{"id":187121,"date":"2025-09-28T08:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T08:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/187121\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T08:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T08:07:11","slug":"thieves-spirit-away-12000-bottles-of-craft-whiskey-in-major-us-liquor-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/187121\/","title":{"rendered":"Thieves spirit away 12,000 bottles of craft whiskey in major US liquor heist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thieves who made off with 12,000 bottles of craft whiskey in a rare U.S. liquor heist<\/a> this summer did more than just snag nearly $1 million worth of product — they also spirited away nearly half the stock of a single malt distillers had worked for more than a decade to make.<\/p>\n

Now the Skagit Valley Sheriff\u2019s Office is investigating, and whiskey aficionados are wondering if \u2014 and where \u2014 the coveted bottles of Westland Distillery\u2019s first 10-year Garryana whiskey might turn up. <\/p>\n

The bottles disappeared July 31, when someone in a freight truck showed up at Westland Distillery\u2019s warehouse in Burlington, Washington, holding the paperwork that purportedly gave them the right to pick up a shipment of Westland single malt, Watchpost blended, and Garryana whiskies bound for New Jersey. <\/p>\n

But the bottles never arrived at their intended destination, and the \u201csophisticated, fraudulent carrier scheme\u201d was discovered a week later, said Jason Moore, the managing director of the Seattle-based distillery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 10th anniversary edition bottles of Garryana are irreplaceable, said Moore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an unfortunate and pretty extraordinary situation,\u201d said Moore.<\/p>\n

The Skagit County Sheriff\u2019s Office didn\u2019t immediately respond to a phone message left by The Associated Press. <\/p>\n

It could be difficult to sell the stolen goods, said Mark Gillespie, the host of the WhiskyCast podcast<\/a> who has published more than 3,800 tasting notes for different whiskey varieties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really hard for whoever took this to actually get this onto the market, because what they took was so rare that everybody knows about it,\u201d Gillespie said. \u201cWe see these thefts occasionally in Scotland, where thieves will steal a trailer full of whiskey \u2014 and it usually ends up in Russia.\u201d <\/p>\n

But getting 12,000 bottles out of the U.S. could be difficult because the bottles are rare and recognizable, and flipping them in the U.S. may be tough because of the nation\u2019s three-tier system for alcohol sales<\/a>. Distilleries generally have to sell liquor to distributors or wholesalers, who then sell to retailers and restaurants and bars. Selling alcohol on the secondary market<\/a> \u2014 such as when individuals buy up popular bottles and then resell them for a profit \u2014 is generally illegal. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not true in much of Europe, where auction houses and other businesses specialize in secondary market sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe providence of the Garryana is important because it\u2019s their first 10-year-old whiskey,\u201d Gillespie said. \u201cBasically, age statements state how old the whiskey is, and in this country you have a lot of craft distilleries that aren\u2019t quite 10 years old. So for a craft distillery to be able to release a 10-year-old is an accomplishment.\u201d <\/p>\n

Westland focuses on single-malt whiskeys, a style of liquor made from barley, similar to a Scotch whiskey. But Moore says Westland has worked hard to capture the terroir of the Pacific Northwest<\/a> inside each bottle, using locally produced grains, peat harvested from an Olympic peninsula bog and a specific type of yeast selected to bring out the regional flavors.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what makes the Garryana special, he said \u2014 it\u2019s aged in casks made from the Quercus garryana oak tree, which grows primarily in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n

The limited-edition whiskey regularly wins awards, said Gillespie, and the 2023 edition was named the third best whiskey in the world by Whisky Advocate magazine. The Garryana sells out every year, Gillespie said, and with 3,000 of this year\u2019s 7,500-bottle release gone, the price on the secondary market will be driven up. <\/p>\n

Moore said the company has taken additional steps to protect its supply chain, and right now they are focusing on serving customers instead of the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens from there is outside of our control, and we get excited about sharing our whiskey and engaging with the supporters we have,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThis is an extremely rare thing, and while it\u2019s a setback, we\u2019re confident that we\u2019re going to get to share this whiskey. We\u2019re proud to make something people enjoy.\u201d <\/p>\n

Losing $1 million in stock would put a lot of distilleries out of business, but Gillespie said he expects Westland to make it through the loss, in part because it was acquired by the Paris-based Remy Cointreau Group in 2016. Still, he has some advice for people eager to get a taste of Westland\u2019s products: Stick to the legal supply chains. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody tries to offer you a case of Westland whiskey right now, I\u2019d call the cops,\u201d Gillespie said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thieves who made off with 12,000 bottles of craft whiskey in a rare U.S. liquor heist this summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[109643,1927,28,1076,1904,793,109698,109699,20446,795,2003,2002],"class_list":{"0":"post-187121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-alcoholic-beverage-industry","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-financial-services","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-jason-moore","15":"tag-mark-gillespie","16":"tag-transportation-and-shipping","17":"tag-u-s-news","18":"tag-wa-state-wire","19":"tag-washington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}