With a sales increase of 7%, the spirits category reached its highest growth levels of 2013 in the 4 weeks to January 4 in all Nielsen-measured channels - still excluding Washington. Technically, four of those days are in January, but the lion's share of them were in December so we're counting it as 2013. Volumes grew a healthy 3.8% and price/mix "remains a key driver," writes Citi analyst Vivien Azer in a recent note.