Thieves Target Great Wines

We all know that great French wines have gotten increasingly expensive. The weak dollar, inflated wine scores, the hazards of different vintages, and fixed grand cru production totals have combined to make the finest Bordeaux and Burgundy wines a rare indulgence.  For those with a wine cellar, the costs of wine also include occasional spoiled bottles, whether through inadequate precautions taken during the shipment of the wines, or (as was the case in New Orleans after Huricane Katrina), power outages. Now a new peril has been added for those with fine wine collections – organized theft. This has been highlighted by two major heists within the past few months. They were clearly well organized, and the thieves knew what they wanted. The first theft took place in a gated community in Atherton, California, where wine cellars are a “common amenity,” along with home theaters and fitness centers. There was no sign of forced entry, although the house also was individually gated, and a code and key would have been necessary to enter it.. The thieves entered the basement of their victims, who were on vacation between December 28, 2006 and January 4, 2007.  Once in the basement, they entered the wine cellar, and stole the finest bottles in the owners’ collection, including a 1959 magnum of Chateau Petrus, valued at $11,000. In fact, the average value of the 450 bottles taken was said to be hundreds of dollars, with the total theft well over $100,000.  They left less costly bottles alone. Just as the news of this California theft was being released, a major theft of premier grands crus took place in downtown Bordeaux itself. In mid February, 2007, reporting to work on a Monday morning, an employee of Seignouret Freres & Cie noticed that warehoused stocks of the finest wines were missing. An inventory showed that over 250 original wooden cases of Chateaux Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, Latour and Margaux were gone, for a total of 3100 bottles. They were largely from the 2004 vintage, ready for transshipment  to wholesalers for onward shipment to retail outlets throughout the world. Most probably these were wines which had been bought in 2005 as futures contracts before bottling, and now had been bottled and preliminarily aged, prior to shipment and delivery. The total retail value of the wine stolen exceeded one million dollars. The scale of the theft is large. Not only, as in the earlier California theft, did the thieves disdain to take less costly wines. Here, the total theft of over 250 cases meant that some 10,000 pounds, or five tons, of merchandise, had been stolen. That involved a team of thieves, and surely, several trucks, and perhaps hydraulic lifting equipment. Initial police reports suggest that the thieves had entered the building from the rooftop of an adjoining building over the weekend. As with the California theft, there is apparently suspicion of inside help, as weekend watchmen on duty had not reported any irregularities. Police in Bordeaux note that thefts of fine wines from merchants are increasing in that region. The great difference in the Seignouret theft was its scale.  These thefts have wine merchants and cellar owners beginning to think twice about proper protection for their property. The value of the wine has been steadily rising, both at auction for older bottles, and en primeur for recent fine vintages, such as the celebrated 2005, which everyone has hailed but very few have actually tasted. First great growths are now topping $800 a bottle, and selling out at even that price. Perhaps it is time for consumers to think of wine not only as a great tasting pleasure, but as a financial asset that needs the protection accorded other rare and precious items such as first edition books and fine paintings. For unlike stolen art, there is no registry for wine. Some producers individually label their wines with bottle numbers, but most, in my experience, do not. A partial solution to the problem therefore suggests itself. If a central registry recorded such numbers, and individual wine collectors took note of the bottle numbers that they possess, then stolen bottles of wine might becom traceable. Certainly as a first start, wine cellar owners should doublecheck their insurance policies to make sure that their theft coverage is adequate. In the past, I suspect that the chief perils insured against were power outages and natural disasters. Now, theft mst be added to the list. Wine Of The Month We recently enjoyed a taste of “the lost grape of Bordeaux,” Carmenere, which has survived in Chile. This interpretation, ALKA vintage 2002 from Hacienda Araucano by Jacques and Francois Lurton of the Bordeaux Lurton family, was a revelation. It combined the rich structure of a superb Bordeaux with the forward fruit flavors, in this case black cherry, of a fine Burgundy. This is a grand vin which deserves to be broadly known, excellent and satisfying. Francois Lurton told me that only 6,000 bottles were made from this first, introductory vintage. With an eye to the future, he also noted that the Carmenere grape does very well in hot weather. Therefore, if the summers continue to be hot in Bordeaux, could the “lost grrape’ be reintroduced there? It would be good news for all who value fine wine.