A significant shift in the bulk spirits market over the past 18 months is making it possible for small, independent bourbon brands to turn a profit again, according to Coby and Ben Franzini, co-founders of Chevalier Casks, in a new interview on Bourbon Lens’s Thursday Thoughts.
Chevalier Casks, a Kentucky-based bulk spirits brokerage founded by Coby and Ben Franzini — who is also a co-owner of Bluegrass Distillers — connects distilleries with excess barrel inventory to brands, non-distilling producers (NDPs), and investors looking to buy bourbon and whiskey in bulk.
“It was definitely a shift in our mindset,” Coby said of the market change. “We quickly had to shift when that market — I mean, it was almost a ninety day swing. It was definitely a whiplash effect.”
According to Coby, barrel prices that once ran into the thousands of dollars have dropped significantly, making the math work again for small brands that were previously priced out. “Now is a really good time to be a brand again,” he said. “You can buy six, seven, eight-year-old juice at a really good price and there’s still plenty of margin at the bottle for you.”
Jake Lewellen, host of Bourbon Lens, pointed to the broader impact on consumers as well. “I think we’re entering not only the golden age for the small consumer, like the small brand, it’s also for the consumer,” he said, noting that falling costs are pushing more age-stated bourbons into the $35–$50 price range that most buyers are looking for.
The Franzinis also detailed why privacy remains central to many barrel transactions. “I think it’s really relationship driven,” Coby said. “Quite often they’re looking to do a quiet transaction, one where no one’s gonna know they’re selling… I think privacy is the biggest reason they call a broker to exit barrels.”
Demand trends are shifting too, the pair said, with wheated Kentucky bourbon emerging as one of the most sought-after — and hardest to find — categories in the bulk market. “There’s never been enough produced,” Coby said. “There’s not enough that’s old… it’s still a category that I think there’s room to grow.”
Chevalier Casks operates both a direct brokerage and an online marketplace at ChevalierCasks.com, where buyers can browse available barrel inventory and sellers can list barrels anonymously through the company’s blind-closing process. The company also offers full “soup to nuts” services for new brands, including barrel sourcing, storage, blending, bottling, and fulfillment.
“We absolutely can do soup to nuts,” Ben Franzini said. “We have some brands that are just coming in, selecting barrels for their own brand that they take elsewhere for bottling or packaging. And then we have others where they store their barrels here, they come by, they pull samples, they do their blends here, we bottle it for them here.”
The full conversation, including a breakdown of hidden costs new brands often overlook — such as storage, taxes, insurance, and freight — is available now on Bourbon Lens’s Thursday Thoughts, across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and bourbonlens.com.
About Chevalier Casks
Chevalier Casks is a Kentucky-based bulk spirits brokerage connecting distilleries, brands, and investors through barrel sourcing, storage, blending, and bottling services, alongside an online marketplace at ChevalierCasks.com.
About Bourbon Lens
Bourbon Lens is a bourbon-industry media brand delivering reviews, distillery news, and conversations with the people shaping the whiskey world, including its weekly series, Thursday Thoughts with Jake.
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