Distillers have often been quoted as saying that they intentionally keep prices low in hopes that it reaches the widest audience. My hypothesis is that they do this because bourbon distillers are generally blue collar folks and not vintners who thrive on the high class perception that premium wine carries. The issue as I see it is the distillers have completely lost control of how their product gets distributed and at what price. Distillers want to produce a good product, they don't want to be in the logistics business, so they offload it to large distributors who have national and international channels. Distributors see the demand of the product as an opportunity to bundle it with other product that may not have the same frenzied fanbase. Suddenly this makes the good product exponentially more expensive for the small independent stores that normally wouldn't buy a thousand cases of Cuervo every month. To make up for the hit, they hide the bottle and find creative ways to either recover the cost by passing it onto the consumer, or by using it as a way to get folks in the store (raffles) for a chance at selling other product. One solution to the consumers' problem of being unable to find an affordable bottle is buying direct from the distiller. Unfortunately, this puts a lot of small independent stores at risk, but my free market opinion is that liquor stores only exist because of government regulations designed to curb access to the evils of alcohol. I want to purchase a product of which I am a legal age to purchase, therefore I shouldn't have to go into a special store for it.
In summary:
1) Distillers don't need to make more product. There's a lot of it out there already.
2) Distillers don't need to increase prices. This will only inflate the already inflated secondary prices.
3) Distributors are playing the game because they can within the confines of the law.
4) Buying direct from distillers could risk putting independent small liquor stores out of business.
5) Buying direct could reduce the power of the slimy distributors.