Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is re-opening its online sales portal for liquor and wine sales in Pennsylvania, but it appears to be first-come, first-serve at the moment. And you probably already missed your chance today.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced the modification to the complete system closure Wednesday during a mid-afternoon briefing on the state’s pandemic response.

However, the PLCB’s Web site says the online store is not taking orders at the moment due to “overwhelming demand... Please try again tomorrow or in the coming days.” That may mean Wolf stepped on what was supposed to be a soft roll-out as the system comes back to partial life.

There are no plans to reopen the 600 Fine Wine & Good Spirits retail stores at this time, the governor said.

In a subsequent press release, PLCB officials unveiled their plan, which is to accept "a controlled number of orders per day with plans to increase order capacity as fulfillment capacity increases.

“Customers will be limited to purchasing up to six bottles per transaction from a reduced catalogue of about 1,000 top-selling wines and spirits. All orders must be shipped to home or non-store addresses, and only one order per address will be fulfilled per day.”

The agency did not give set hours for when the online order portal will be open, saying instead that its plan is to “randomize” access throughout the day to “avoid overwhelming the site with high traffic, prevent order abuse and prolong access throughout the day, so that order availability isn’t exhausted in seconds or minutes each day.”

“We expect consumer interest and site traffic to exceed what we’ll be able to fulfill, at least initially, so we ask that customers be patient and understand that the PLCB Is doing the best it can under extraordinary circumstances to balance consumer demand and public health,” said Board Chairman Tim Holden.

Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Fayette County and chairman of the Senate’s Law and Justice Committee that oversees liquor law in Pennsylvania, told PennLive just before the governor’s press conference Wednesday that the change was coming, but that PLCB expected to only be able to handle 1,000 orders or less for the first few days.

Stefano said his impression was that the re-start began today.

All the online orders will be shipped direct to customer’s door, presumably with the same rules for delivery that had existed before.

The state-owned liquor stores were closed on March 16 as part of Wolf’s growing effort to stop the spread of coronavirus. That left Pennsylvanians with few in-state options to buy hard liquor and distilled spirits, which the state stores have a retail monopoly on. Exceptions are the close to 100 limited distilleries across the state, which can continue sales of their own products.

Wine and beer sales have continued through properly permitted groceries and beer distributors.