Owning a wine from the Napoleonic era valued at 350,000 euros is the equivalent of owning a masterpiece of art. In both cases, these are collector’s items that usually go up for auction and constitute a real loot: their good health is almost a matter of state and in both cases there may be white-collar thieves lurking.
In this sense, the vicissitudes of the 1806 Château d’Yquem that was stolen in Cáceres, in 2021, from the Atrio restaurant, now brand new with three Michelin stars, have been multiple and make it very special, without there being any hope for the moment. some to get it back. The broth had to be reconditioned in another container of the time after the original one broke, which is why it has become the most unfortunate bottle of wine in history. But also with one of the most interesting legends behind him.
The alleged couple of thieves, who apparently had stayed at the hotel and had taken advantage of the night hours to mislead the concierge and enter the cellar, are now in the hands of justice. They were arrested in Croatia, but there is no trace of the 45 bottles they took: apart from this Yquem that was bottled while Napoleon was alive, they stole another six bottles of the same brand and 38 from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, the Burgundy’s most sought-after winery.
According to the owners of the Relais
The owners of Atrio have recently been compensated by the insurer, which has valued the amount of what is known as the wine theft of the century at 800,000 euros, a not inconsiderable amount although the market price would amount to 1,648,500 euros. However, it is not clear how much they have compensated for the disappearance of the jewel in the crown, this Yquem that José Polo and Toño Pérez acquired at Sotheby’s in December 2000 and shortly after suffered an unusual mishap that brought him back to the century-old French cellars to be rehabilitated.
“The sommelier we had then proceeded to move this and the other 23 bottles of the same wine but from different vintages into a couple of wooden boxes. Before, we always wrap them in cooking plastic to protect the labels. The 1806 bottle was the last When putting it in the box, the sommelier saw that he couldn’t close it, it was a little stuck, and when he tried to pull it to get it out again, it broke,” says José Polo.
A wine, however, can also be restored just like a canvas. He is rehabilitated as a sick person, he is changed in packaging. And that is what happened when Polo and Pérez went to the cellar of this Premier Cru Supérieur from the Sauternes region (southern part of the Bordeaux vineyard), where they were received by Count Alexander de Lur Saluces, the manager, and Sandrine Garbay, then the firm’s chief winemaker and since last year creator of Louis Vuitton wines.
Acquired by Jacques de Sauvage from the French monarchy in 1593, Château d’Yquem has housed a vineyard since at least 1711, when the estate became the full property of Léon de Sauvage d’Yquem. And it was in 1785 when it passed to the Lur-Saluces family, when Françoise-Joséphine de Sauvage d’Yquem married Count Louis-Amédée de Lur-Saluces, the godson of Louis XV and Victoria of France.
Thus, the unfortunate accident led to a journey into this piece of history: they would be attended by the direct descendant of the most important wine tradition and one of the most prestigious in the world. The first thing was to check that the wine was fine.
“The plastic had prevented it from spilling, so they gave us a choice between several empty bottles from the same period to transport it. And since in the 19th century they were all made by hand, the new bottle was a little bigger, with what They put some glass beads on us. And we went home feeling like princes,” Polo explains.
The thieves not only took a Yquem wine from 1806. They took it in a bottle whose label indicated in French: “Reconditioned by Yquem due to an accident, 25 of 1, 2001. Signed, the chief winemaker, Sandrine Garbay.”
“Obviously, that bottle was unique, and we were part of its history. That is why it was so emotionally important to us,” Polo alleges. Its price in the last menu of the restaurant was 350,000 euros plus 10% VAT. “But I would not have sold it for a million euros. There are things that do not have an economic value. For 800,000 euros it is impossible to recover or rather buy the same bottles again,” he adds.
Of Romanée Conti, for example, there are very few bottles and trying to get one has become a real battle between millionaires. “The thieves took 38 bottles of that wine, which I would say that there is no restaurant in the world that has them.”
The owner of Atrio assures that they would be satisfied with that bottle appearing: “we would pay the insurance what it would have valued us, because there is no bottle in the world that has such a special history.” The insurance would also be interested in keeping it, for its museum with famous thefts that have been solved. “But they have told us that if we wanted to recover them at the appraisal price of each one, they would return them to us -he concludes-. It would be necessary to see if they are in good condition and how they have been treated. But I would be interested in keeping them, of course”. At the moment they have the remains of the broken original as a memory of this singular adventure.