Nearly $1 million worth of whiskey has vanished in what appears to be a rare large-scale liquor theft in Washington state.
Westland Distillery confirmed that 12,000 bottles, including its prized Garryana 10th anniversary release, were stolen from its Burlington warehouse in late July.
The theft had been kept quiet. But a recent report from a freight carrier to a local sheriff’s department caught the attention of the Seattle Times. The theft was confirmed earlier this week.
Westland disclosed that on July 31, a freight truck driver presented authentic-looking paperwork authorizing a pickup bound for New Jersey. The shipment was loaded but never arrived.
Company officials believe fraudulent documents were used to obtain clearance through a contracted broker. Among the stolen stock were Westland’s flagship single malt, a new release called Watchpost, and 3,000 bottles of Garryana — a limited-edition whiskey retailing for $150 but often commanding higher resale prices.
The distillery estimates the loss at $924,000, though managing director Jason Moore stressed the bottles were “irreplaceable,” reflecting a decade of work blending spirits aged in multiple casks, including rare Garry oak.
Large thefts of premium spirits are uncommon, drawing attention because of their scale and the value of collectible bottles.
In 2023, Whisky Advocate ranked Garryana as the third-best whiskey in the world, underscoring the significance of this year’s 10th-anniversary release.
Despite the setback, Westland will release 4,500 remaining bottles of Garryana on October 18 at its Seattle tasting room.
Mark Gillespie, the host of the WhiskeyCast podcast told AP the thieves won’t have an easy time moving the product. “It’s 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,” Gillespie said.
He added, “We see these thefts occasionally in Scotland, where thieves will steal a trailer full of whiskey — and it usually ends up in Russia.”
CNN reported that thieves made off with nearly 4,300 cases of spirits and wine from a distribution site in Florida in 2023. The thieves used tractor trailers to load up the product after disabling security cameras.
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