For all his many (many, many) faults, J. Paul Getty had a pretty useful philosophy on debt service. “If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem,” the oil magnate is widely credited with saying, “but if you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” Craft breweries’ problem — well, one of them — is that they’re stuck in the middle. Many borrowed heavily against boom-year growth to build handsome, state-of-the-art facilities that would serve their expansiona...| VinePair
“It’s kind of crazy that we drink whiskey from basically only five different places.” Few drinkers would think to question this, but it’s no surprise coming from Fred Barnet. Yet even as president of Anthem Imports, a Georgia-based operation specializing in international artisanal distillers — with global craft whiskeys the crown jewel of the portfolio — the vastness of the whiskey world continues to amaze him. “It’s everywhere! Pakistan has a single malt whiskey distillery, o...| VinePair
Earlier this week, I broke the news here at VinePair that Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) plans to “withdraw” from California — like, the entire state — at the beginning of September. The second-largest wine and spirits distributor in the country has been collapsing in the Golden State for years, but its death spiral had tightened considerably since the top of 2025, when major brands began heading for the warehouse door more or less monthly. Now, it’s throwing in the t...| VinePair
Update: At 4:44am ET on 7/12/2023, roughly 12 hours after this story was published, Anchor Brewing Company issued a press release announcing it will cease operations and liquidate its business. VinePair will be updating reporting throughout the day. Clarification (7/20/23): A previous version of this article stated that multiple current and former workers had told VinePair that Russian River Brewing Co. was a potential suitor to acquire Anchor from Sapporo USA.| VinePair