Wine Theft at Bearfoot Bistro

[Vancouver Lee]

Savvy thieves pilfer restaurant's best wine

By ROD MICKLEBURGH

From Friday's Globe and Mail

Vancouver — Capers by sophisticated thieves with a taste for the good life are regular escapist fare at the movies. But a real-life heist by someone with an acute knowledge of ''nothing but the best'' has stripped the priciest restaurant in Whistler of its most prized bottles of wine.

read the full story at The Globe and Mail website

[shelora]

Wow! That is quite the haul.

I have a question about the alarm system they have installed though. Most alarms have motion detectors and would detect movement inside the restaurant.

It definitely sounds like an inside job. Hope they find whoever did it.

[Coop]

all Bordeaux. There's my alibi.

[Keith Talent]

Yeah sure, Coop I'd love to come over this weekend and drink some of this new wine you just aquired and emailed me about.

[Keith Talent]

Shit, sorry everyone, that last post was supposed to be a PM, I hit the wrong button by accident.

[Coop]

I have missed out on pretending to be a food critic on the many DOV posts, but I'm not going to miss out on pretending to be a detective. My geuss, the butler, in the cellar, while having congress with a hostess, notices the secret tunnel and escapes with the bordeaux.

[Daddy-A]

I have missed out on pretending to be a food critic on the many DOV posts, but I'm not going to miss out on pretending to be a detective. My geuss, the butler, in the cellar, while having congress with a hostess, notices the secret tunnel and escapes with the bordeaux.

You mean it wasn't Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Lead Pipe??

I'm wondering (sorry if this has been answered), was the $200 000 value of the wine based on the Bearfoot Bistro wine list, or actual market value? Considering the previous thread on Bearfoot's wine markups, this could be a pretty significant difference!

A.

[Vancouver Lee]

All I have to say is that Burger Club is going to be a LOT more fun now.

[Coop]

I believe when talking to reporters or insurance companies retail prices would be used.

[Keith Talent]

The best line in the whole story; "He said he is determined to replace every single one of the stolen bottles, despite the cost" to his insurer.

[James Kendal]

Hmmm... $200,000 is a bit high for what was taken. It must be the post purchase price but insurance only covers the cost. Too bad for Andre, I am sure some of his savy guests will come to his rescue.

D. Sokolin & Co., Inc.

USA (NY): Bridgehampton. Fine and Rare Wine Merchant Since 1934. Lafite Rothschild, 1945 £933.51

Bottle

28-Jan-2005

[Daddy-A]

I believe when talking to reporters or insurance companies retail prices would be used.

Considering this was from a news story, my guess is that the numbers are a little "inflated" (intentionaly or not) as it makes for a better story.

James's research seems to back that up.

A.

[Keith Talent]

This may seem a little obvious, but did anyone happen to go through Jaques Rogges bags prior to his leaving town?

[Daddy-A]

This may seem a little obvious, but did anyone happen to go through Jaques Rogges bags prior to his leaving town?

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Brilliant!! And I thought we were going to go through 2010 without a scandal!

A.

[Stinky Cook]

If you use Wine Searcher you can enter some of the wines in and see prices for yourself. The Champagne is listed at the SAQ in Quebec for $995.00

[Izzy]

I was just 10 days ago seen a lot of the collection most of the wine were in mint condition the 1945 lafite was perfect. check on winesearch.com for a perfect btl $4000.00 to 8000.00 US.[

quote=James Kendal,Feb 4 2005, 10:21 AM]

Hmmm... $200,000 is a bit high for what was taken. It must be the post purchase price but insurance only covers the cost. Too bad for Andre, I am sure some of his savy guests will come to his rescue.

D. Sokolin & Co., Inc.

USA (NY): Bridgehampton. Fine and Rare Wine Merchant Since 1934. Lafite Rothschild, 1945 £933.51

Bottle

28-Jan-2005

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[Oyster Guy]

While I understand that slagging the Bearfoot Bistro and Andre has become a popular pasttime in this forum, I still have trouble finding a robbery a laughing matter.

The guy was robbed and no doubt feels both violated and betrayed, something that I am sure a few of us have gone through.

I wonder if any of us would find it funny if it happen to us personally?

Or like Homer Simpson do you feel that its only funny cause it happened to someone else?

[James Kendal]

I would feel pretty bad about losing the wine more than being robbed as it is very difficult to put together such a collection. If insurance covers it great but the effort to replace it is such a pain. On the bright side, if the BFB collects the full amount Andre will be able to put together a stunning collection. You could easily add 1000 labels to the wine list with an average purchase price of $200. Hmmm... I smell a Wine Spectator Grand award.

[stovetop]

Buying and Selling Wines can be a little bit of speculation, like the stock market, he buys low and sells high, a wine can increase in price not from markup but from an increase in value, so it might be hard for him, to find some of the wines he bought at auction, and get them at the same price at a different auction, they have always tripled their wines whether they are worth 100 or 1000, he will always triple it, it is a bit harder to buy a 3000 dollar wine vs 300 dollar wine, it is still the same math.

steve

[Ducky]

In France this sort of thing is a common occurrance. The celler is robbed, often only the bad wine disappears, and the insurance company pays. In French there is an expression for this game which loosely translates as "refreshing the cellar". (Perhaps a better Francophile than I can help with this.)

I am of course not for a moment suggesting that this ocurred at the BFB. I am rather just describing a phenomenon that, to my understanding, is quite common in the industry.

[mangez]

I wonder what steps a restaurant owner needs to go through to resell wine privately collected?

I thought restaurants are only allowed to resell wine purchased from the liquor stores?

It will be interesting if the insurer insists on seeing the taxes paid on these stolen bottles as I'm sure most of them were not purchased from the BC liquor stores.

[Izzy]

most restaurant that have collections by them from a privat collector the liquor board collects 5% of the transaction plus 7% gst. [

quote=Ducky,Feb 5 2005, 07:57 PM]

In France this sort of thing is a common occurrance. The celler is robbed, often only the bad wine disappears, and the insurance company pays. In French there is an expression for this game which loosely translates as "refreshing the cellar". (Perhaps a better Francophile than I can help with this.)

I am of course not for a moment suggesting that this ocurred at the BFB. I am rather just describing a phenomenon that, to my understanding, is quite common in the industry.

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[stovetop]

I wonder what steps a restaurant owner needs to go through to resell wine privately collected?

I thought restaurants are only allowed to resell wine purchased from the liquor stores?

Most fine restaurants buy some of their wine from spec; it is to their advantage to have wines that the consumer can not get from the liquor store directly. When you order from spec or auction it is brought through the liquor store, it is just not listed. When wines achieve a certain sales target then they get listed. Many wines are brought in just for the select few; many fine wines are purchased and become sold out before they even reach the main market.

vancouver has many homes that have fine wine cellars, so this is a market but a small one.

When some wines are first introduced to the van market they will be a bit cheaper, if they sell well and if the rep want’s to get them listed then the liquor board normally will raise the price, so a purchaser can get a little bit more of a margin on the wine.

The best thing is the owner will have wines that no one else will have, this gives them a good cellar, and the customer can not complain about the price because they can not get the bottle in the liquor store, for me this is a good way to go.

steve