Across much of Virginia, if you’re looking to buy whiskey or other distilled spirits, you’ll need to do so at a state-run liquor store. Virginia is far from the only state to have such a system in place, but the method by which the state allocates in-demand bottles of whiskey sometimes gets it in the news for other reasons, as when two men were arrested for profiting on insider information on where certain rare bottles would be sold.
All of which is to say that it’s a system in need of reform — which is serendipitous, because it sounds like the latest iteration of reforms are now in place. At Axios, Anna Spiegel and Karri Peifer report that Virginia has overhauled the way its liquor stores handle rare bottles of bourbon.
Specifically, it’s set to randomize the experience somewhat, both in terms of which shops get which bottles and when they’ll be available for sale. All of which means that the days of camping out overnight in front of a state-owned liquor store to get a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle might be at an end…