Thirsty, Virginia?

Apparently so. Virginia ABC stores sold about 9.2 million gallons of liquor in fiscal year 2008.

That's more than a gallon and a half for every person of legal drinking age in the state. That's 795,412,236 shots. That's enough to fill 14 Olympic-size swimming pools and still have enough left over to keep a football team schnockered for a good chunk of the off-season.

Statewide, vodka is the big seller, with 28 percent of all liquor sales by volume. But around the southwestern part of the state, it's dark spirits, not clear ones, that rule.

"You're going to skew a lot more brown goods than in an urban area," said John Knutson, director of marketing for Jim Beam bourbon maker Beam Global Spirits & Wine.

Liquor sales representative Michelle Brooks sells Jack Daniel's whiskey products to every one of 130 clients she has in the Roanoke region. Her colleagues elsewhere in the state say "it's like water in these parts. Everybody's got it."

Across Virginia, vodka is king when you measure liquor sales by volume. The top-selling brand in gallons is Aristocrat, the inexpensive label that's in the "well" of bars everywhere. It's the vodka you get when you order a vodka tonic without specifying Absolut, Grey Goose or another brand. It sold more than 467,000 gallons during the year.

But measure the top liquors by dollars spent, and the brown stuff rises to the top.

Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey is No. 1 with more than $22 million in sales. It was No. 1 last year, too. It's No. 5 in sales by volume.

Its chief competitor, Jim Beam straight bourbon, is No. 2 by volume, and No. 3 by gross sales, giving it an especially strong position in the state.

Every top whiskey and bourbon brand in the market is available in Virginia, Knutson said, and that's very unusual in states where government controls liquor sales.

Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control spokesman Philip Bogenberger said the popularity of liquor types hasn't varied much over the years. Vodka drinkers stay vodka drinkers, and whiskey and bourbon types don't put down their favorite libation for a martini, either.

"Vodka drinkers are very experimental," Knutson said. One reason vodka is so popular is the explosion of not only higher-end vodkas, but products such as flavored vodkas apple, melon, grape, chocolate, espresso, even sweet iced tea-flavored vodka, he said.

And that's one reason vodka is most popular in urban centers where trends are gleefully embraced.

"Anything that's new is hot," said Brooks, who sells for Chesapeake, Va.-based Associated Distributors.

Brooks sees this even on a small scale. In Roanoke, vodka is the dominant poison in downtown eateries and late-night gathering spots. But head just a mile north on Williamson Road, and the flavor changes. At places such as WR Brews and Mulligan's Bar & Grill, customers are all about bourbon and whiskey.

Blues BBQ on the Roanoke City Market represents a major exception to downtown restaurant, though. Blues BBQ stocks 67 different bourbons and offers a bourbon club to its patrons. Try all of them and you get a $100 gift card and your name on a plaque. But getting there won't be cheap. Some of the bourbons sell for $4 or $6 a shot, but a handful, such as 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve, go for $40 a shot.

The restaurant is allowed one bottle of the Pappy Van Winkle a year by Virginia ABC because of limited supplies. It usually lasts about three weeks, Blues BBQ General Manager Steve Godkin said.

"It's all bourbon, it's all good," he said.

There are smaller rewards along the way for club members, such as shot glasses and T-shirts.

The club has about 200 members, and eight have completed the list, Godkin said.

Why is brown liquor so popular around here?

Knutson gave one clue. Think of areas where NASCAR racing is popular -- the southeastern United States, for example -- and those are areas where bourbon and whiskey have historically been the favorite spirit.

And that was true before NASCAR allowed liquor companies to sponsor cars and Jim Beam, Jack Daniel's and Crown Royal became the first ones in. All three are among the top-selling liquors in Virginia, by the way.

It's more than a rural lifestyle or taste. There's a similar tendency toward intense brand loyalty among both NASCAR fans and bourbon and whiskey drinkers. If you like NASCAR, you've got your favorite driver, and you're also likely to be loyal to Ford or Chevrolet or Dodge as a make of car. Likewise, people who love Jim Beam won't likely take Jack Daniel's as a substitute, and vice versa.

And yes, those people bellying up to try 67 different bourbons at Blues BBQ would be an exception.

Some taste trends are far smaller and narrower than a region of a country, if more short-lived.

Jagermeister, a potent, licorice-flavored liqueur favored by younger bar patrons fond of downing shots, sells as much as vodka in the downtown Awful Arthur's Seafood Co., owner Todd Lancaster said.

Brooks has noticed the enormous popularity of a concoction of Southern Comfort and lime juice in and around Blacksburg.

Whatever people are drinking, they're drinking more, not less.

Liquor sales in Virginia increased by $33.5 million and 201,000 gallons from 2007 to 2008.

"People keep saying our economy's slowed down," Brooks said, "but liquor sales haven't slowed down at all."