition. Not so in the beer and wine worlds.
Fascinating point, Jeff, and I agree, mostly. However!
Bear in mind that the beer industry has undergone an incredible evolution since the 1980s. Precisely the same kind of consolidation took place there, to the extent that the US was down to less than 30 breweries then. Now it's up to more than 3,000. This is a good thing, although a handful of majors - now mostly
internationals - still dominates the marketplace in production and sales.
In both cases, I'm all in favor of transparency, and keeping consumers informed, and, quite frankly, naming and shaming when producers are less than open about this kind of thing. Note that I'm not calling for laws, criminal sanctions or censorship. Just public naming and shaming.