(TheGazette) - Overall, sales of distilled spirits, beer and wine totaled nearly $319.3 million, which represented a 5.4 percent for the period from July 1, 2014 to last June 30. Wholesale sales of spirits in fiscal 2015 totaled about $277.7 million, a level that topped last fiscal year’s record by$14.2 million.

In addition to the state revenue from spirits profits with the division being the sole purchaser of alcoholic liquor sold in or imported into Iowa, the agency reported funds gen¬erated by excise taxes on wine and beer, license fees and civil penalties translated into nearly $128.7 million, including nearly $104.2 million to the state’s general fund and $20.4 million allocated to the state Department of Public Health for substance abuse programs.

“It was a good year. Sales picked up really well,” said division spokesman Robert Bailey. “I don’t know whether it’s just that people are drinking more spirits. I think a lot of millennials are turning more to liquor as opposed to beer and wine.”

Division figures indicated that more than 2 million cases of liquor were purchased by 168 vendors in Iowa. Whiskey, vodka, and cordials and liqueurs all topped a million gallons within the nearly 5.2 million gallons of liquor consumed by Iowans last fiscal year.

“We’re seeing nationally that whiskey is starting to be more popular than vodka,” Bailey said. “Brown liquor is overtaking clear liquor, that’s what some of the national authorities have been telling us.”

Beer sales topped 73.8 million gallons — a drop of nearly 1 percent from nearly 75 million gallons the previous fiscal year — while Iowans consumed more than 4.5 million gallons of wine in aggregate. Native beer, native wine and micro distilleries all posted higher sales in fiscal 2015.

“Beer has a huge volume,” Bailey noted, especially the uptick in interest for craft brews and native drinks. “They still drink a lot of it, but it was down slightly.”