Brazen Whisky Thieves Steal Over $120,000 Of Scotch From Glenfarclas

by Nino Kilgore-Marchetti
May 16, 2022

The Glenfarclas distillery in Scotland suffered a horrible break-in over the weekend, in which thieves seemingly knowing what they were after stole over $120,000 USD in rare Scotch.

The break-in at the distillery, mentioned on Glenfarclas’ social media feeds, occurred around 2:45 AM local time yesterday. A unmentioned number of people broke into the visitor center, smashing cabinets and clearing out “all the oldest and most valuable Family Casks and a bottle of 60 Year Old.”

The total value of the whisky stolen, noted distillery officials, ranged over £100,000, or over $120,000 USD. This is reflective of retail value, it should be noted. Secondary market values if these were to be sold off would likely be significantly higher.

Glenfarclas Break In — A smashed Glenfarclas display case that contained rare whisky (image via Glenfarclas)

“The team are understandably very shaken up by these events,” noted Glenfarclas officials in a Facebook post.

As of the time of this post there was no immediate information available on suspects, including the number of individuals. Nor is it known as of yet whether the suspects had previously scoped out the visitor center, or if perhaps this was some kind of inside job.

As for the whiskies stolen, the Glenfarclas Family Casks represent a core higher end line up, consisting of a series of vintage releases drawn from casks ranging back over decades. Each offering is said to have a specific story to it, containing its own complexity of aromas.

It is hard to get a true sense of the range of the Family Casks, unless of course you can see them side by side, as was such the case with a super rare “Family Cask Trunk” offered up back in 2018 for around $128,000 USD at the time. It held small bottlings stretching from 1954 to 2003.

The 60 year offering meanwhile, seemingly first came to market back in 2015. Priced at around $22,000 USD at the time, it was drawn from one of the last of the distillery’s 1953 casks. Just 360 bottles were released globally, housed in “a bespoke cut crystal decanter that ‘mirrors the shape of the classic Glenfarclas bottle while each side of the hexagonal presentation box represents one of the 6 generations of the Grant family to own and manage the distillery since 1865.’