Pappy Van Winkle

Pappy Van Winkle whiskey has a cult-like following as fans line up at stores around the country to purchase bottles of the limited-edition whiskey.

(provided)

In the wake of a Pappy Van Winkle frenzy, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board said Thursday it will reevaluate how it sells the liquor.

"We are going to look at what happened and reevaluate our process and move forward. This is obviously not how we hoped it would go," said Stacy Kriedeman, spokeswoman for the agency.

On Thursday, the LCB's Fine Wine & Good Spirits e-commerce site launched sales of the Pappy Van Winkle line of whiskeys minutes after an email blast and Twitter notification were sent out.

But consumers quickly complained when the website slowed down, some saying they were unable to log in or place orders. Social media sites such as Twitter blew up with complaints from angry shoppers.

The six whiskey products, including 75 bottles of a 23-year-old bourbon priced at $249.99, sold out within a half-hour, Kriedeman said.

The whiskey has a cult-like following, and allocations are limited. In some sates Pappy Van Winkle is sold via a lottery system or shoppers wait in long lines to purchase it.

Pennsylvania opts not to announce the date of Pappy's release, instead choosing to do it on the day of the sale.

However, Kriedeman said because of the volume of shoppers on the Fine Wine & Good Spirits site at one time functionality issues occurred. The site experienced more than 20 times the usual traffic, she said.

Some shoppers were able to fill their online shopping cart but then were not able to purchase the bottles at the checkout, she said.

"We tried to be clear up front that you had to hit 'submit' before the order would be confirmed," Kriedeman said. "With so many people on the site at the same time, it's all a matter of timing."

She said 1,300 orders were placed for the whiskey. In addition, she said the agency has received calls and email complaints which are all being individually addressed.

The agency also will be looking at what was done and its options to make the process run more smoothly the next time, she said, adding and that might include a lottery system.

"Over the past few years, the demand for Pappy has continued to grow and the suppy is limited. It's almost like a frenzy at this point. Our goal was, and will continue to be, to give those people who want to buy a bottle the opportunity to get a bottle," Kriedeman said.

A statement on the Fine Wine & Good Spirits website reads:

"Because of the popularity of the Pappy Van Winkle products and the limited supply, the number of consumers accessing the online store and the mobile apps simultaneously impacted the functionality of FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com. As an agency, our goal was to provide everyone who wanted to purchase a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle with the opportunity to buy a bottle. We believe that the online store was the best way to do that fairly. However, we continue to look for ways to improve the process. Despite the challenges, all six products sold out in approximately a half an hour. All successful orders will begin shipping on Monday, Dec. 15, 2014."