Larceny and fine wine

Wine thievery is all the rage ... Expensive bottles lifted from their rightful owners ... Product that is easily on-sold or fenced ... Top end drops now snugly located in Sydney's legal district, under lock n' key ... Justinian's wine reporter Gabriel Wendler is on the case 

All lawyers know that the crime of larceny is established when a person, without claim of right, takes the property of another person with the intention of permanently depriving that person of their property.

Historic episodes of fine wine theft are perturbing and fearless in their execution. As recently as June 30, 2023, a knowledgeable wine thief removed part of the roof of the Lincoln Fine Wine Store in California and stole 800 bottles of wine valued at $US600,000. A $US10,000 reward was immediately offered for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator.   

In October 2021 two thieves, described as a "glamorous couple"  surreptitiously entered the 45,000-bottle wine cellar of the famous Atrio restaurant in the Spanish town of Cáceres and removed 45 bottles of wine worth €1.6 million. 

They were confident in their criminal mission focusing on DRC Burgundy and the pride of the cellar, a bottle of Ch d' Yquem from the 1806 vintage - the year Napoleon Bonaparte was emperor of France, William Bligh was governor of the colony of NSW and the jurist Richard Windeyer was born. 

The bottle of d' Yquem was valued at €350,000. When arrested in Croatia the thieves vociferously protested their innocence. They were returned to Spain for trial, convicted and received four year gaol sentences and ordered to pay €750,000 compensation. The wine was not recovered.

In March 2017, a talented Melbourne wine expert by the name of Lak Quach was investigated over allegations he had stolen $A300,000 of upmarket wine from his employer, CellarHand. 

He reached a deal with his employer that avoided police involvement, agreeing to return his private cellar and desist from working in the wine industry for five years.

£100,000 of fine wine nicked from Berry Bros & Rudd

In 2016, 600 bottles of first growth Bordeaux and Ch d' Yquem valued at over $US485,000 was stolen from the fashionable Swedish restaurant, Ulirikdals Vardshus. The thieves removed every vintage of d'Yquem from 1900-2000.

In April 2015, the famous UK wine merchants Berry Bros & Rudd, had £100,000 of rare vintage wine stolen from their Basingstoke warehouse. 

In June 2014 celebrated French wine collector, 72-year-old Michel-Jack Chasseuil, was threatened by Kalashnikov wielding masked intruders who demanded access to his famous 40,000 bottle cellar. 

The crooks, frustrated by the terrified M Chasseuil's explanation that the key to his cellar was kept in an adjacent bank vault, fled with a small quantity of expensive Pomerol wine.

On Christmas night 2014 thieves broke and entered the cellars of the famous French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley, California. They removed 110 bottles of wine worth $US500,000 - mostly DRC Burgundy and bottles of America's most expensive claret, Screaming Eagle. 

It took four years before some of the wine was recovered. Two of the thieves, members of a syndicate associated with similar wine thefts, were ultimately arrested, and charged. 

Lists of wine lifted from famed French Laundry in Napa Valley

Between 2013 and 2015 the city of Bordeaux was embarrassed by a series of wine heists from various famous wine estates totalling around 3,700 bottles. 

The thieves and their accomplices, including a restaurateur who operated as a fence for stolen wine, were arrested and sent to prison.

In March 2013, 4,000 bottles of Jacques Selosse bio-dynamic champagne valued at over half-a-million dollars was stolen from the winery on the Rue De Crémant, Avize

And who remembers February 2013 when 60,000 bottles of South Australian wine valued a $500,000 went missing between Adelaide and Sydney?

In May 2011 thieves raided a Bethnal Green East London warehouse and, using a forklift, feloniously removed 400 cases of rare vintage wine worth almost £1 million. 

In 2003 two Penfolds employees in the Barossa Valley were arrested for their involvement in episodic wine theft over three years totalling $614.000.  

Last month a new Dan Murphy wine emporium opened for business on the corner of Phillip Street and Martin Place, Sydney - the location of the old Lindt Cafe. 

I dare say the store was strategically sited to seduce the legal profession and those who may have generous disposable incomes to make a purchase in Dan's Alladin's cave of high-end wine, spirits, and champagne.  

It's unlikely there are few other wine shop in Sydney that hold a bottle of La Tach for $20,000 or Richbourg for $15,000. I also noticed a 1951 Grange that did not have a sale price - suggestive of price by negotiation. 

Special precautions at Dan Murphy's Martin Place wine emporium

Recently, Langton's auctioned a bottle of 1951 Grange for $142,131. Dan's fine wine treasures are, of course, kept in a high security cabinet.

Fine wine crime has become entrenched in the criminal milieu. A "hot" bottle of Romanee - Conti Burgundy that originally retailed for $A25,000 is easily converted to quick cash when sold to an unscrupulous buyer for significantly less money. 

Stolen fine wine is invariably on-sold or fenced. The chances of recovering it, usually zero.  

First growth Bordeaux, DRC Burgundy, Montrachet, Sassicaia, d'Yquem,  Grange Hermitage and Hill of Grace are just some of the very expensive high-end wine labels targeted by opportunistic wine criminals. 

As the prices of these wines increases to dizzy levels, so does the temptation to permanently deprive their owners of them.