Our friends over at Shanken's Impact are out with an estimate that the U.S. spirits market reached a record 299.9 million cases last year, a 4.2% increase.

The top 25 spirits brands grew 3.6% last year, Shanken estimates. Smaller labels jumped 4.7%.

Shanken credits the rise of RtDs with the spirits increase, but add it masks the fact that only seven of the 25 largest brands saw volume increases last year. In 2023, the RtD spirits segment shipped almost 60 cases, up from 10 million in 2019, five years earlier. Gallo's High Noon has accounted for 31% of the total spirits category volume growth since 2018.

Where's that growth coming from? Full-strength spirits, in particular full-strength vodka which eased 2% to 77 million cases last year, Impact estimates. Excluding RtDs, Smirnoff (Diageo), down 1.7%, Crown Royal (Diageo), down 3.4%, and Jack Daniel's, (Brown-Forman) down 4% all took a hit.