In a time of deep political divisions, this much appears unassailable: Americans are hitting the hard stuff with gusto these days, increasingly American whiskey but also — in the spirit of inclusiveness — cognac, tequila and vodka.

For the seventh straight year, the spirits industry swiped market share from beer, according to new economic data from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States released Tuesday. Overall, spirit suppliers' sales to wholesalers grew 4.5 percent to $25.2 billion last year, and sales volume increased about 2.4 percent to 220 million cases.

And continued good news for Beam Suntory, which recently opened its new Chicago headquarters: American whiskey, which includes bourbon, is still booming with sales volume up 6.8 percent to 21.8 million cases and sales to wholesalers up 7.7 percent to $3.1 billion. American whiskey sales have grown for more than 10 years.

Beer still commanded about 47 percent of market share of the alcohol industry last year, in terms of supplier sales to wholesalers, but spirits, at about 36 percent, and wine, at about 17 percent, have steadily grown in recent years while beer has fizzled.

"The continued growth of the spirits sector clearly demonstrates that adult consumers' taste for and interest in premium distilled spirits, across all categories, is trending upward," said Kraig Naasz, Distilled Spirits Council president and CEO, in the news release.

Other highlights from the 2016 data included:

•Vodka, which represents one-third of all spirits sales volume, grew 2.4 percent to 69.8 million cases;

•Tequila sales volume increased about 7 percent to almost 16 million cases;

•Cognac was up about 13 percent to about 5 million cases.

Beam Suntory presumably is benefiting from those trends, though a company spokeswoman couldn't be immediately reached for comment. In addition to whiskey brands like Beam and Maker's Mark, it also produces Courvoisier cognac, Hornitos tequila and Effen vodka.

Beam is a privately held subsidiary that doesn't typically release financial information. But parent company Suntory Holdings reported in November that Beam Suntory sales saw mid-single-digit growth in the nine months ending Sept. 30 when compared with the same period a year earlier.

gtrotter@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @GregTrotterTrib

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