The Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Ky found it was missing a supply of its Pappy Van Winkle bourbon beer CNN reported Thursday.
"It's highly coveted," Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton, lead investigator in the case told CNN. "It's the best of the best." "This is the mac daddy," Melton told Fox News and the AP in a combined report.
The distillery contacted Melton Tuesday to inform him that it was missing 65 cases, or 195 bottles of high quality beer.
"We believe whoever did this took them out the back from the secured area over a period of two months. Obviously, the way this happened, it's indicative of an inside job."
"Their internal controls are pretty good," Melton told Fox News. "And that's why it's been very, very rare for it to happen."
The sheriff's department has just started its investigation into the matter, and will look for any odd or mysterious bottles that show up in the black market CNN reported. 50 people are employed at the distillery, who run the location in two shifts.
According to Tom Fischer of bourbonblog.com, the beer is so exclusive that consumers have been known to fork up a lot more to buy a bottle then its original price if they are able to locate one.
"There is a lot of mystery around how to even get one," Fischer told CNN. "If you're around a bottle, it's a special occasion. If you keep bourbon in the right conditions, it will be good forever."
The beer is available at online retailer dukeofbourbon.com, where the bottle costs $1,199.
"You have to wonder what's going to happen to the 195 stolen bottles," Kit Codik, chief executive officer of the all-things cocktail website Liquor.com. "It's like when a van Gogh goes missing: Where does that rare piece of art end up? I have no idea."
