As Black Button came closer and closer to shuttering for good this summer, Rochester’s first distillery since Prohibition made increasingly dire choices.
The company had already closed its young taproom on University Avenue. With liquor still flowing through its stills, the company began selling off its furniture to make rent.
“We went past the line,” founder Jason Barrett said. “It was a series of improbable events that kept the oxygen in the lungs of Black Button.”
The distillery is now poised for a second life, as a new investor is swooping in to keep the whiskey flowing. Blackstar Spirits is a startup firm founded by Kris Comstock, who formerly served as the brand manager for Buffalo Trace, a Kentucky distillery that’s part of the Sazerac group of spirits, which also includes high-dollar brands like Pappy Van Winkle and Eagle Rare.
Black Button is the first distillery on Blackstar's roster.
Comstock declined a request for an interview, instead providing a written statement.
“Jason will run Black Button as always,” Comstock said. “I’m here to support him. And down the road we hope to expand the brand portfolio in new markets.”
Black Button’s decision over the summer to close its taproom, and the looming demise of the business as a whole, came as somewhat of a surprise.
The distillery just two years prior moved from its previous home on Railroad Street to a new, 28,000 square foot facility on University Avenue. The new distillery had the capacity to produce 14,000 barrels per year, about 10 times more than the previous facility.
That move made Black Button the largest whiskey distillery in New York. Despite the taproom’s closure, the distillery never stopped production.
The distillery has a booming contract distilling business, with Barrett estimating about 80 brands produced at the distillery. The distillery also has a farm in Bristol where it grows everything from gin botanicals to oak trees for its barrels. In 2019, Rochester-based beverage giant Constellation Brands acquired a minority stake in Black Button.
But Barrett also stressed it’s a tough industry, and highly competitive. That competition is not just against other craft distilleries, but industry giants as well.
“People used to say, how dare you charge $50 for a bottle of bourbon when I can get a bottle of Jack Daniels for $30, and I always said, guys, it's in fact incredible that I'm able to get it out for just $50,” Barrett said. “Do you know how much more I pay for everything? The glass, the label, the cap, the labor, the ingredients? Everything is five to six times as expensive for me to make, leaving me with a tenth of the marketing budget.”
Barrett said changing industry trends, like consolidation of brands through mergers, makes it even more difficult to compete on a national scale.
He pointed specifically to Bourbon Cream, a flagship liqueur produced by Black Button. Its main competitor would be Bailey’s, which is owned by Diageo. Diageo also owns other major brands like Casamigos, Tanqueray, and Smirnoff.
“Our Bourbon Cream competes directly with Bailey's," Barrett said. "So why would the distributor who carries Bailey's want to carry a Black Button? They generally don't. And even worse, they might choose to carry it, but then sideline it, which happens to many brands. Unfortunately, the industry is just not built for challenger brands and that is why we see so many of these brands stay small.”
Also, sales are declining across the entire spirits industry. For example, a Nielsen report from earlier this year found that total spirits sales dropped 1.1% from 2023 to 2024, and volume production dropped 2.3%. Those trends follow with others indicating lower alcohol consumption overall, particularly among younger people, and an increasing shift in the market towards ready-to drink cocktails.
What exactly the future of Black Button looks like under Blackstar is somewhat unclear. Barrett said Blackstar will mainly work in helping the brand get wider distribution — the distillery currently has products on the shelf in about 15 states and some limited international distribution.
The brand's offerings are slated to change a bit.
In the future, Black Button’s branding will be featured mainly on its focus products: bourbon and bourbon cream. The company plans to bottle the gin and vodka it produces under a different brand name, with a possible “by Black Button” on the bottle.
The taproom will also remain closed for the foreseeable future, although Barrett holds out hope that that will change.
“It's a lot easier to turn stuff off than it is to turn it back on with a cohesive plan. So, we don't have that deadline or date yet,” Barrett said. “But I am just so excited. It's like a rebirth, and we will make sure when we have that timeline to be announcing it far, wide, early and often.”
