The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Management Authority (ABC) appears to have a bourbon whiskey downside. In the event you’re a whiskey fanatic who occurs to dwell within the Previous Dominion, with its state-operated liquor retailer system, then you definitely’ve doubtless seen that one thing seemingly uncommon has been occurring just lately. Granted, it could have been troublesome to inform something was amiss for the common client, on condition that cabinets at ABC shops have been patchy and infrequently naked in lots of spirits classes for months at this level, because the state’s in-house distribution community seemingly reels from a bevy of challenges associated to the pandemic, staffing, and the transition to new storage warehouses. Nonetheless, sought-after and allotted manufacturers of whiskey have sometimes nonetheless proven up on retailer cabinets all through the state anyway, on a roughly weekly foundation through the entirety of the pandemic. What’s taking place now, then again, is one thing extra unprecedented.

So far as I can inform, no client within the state of Virginia has legally bought a bottle of Buffalo Hint Bourbon for the final three weeks, or probably longer. The identical goes for Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon, Henry McKenna Single Barrel, W.L. Weller Particular Reserve, and dozens of others on the Virginia ABC’s sprawling listing of “restricted availability merchandise.” These merchandise, which can be described beneath the umbrella time period of “allotted” bottles, are presumably nonetheless being delivered to ABC warehouses by distributorships and distilleries—they’re merely not being included in resupply shipments to inventory retailer cabinets. Or in different phrases, the Virginia ABC appears to have solely stopped promoting allotted merchandise—that are overwhelmingly bourbon manufacturers—for the final month or so, they usually’ve declined all requests to elucidate why. This has led to rampant hypothesis, angst and rumors among the many state’s whiskey fanatic group, to say the least.

Round a month in the past, on-line chatter in Virginia’s whiskey group hit a fevered pitch, following the apparent leak of a press release that appeared to vow a serious shakeup in how allotted merchandise can be bought within the state. This mode of data arriving was nothing new to the state’s bourbon geeks, as leaks from unofficial ABC sources have been widespread, and “insiders” with ABC connections sometimes are the primary to ship such information to the rank and file bourbon geeks on Fb, lengthy earlier than the state company has ever truly confirmed something. The information unfold rapidly, and the so-called “Wishlist Wednesdays” coverage was quickly being mentioned on Twitter, on Fb, on Reddit and past.

The state’s shoppers are all presently questioning what is going on inside the Virginia ABC.

The gist of the Wishlist Wednesdays coverage is basically that as a substitute of ABC shops promoting allotted merchandise on no matter day they occurred to obtain their weekly cargo from the truck, they might as a substitute maintain these merchandise to be bought completely on Wednesdays. This coverage would additionally change the prevailing guidelines about what number of bottles anybody client is ready to purchase—beforehand, shoppers may purchase one bottle of every allotted product, whereas the Wishlist Wednesday coverage would make it just one bottle of any allotted product per day. In different phrases, if a retailer had six completely different allotted merchandise to promote on any given Wednesday, you’d have to decide on a kind of six. These merchandise can be bought on a first-come, first-served foundation to anybody ready in line (and belief me, Virginians wait in line for whiskey), with numbers issued to individuals ready in line by retailer workers.

The aim of this coverage can be, in idea, to make the system extra honest and accommodating to a wider buyer base who need the prospect to purchase these allotted bourbons at MSRP, relatively than being gouged for them by these snapping up allotted bottles to then commerce and flip on the secondary market. By limiting the variety of bottles to just one per individual, per retailer, the coverage would a minimum of modestly minimize into the flexibility of the so-called “flippers” to amass bottles for resale. For instance: If a retailer has 24 bottles of allotted bourbon, throughout 4 manufacturers (6 bottles of every model), the earlier coverage would have meant that the primary six individuals in line may (and sure would) purchase all 24 bottles. Beneath the brand new coverage, 24 completely different individuals would every go away with one bottle, which provides the flippers much less incentive to line up within the first place.

Numerous on-line profiles on Fb and Reddit, claiming to be ABC workers who have been aware of the supposed new coverage, have commented on how this could all apparently work, and most appear to be in favor of the coverage.

The one challenge—the Virginia ABC has by no means confirmed the existence of the “Wishlist Wednesdays” coverage, and the unique said starting date within the leaked memo was Wednesday, March 30. On Twitter, and in my very own electronic mail inbox, the Virginia ABC has replied to all inquiries about this with a single boilerplate response, calling the unique memo a “draft information launch” not supposed for launch. As Public Relations Supervisor Daybreak Eischen said to me straight:

There have been a variety of rumors in the previous few weeks about restricted availability merchandise which have been posted by non-official sources. The memo you point out was a draft information launch that was not issued. Adjustments that affect retail clients can be communicated forward of time through our web site, social media platforms and the Spirited Virginia e-newsletter, and, in some instances, introduced to the information media. For correct data, keep tuned to the official sources I discussed.

Be aware, there’s no precise denial there of the memo’s veracity—Eischen merely states that the information launch was not supposed to be issued, whereas tacitly confirming that it was certainly initially “drafted” by the ABC. This would appear to indicate that the information launch wasn’t a faux or forgery created by some bored prankster, however a real Virginia ABC creation. The apparent query, then, is “why?”

Maybe the most straightforward potential reply to the “why?” query, Occam’s razor-wise, is that the bloated paperwork of the Virginia ABC merely hasn’t allowed them to make the transition to Wishlist Wednesdays as rapidly as they hoped. It is a very giant state company, with virtually 400 shops that make use of greater than 4,000 individuals statewide. The ABC is a number one income producer for Virginia, and a serious a part of funding state packages and authorities. However few would ever describe it as “environment friendly.” Delays are anticipated, relating to this type of proposed, basic change.

This wouldn’t clarify, nevertheless, why the move of allotted spirits has fully dried up at ABC places within the final month—why not merely proceed operating shops usually till the brand new coverage takes impact, or a minimum of till it’s lastly and formally introduced? There can be no information tales or client consternation if the ABC elected to easily proceed operating enterprise as regular whereas they hammered out the logistics of their plan. As a substitute, stopping the move of allotted bourbon for a time period approaching a month has solely drawn elevated consideration to the problem. Take into accout, that is an complete state we’re speaking about right here. And none of it’s helped by the company avoiding addressing the problem, as hundreds of shoppers rail at them each day and demand a proof. At this level, each tweet from the ABC merely elicits jokes and questions on “The place is the allotted bourbon?” Folks solely go extra ballistic, in the meantime, once they learn on-line accounts of ABC shops receiving allotted bottles … solely to then ship the bottles again to the warehouse. We are able to’t converse to the veracity of those claims, however it’s removed from the one model of this story I’ve seen in the previous few weeks.

Names eliminated, for the sake of privateness.

The net rumor mill, naturally, has loads of theories on what’s going on, starting from the doubtless believable to baseless hypothesis. Some insist that Wishlist Wednesdays will nonetheless be introduced quickly, and that the state is solely saving up all these allotted merchandise for a large bacchanalia of shopping for in its first weeks. Some imagine that the prevailing lottery system can be expanded to incorporate all allotted merchandise. Others, in the meantime, declare that the whole coverage was in reality faux from the start, a tactic cooked up by the Virginia ABC as a technique to search out and pinpoint the supply of data leaks from inside the company. In accordance with lots of the native Virginia bourbon hunters posting on-line, these leaks have been a reasonably major problem for the group, because the supposed leaker would have been promoting insider data to flippers, who have been then capable of plan their operations accordingly. It would sound absurd, however when many of those bottles could be flipped for 300% or 400% their MSRPs on the illicit secondary market, it begins to look extra believable. Suffice to say, we do not know the place the reality lies, however it’s clear to see whereas shopping the native Virginia whiskey teams that the general anti-ABC sentiment is operating excessive proper now.

On the very least, it’s troublesome to argue that this complete final month has been something aside from an organizational and logistical catastrophe for the Virginia ABC—there’s no situation the place product being shipped to shops, after which returned to the warehouse, is taken into account superb. Likewise, it appears that evidently there have been big communication lapses and breakdowns taking place right here relating to particular person ABC retailer operators and managers, with some saying they know all concerning the supposed new coverage, and others saying they’ve by no means heard of it. Even the oldsters working the shops seem like in the dead of night on this one, as all of the allotted whiskey within the state lingers in stasis and shoppers develop an increasing number of indignant.

As an outdoor observer who solely actually paperwork, relatively than participates within the mania for getting and hoarding allotted bourbon, I in the end discover myself empathizing with those that try to run the Virginia ABC easily as they cope with this challenge. The company has clearly confronted some adversity through the pandemic, which has strained the logistics of working its greater than 400 shops. It doesn’t matter what determination they in the end make relating to distributing these merchandise, they’re going to be met with derision, outrage and entitlement from a big chunk of the state’s “bourbon collector” group, lots of whom are frankly unbearable contributors within the secondary market who would by no means be glad with any final result, it doesn’t matter what it’s. The plain downside, although, is that allotted bourbon has develop into such a contentious challenge within the state that the effort of coping with it has seemingly paralyzed the whole company—such a chaotic scenario that these merchandise are actually apparently piling up in storage whereas the shoppers gnash their tooth. Suffice to say, the drive of those collectors to singleminded hunt these allotted merchandise is strictly why I wrote an essay in January, begging bourbon hunters to contemplate diversifying their ingesting.

That is truly a good time to discover the spirits world OUTSIDE of allotted bourbon just like the above.

It’s unimaginable to say how this case in Virginia will lastly resolve, however wanting to listen to yet one more account straight from the horse’s mouth, I went right down to my very own native Virginia ABC retailer to ask the supervisor straight if she was conscious of the Wishlist Wednesdays coverage. To my shock, the supervisor stated sure, assuring me that it was “completely actual,” though she unsurprisingly had no concept of when it was meant to be formally introduced or lastly go into impact. Nor did she have any clue of when manufacturers similar to Buffalo Hint or Blanton’s would once more start escaping from the ABC warehouses and touchdown on retailer cabinets, merely stating that they hadn’t seen something allotted “in fairly some time.”

And so, a whole state continues to attend for some sort of signal with bated breath, quizzically questioning what’s going on contained in the Virginia ABC. This place is thirsty, and I sincerely hope it doesn’t have to attend for much longer earlier than the whiskey begins to move as soon as once more.

Jim Vorel is a Paste employees author and resident beer and liquor geek. You possibly can follow him on Twitter for extra drink writing.