It’s tough enough out there for people with a taste for a particular bourbon by Buffalo Trace’s distillery — only about 7,000 cases of Pappy Van Winkle are produced a year and the spirit has a devoted set of consumers. But it could be even tricker to score a bottle after someone lifted $26,000 worth, about 65 cases, from a Buffalo Trace facility.

Police tell the Courier-Journal in Louisville that the heist appears to be an inside job at the company’s Frankfort, Ky. facility. The county sheriff says the theft was reported this week, but it could’ve been an ongoing effort over the last few months.

On the list of missing booze: $25,350 in three-bottle cases of 20-year-old Pappy and $675 in nine cases of 13-year-old Van Winkle Reserve rye.

“This is the mac daddy,” said the sheriff. And if he said it, you know it’s true.

Buffalo Trace’s bourbon is aged 20 years, which means it’s not easy to boost production to replace any missing cases. And supply already can’t quite meet demand — last May the company warned fans that there could be a shortage due to its popularity.

“We are making more bourbon every day,” the bourbon marketing director said at the time. “Our warehouses are filling up with new barrels. Waiting for the bourbon to come of age is the hard part.”

With 65 cases now missing, that supply and demand issue isn’t going to get any better. Stop hoarding the booze, bourbon thief!

Pappy Van Winkle stolen in apparent inside job [Courier-Journal]

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