Like diamonds or fine art, top wines are on the wish lists of thieves with an eye for luxury, and who appear to know their grands crus from their vins de table.
Swiping hotel room toiletries is one thing, but it requires a different kind of nerve to check out with a bottle of Château d’Yquem 1806 worth an estimated €350,000 tucked into a rucksack. This nightmare scenario played out in October 2021 at Michelin three-star Atrio hotel restaurant in Cáceres, western Spain, when thieves brazenly left with 45 bottles of wine valued by the restaurant at €1.65m (£1.42m).
It is one of several fine wine thefts at top restaurants and merchants’ warehouses in the past few years. Details can be Hollywood-esque, although tales of intrigue, skulduggery and sheer audacity offer little consolation to victims. Financial headaches aside, some bottles are irreplaceable and a cellar will have taken years and much investment to build.
‘To have someone just come in and take it is quite awful,’ Cristina Pérez Olmos, communications director for Madrid’s Michelin two-star Coque restaurant, told Decanter last year after thieves stole about 132 bottles. Police were still investigating, she added in May 2023.
CHOOSING THE VINOUS TARGETS
Maybe the Atrio thieves got lucky by pinching wine royalty that also included Burgundy’s famous Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC). Considering Atrio’s cellar holds 4,500 different wines and a total 39,000 bottles, however, the selection of 45 feels like more than chance.
この記事は Decanter の July 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Decanter の July 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
A Resource for the World? - Argentina is unique in the genetic diversity preserved in much of its vine material. With climate change and disease posing increasing threats worldwide, Catena Zapata winery is asking what lessons can be learned to protect vineyards within and beyond the nation's borders
Argentina is unique in the genetic diversity preserved in much of its vine material. With climate change and disease posing increasing threats worldwide, Catena Zapata winery is asking what lessons can be learned to protect vineyards within and beyond the nation’s borders
Great Cabernets of South America
Other varieties may hog the limelight across South America, but the world’s most popular grape for red wines has played a critical role in the continent's wine heritage. We trace Cabernet Sauvignon’s story here, and recommend 16 benchmark wines to try
PROVENCE by train and bike
With rail links to Paris, Nice, Marseilles and beyond, a vast network of cycle paths and quiet roads, and a plethora of historic wine estates, Provence is an ideal destination for an eco-friendly, car-free and carefree) holiday
IN THE MIX
These days most of the world’s vineyards are planted to just a single variety, but what happens when multiple varieties are planted, harvested and blended together?
Malvasia A BUYER'S GUIDE
If ever a grape was hard to pin down, it'd be Malvasia. Indeed it’s not even a single grape variety. In all of its many varied, and often completely unrelated guises, it has been the mainstay of popular wine styles across the centuries. Our expert takes a closer look...
RIBERA ADOPTS THE NEW OLD WAYS
It’s not so much a new direction for winemakers in Ribera del Duero, but a growing recognition that traditional methods and wine styles set aside by the previous generation can now provide a way ahead to revitalise the region
Roussanne around the world
Up for a challenge? For winemakers as much as wine drinkers, getting a handle on a mercurial grape such as Roussanne isn't easy. But wherever it's grown, when the balance is right, it truly repays the effort
Napa Cabernet 2021
There's a lot of excitement about this vintage, in which conditions were relatively calm and temperatures stable through summer. Ongoing drought reduced yields but intensified flavours, but it means quantities are down and you may need to act fast to secure top wines. Our Napa correspondent selects 60 great wines from more than 500 that he tasted, with many very high scores
10 reason to discover Uruguay
Squeezed between Brazil and Argentina on the Atlantic coast, Uruguay has mostly flown under the tourist radar - until now. Once dubbed 'the Switzerland of the Americas', it's a welcoming country that has much to offer the travelling wine lover
Leo Erazo
The old vines and special terroir of Itata, southern Chile, have beena source of inspiration for this intrepid winemaker. The 2023 fires were a setback, but his commitment to this ancient wine land is undiminished
