The Sacramento Bee The Nosh Pit column
The La Tache is so coveted and pricey that it can even bring out the criminal in a person. A similar bottle of 2005 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti La Tache was among those stolen in one of the wine world's most brazen heists, a robbery on
Lucky for The French Laundry, the bulk of the wines were recovered in
But this wine theft still spooks
"Now, we have to be very careful," said Ortiz. "I think we have to take some (security) steps that we haven't done before."
The Firehouse uses three separate cellars for storing wines, with each requiring its own key. In the past, some privileged diners have been offered private tours to see some of the restaurant's famed bottles. That idea now gives Ortiz a bit of pause.
"We're fortunate to have a secure underground cellar that only certain people can access," said Ortiz. "Of course, when you take guests in there, anything can happen. There are thousands of bottles in front of you, and one person can be a bad individual, but you'll never know until it's inventory time."
Ortiz says that he's never experienced significant wine theft during his four decades at the restaurant. But given what happened at The French Laundry, he's mulling various "what if?" scenarios. Among them: How would they work out the losses with an insurance company?
"Is it (valued) on how it's priced on the wine list, or the going rate in the market?" said Ortiz. "If you go to
"Like fine art and other collectibles, the value of your wine may appreciate over time," said Villanueva. "This creates a serious challenge when trying to properly insure it, especially for agents and brokers who do not specialize in serving restaurants."
Ortiz takes a little comfort in knowing that technology could help in case of a theft. Some high-end wineries are embedding bottles with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and encrypted codes to track wines for security and anti-counterfeit measures. Though investigators have not divulged how the wines stolen from The French Laundry were traced to
"There are tracking tags that a winery can put on a label, or in the capsule on top," said Ortiz. "I know some of the high-end 'cult' wines do that. I have five or six (bottles in The Firehouse wine cellar) that if it was opened somewhere, it can tell you exactly who bought it. It's kind of neat."
Ortiz still hopes he doesn't have to track down a stolen bottle some day. Like most restaurants that emphasize fine wine, bottles at The Firehouse are kept in temperature-controlled cellars to optimize their quality. But if a rogue bottle finds it way out of the cellar, just one hot afternoon in the trunk of a car can turn a
"Security is a subject we're talking about," said Ortiz. "It's amazing what happened (at The French Laundry). Hopefully it's not a trend."
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