For small distilleries, legal tasting-room, bar, and direct-to-consumer sales can support product development as well as margins by making very small experimental releases economically viable without requiring distributor-scale volume.
Interpretive synthesis from attributed contemporary operating accounts; current state law requires separate verification before present-tense use.
This is a capability, not a guarantee of profitability or product quality. The legal scope and economic effect vary by state, license, and time; the evidence is a 2012–2014 snapshot.
Large distributors are poorly suited to hand-sell a few cases. Rodewald's Koval/Corsair discussion states that direct sales let experimental small batches reach consumers, while the New York Distilling case shows an affiliated bar can also retain margin and teach consumers.