To be fair, at least this is a great whiskey winning the top prize. However, given the number of awards won by the whiskey named after a suffer-no-fools distiller, these competitions are boring for everyone except Buffalo Trace.

Immediately, I thought of Heaven Hill’s bourbons, which have only 10 percent rye in the mashbill but come off as nicely spicy in the glass. Then Veach cited Old Fitzgerald, a wheated bourbon that has terrific spice notes despite having no rye.

Last year at a high-level Kentucky whiskey industry event I requested a Manhattan. When the genial “bartender” merely poured me bourbon on the rocks, I asked about the vermouth and bitters. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “Can you tell me what to put in?” I settled for whiskey on the rocks.

But after tasting hundreds of bourbon iterations in my career, the consistency of them many is becoming as concerning as comforting. Some days, I wonder if too many are just too similar, especially when I see so many parallels in my tasting notes (and others’) for reviews and barrel picks.

Alcohol, by comparison is just that: beverage grade alcohol with which no one monkeys around. It’s highly regulated and its strength is clearly described on its packaging. Other than marketing claims, it’s gimmick free.

Despite being part of that shift, I’m still a little bothered as a former restaurant industry employee. It’s tough to know distant peers are struggling due to a shift in the new habits adopted by me and millions of other drinkers.

Here’s one fact to grasp: This perceived sales slump is exemplary of the rollercoaster ride that affects every large industry. Good days see profits rise, bad days see them plummet.