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Wyoming Whiskey: Retailers buy up first batch in 4 minutes

Wyoming Whiskey

After four years aging in barrels, the first batch of Wyoming Whiskey sold out to distributors in only four minutes today.

Three-thousand cases of Wyoming Whiskey went on sale to state liquor license holders at 3:00 p.m. on the Wyoming Department of Revenue’s E-Liquor website. At 3:04, the website crashed because it experienced such heavy traffic. Of the state’s 1,250 retailers, only about 75 were able to purchase the whiskey.

Bill McCleary of Northridge Discount Liquors in Laramie says his customers – some of whom were on a waiting list – are going to be disappointed that the store’s order didn’t go through.

“Honestly, I think they probably should have expected something like that,” McCleary says. “I mean, for Wyoming, this is bigger than Cyber Monday.”

Wyoming Whiskey is the only bourbon distilled in Wyoming. It’s made in Kirby from local ingredients by former Maker’s Mark master distiller Steve Nally. There is only a small reserve of the first batch remaining before next year.

Wyoming Whiskey Chief Operating Officer David DeFazio says he was “shocked” by the speed at which the whiskey sold out.

“We had anticipated that his might happen. We didn’t think it would happen in four minutes. But we will be releasing the rest of it, which is just a very small amount, probably within the very next day,” De Fazio says.

De Fazio says Wyoming Whiskey will slowly sell off 5,000 cases starting next year, before tapping into the next batch in November 2013.

The first batch of Wyoming Whiskey will be available in some Wyoming bars and package stores on Saturday.

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