A large shipment of a critically acclaimed whiskey from Seattle’s Westland Distillery — including their Garryana 10th anniversary release — is believed to have been stolen from the distillery's Burlington warehouse in July, officials from the distillery confirmed Wednesday.
The Skagit County sheriff’s office declined to comment on an open, active case — but confirmed to The Seattle Times that detectives are investigating.
Among the 12,000 missing bottles are three different whiskeys: Westland’s flagship single malt; a new release called Watchpost; and 3,000 bottles of the prized Garryana whiskey, which retails for $150 and fetches even more on the secondary market, as it’s considered a collectible.
Westland Distillery declined to comment on specifics regarding the theft. However, though an attorney, Westland confirmed the following details:
On July 31, sometime before 1 p.m., a man in a freight truck pulled up to the Westland Distillery warehouse in Burlington, where its whiskeys are bottled and stored. The alleged thief showed warehouse workers “the appropriate bill of loading,” which is the document required to pick up the whiskey, according to the Westland attorney.
The 12,000 bottles were then loaded into the freight truck, bound for a warehouse in New Jersey. They never arrived.
Westland management suspects the truck driver obtained clearance to pick up the whiskey by providing “fraudulent documents” to a broker that Westland contracted to manage the delivery.
The distillery declined to name that broker. But on Aug. 6, Mecca Worldwide Logistics, a freight carrier based in Jersey City, N.J., filed an incident report to the Skagit County sheriff about a theft that occurred at the Westland warehouse address in Burlington.
The Skagit County sheriff's office declined to make that Aug. 6 incident report public because the case is ongoing, but the report was reviewed by The Seattle Times.
Mecca did not respond to requests for comment.
The total loss is an estimated $924,000 in retail value, but Westland managing director Jason Moore said the Garryana is irreplaceable — because that whiskey was divvied up and aged in separate casks of rum, sherry, bourbon and Garry oak and then blended together. The stolen bottles, including the aging, took 10 years to complete.
In 2023, the Garryana single malt, aged in Garry oak, was named the third best whiskey in the world by the Whisky Advocate magazine. (It broke the top 20 last year, too.) This year’s release was expected to be extra special because it’s the 10th anniversary edition.
“This milestone release of Westland Garryana is our first age-statement whiskey, a decade in the making,” distillery management said in a prepared statement. “To have such a significant portion stolen is deeply saddening for us and for the community of whiskey lovers who have awaited it.”
Westland still has 4,500 Garryana bottles left. They will be available for sale starting Oct. 18 at the distillery's Sodo tasting room.
“We are committed to releasing the remaining stock, beginning with our loyal supporters here,” Westland said in the statement. “Garryana 10th edition remains an incredibly meaningful expression of our work, and we look forward to sharing it this fall.”
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