The Washington Post and others recently broke the story of an inside job at the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC), involving the sale of highly sought-after and rare bourbons. In turn, the agency was unwittingly inflaming a robust black market in secondary whiskey sales among local whiskey collectors.
It all started when a copy of a draft press release from Virginia ABC was apparently leaked. The release stated that the agency was revamping how it would distribute and sell limited-release or rare bourbons in its stores. Instead of these desired bottles being scattered to random state-run stores around the commonwealth on random days, the products would only be sold on Wednesdays. New limits were also to be placed on how many bottles of these so-called "allocated products" a single customer could purchase.
