The distilled spirits sector achieved accelerated growth in 2016 with supplier sales up 4.5 percent to $25.2 billion, volumes up 2.4 percent to 220 million cases and a seventh straight year of market share gains relative to beer, the New York-based Distilled Spirits Council announced at its annual economic briefing for media and Wall Street analysts, sponsored by Spirited Funds.

Yerba Buena Beverage LLC, doing business as Gold Bar Bottling Co., now offers Gold Bar Premium 889 blend, an American whiskey finished in gold-plated barrels, it says. 

As part of its debut, Mulholland Distilling introduced Mulholland American Whiskey in Los Angeles and all Whole Foods Markets in Southern California. 

Timber Creek Distillery, Destin, Fla., launched a bourbon blending kit. The limited-edition gift set features a selection of 100 percent single-grain whiskeys and Timber Creek's Bourbon Blending Guide, allowing consumers to create their own bourbon blend.

Crown Royal, a brand of Diageo North America, introduced Crown Royal Vanilla Flavored Whisky, a blend of hand-selected Crown Royal whiskies infused with the flavor of Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla. 

Beach Whiskey LLC launched its first line of American whiskeys, celebrating the beach lifestyle. 

In evaluating its forecasted growth expectations for beverage alcohol sales at the nation's bars and restaurants, Chicago-based Technomic expects to see modest improvements in 2016, the market research firm says. This comes from research conducted for Technomic's Adult Beverage Planning Program, a membership-based program delivering suppliers with research on key topics and trends related to the adult beverage on-premise industry.

Luxco announced the launch of David Nicholson Reserve in select markets. The