I've edited the list. My guess is it won't be crowded if
we have some late additions. It's serious winter out there.
Note that parking is ample, close and free.
I've included a "Wine Caper" article.
Lot's of Restaurant Quotes in today's strib.
C,
J
----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
-----
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:45:04 -0600
From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
Subject: Zin/Primitivo at Sapor tomorrow
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Been a while since we've been to Sapor.....
Dara's declared the "End of the World" in this week's City Pages.
Some quotes from Auriga, Levain, Five.
Stay Warm.
Cheers,
Jim
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:25:05 -0500
From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
-----
Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 16:12:23 -0500
From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
We're going to Sapor at 6:30 on Thursday.
Style du jour is Zinfandel $5 per person in leu of corkage.
Part of their wine list is on their web site.
If you happen to bring something that's on the list or the shelf
(easier than you might think. Ask Russ about a split of
something obscure he'd bought at a winery that was on
their shelf as well.... ) we'll just save it for
another week. We're never short of wine.
http://www.saporcafe.com/
428 N. Washington, Mpls
612 375 1971
Yes/Guess:
Ruth
Bob
Russ
Jim
Fred P
Betsy maybe/doubtful
More guesses....
Lori
Roger LeClair
Dave
Sapor is very close to Sam's Wine Shop (closes at 8:00 M-Th).
No's from Annette S, Bill S, Karin/Nicolai, Warren. Thanks
to all who responded.
----- End forwarded message -----
February 1, 2007
Atherton Journal
In an Enclave of Serious Wine Lovers, a Mesmerizing Theft
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
ATHERTON, Calif. . It was perhaps the most Californian of crimes. Behind the electronic
gates and freshly clipped hedges of an exclusive cul-de-sac, the thieves worked in the
dead of night, ignoring watches, laptops and other ho-hum booty to cart away the ultimate
prize: 450 bottles of wine, including a rare $11,000 1959 magnum from the Châau Péus in
Bordeaux, France.
Thus began what the police in this Silicon Valley town, one of the country.s most affluent
ZIP codes, refer to as .the big wine caper. . a $100,000 theft, still under investigation,
whose audacity has inspired Agatha Christie-like fascination among sophisticated
oenophiles in the Bay Area.
.It.s a worrying thing,. said Ken Chalmers, the assistant manager at Beltramo.s, a local
wine purveyor who sells hard-to-come-by vintages to customers with pebbled driveways and
lavender-lined walks. .If you drink a bottle of a .61 Bordeaux every five years and
somebody swipes it, you.re not going to be happy. You can.t replace it. Wine is a very
personal thing..
Like a sauvignon blanc with an ash-covered chèe, theft and wine make a heady pairing,
especially in Atherton, the sought-after nesting place of venture capitalists and magnates
like Charles Schwab, of the wealth management company, and Tom Proulx, the founder of the
software company Intuit. Wine cellars are a fixture of daily life here, a common amenity
along with home theaters, fitness centers and his-and-her offices.
At some point between Dec. 28 and Jan. 4, while the homeowner was on vacation, the police
said, the thief or thieves made their way to the basement, where the collection, much of
it distinguished Bordeaux, was stored at an optimal 55 degrees. The police have not
identified the victim. There was no sign of forced entry, indicating the possibility of an
inside job, said Detective Sgt. Joseph C. Wade, who is in charge of the investigation. The
house is gated, and a code and a key would have been needed to enter it, he said.
The perpetrator had a discerning palate, leaving behind lesser vintages. The average
bottle stolen was reported to be worth $3,000, and the collection included a magnum of
1959 Châau Beychevelle and a magnum of 2002 Jones Family cabernet, a Napa Valley cult
wine.
The mystery of the theft on Fair Oaks Lane has captivated a region obsessed with the vine,
a place where The San Francisco Chronicle.s weekly Wine section is required reading.
.The properties in Atherton are so large that it.s possible to imagine no one would
notice,. said Stephen J. Bachmann, the chief executive of Vinfolio Inc., an online store
and consultant service for private wine collectors, who also writes a blog. .It.s an
interesting question of whether they had advanced knowledge of what was in the cellar. A
lot of people don.t think of wine as an asset that needs to be protected. But they
should..
In many ways, Bordeaux has assumed the status of liquid gold.
.Like chocolate was to the Aztecs, wine has become the ultimate currency,. said Daphne
Derven, an independent scholar on food and wine based in Eugene, Ore. .It appears that the
thieves, whoever they were, had more faith in the stability and accruing value of the
ultimate bottle of wine than the American dollar..
The crime is perhaps understandable given record increases in wine prices at auction, said
Thomas Matthews, the editor of Wine Spectator, which recently reported on counterfeiting,
in which labels are falsified. .
In 2005, major auction houses in the United States and abroad sold $166 million worth of
wine, Mr. Matthews said. Last year, sales rose to $240 million, with numerous world
records, like the 50 cases of 1982 Mouton-Rothschild that sold for $1.05 million at
Sotheby.s.
Although theft of private wine collections is uncommon, Mr. Matthews said theft at wine
warehouses in the United States and Europe was on the rise. With yet-to-be released
vintages, like a 2005 Châau Latour, fetching $800 a bottle, .that puts a lot of upward
pressure on older wines,. he said. .In wine, the supply is finite. Rising prices are the
result..
The crime.s swirling reach has extended even to New York, with the list of stolen wines
making the rounds of retailers and distributors.
.It.s going to be difficult to track,. said John Kapon, the auction director at Acker
Merrall & Condit in New York. .The sad truth is, it should be relatively easy for
whoever stole it to sell this wine without anyone being able to figure it out..
Unlike missing art and antiquities, hot wine has no official registry. .Something like an
Amber alert would be very useful,. said George Derbalian, the president of Atherton Wine
Imports, an importer of Burgundy and Bordeaux.
Theresa Lawless, a manager for the Fireman.s Fund Insurance Company, in Novato, Calif.,
one of several major American insurers of private wine collections, said loss of wine was
typically a result of fire or power failures, not theft. .But this will definitely make
people think twice,. Ms. Lawless said.
Wine cellar designers are increasingly installing fingerprint and voice recognition
systems and crisscrossing laser beams that trigger alarms (àa the movie .Entrapment. with
Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones), said Tod Ban, a wine cellar designer in Atlanta
who recently completed such a cellar for a private collector with 27,000 bottles.
Evan L. Goldenberg, an architect and owner of Design Build Consultants in Greenwich,
Conn., said radio-frequency labels that allow the tracking of individual bottles were on
the horizon. In Atherton, where cameras are embedded in oaks, the theft has caused deep
unease.
.You.ve got to be careful,. said a resident, speaking through her intercom. .There.s been
a lot of trouble around here..
The case has lingering overtones for Sergeant Wade, who also was working on a case in
nearby East Palo Alto, a city that has long wrestled with high crime rates.
.An 18-year-old girl was shot point-blank in the head and I received no calls about it,.
he said. .The wine theft? A gazillion. It kind of shows you where people.s values lie..