Welcome in, today is Tuesday, September first, and we begin with Impact Databank's call on U.S. spirits volumes this year. U.S. spirits volumes are projected to grow one percent this year. That number comes from Impact Databank, reported as an exclusive by Shanken News Daily, and we have not seen it matched elsewhere. That account frames the increase as the category continuing its long-term upswing even as conditions across the U.S. drinks business remain difficult, and it credits ready-to-drink brands as the driver. For distributors and brand planners, a one percent baseline is the number that anchors forecasting, and it puts RTDs at the center of it. Industry reaction leans toward reading that headline as compositional rather than a recovery, a recurring point being that stripping out RTD cans leaves the category declining again. Some go further, framing spirits as increasingly operating on beer economics, with RTD extensions running through fast-moving beer distribution rather than the traditional spirits playbook. Others flag supplier inventory overhang and the discounting it could force, a reset they expect to show up in planograms before it shows up in category data. Staying with the demand picture, the August Beer Purchasers' Index puts the beer business back in what the survey calls a cautionary position. Brewbound reports the reading, drawn from NBWA vice president of analytics and chief economist Lester Jones' wholesaler survey, marks a second straight year of cautionary mode at summer's end. That same reporting pairs the index with lower inventory at risk of going out of code. Wholesalers read those two signals together when they set fall ordering and rotation, which makes this a working number rather than a headline one. Industry reaction leans toward treating it as confirmation of a broader beverage-alcohol demand problem rather than a seasonal blip, with non-alcoholic and moderation-driven demand cited as the one segment absorbing share. Separately, Campari is putting global weight behind Espolòn. Shanken News Daily reports the tequila has become the group's largest brand in the United States, up six percent last year to one point six seven million cases, according to Impact Databank. That same account has the brand still climbing this year, up eighteen and a half percent by volume in control states, and says Campari is backing it with a global push. When a group's largest U.S. brand is also its fastest-growing one, the investment signal reads plainly to anyone tracking agave share. The scope of that push is not detailed in the reporting we have, so treat the shape of it as unconfirmed for now. Also today, a group of Cognac winegrowers is taking Sazerac to court. Just Drinks reports the growers allege the U.S. distiller illegally ended supply contracts. That is the growers' allegation as described in that reporting, not a finding, and the material we have carries no response from Sazerac. What gives it reach beyond the two parties is the question underneath. If the claim reaches a ruling, a court would be setting out the terms on which a brand owner can exit a Cognac grape-supply agreement. Anyone sourcing from the appellation would read that judgment closely. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. CGA-powered data from NIQ, reported by Brewbound, expects Labor Day celebrations in the on-premise to run slightly below last year. The Irish Examiner reports Ireland's whiskey industry is steering export effort beyond the United States as Trump tariffs raise costs, with Jameson posting nine percent net sales growth in markets outside the U.S. And finally, a piece in The Hill argues Mexico's mezcal boom is under threat from organized crime, pointing to cargo hijackings on the truck routes north out of Oaxaca.