A Bitter Night for Château d'Yquem

(WineSpecatator) - On April 30, Bordeaux's Château d’Yquem tweeted: “Today, the first cases of 2010 #Yquem are leaving our cellar.” Alas, not all 2010 Yquem left in the usual way. At 3 a.m. this past Monday, an alarm rang at the estate, but the gendarmes speeding down the long gravel drive shortly thereafter were too late. Thieves had broken into the cellars, stolen 380 half-bottles of Château d’Yquem 2010, and disappeared into the Sauternes countryside. Yquem 2010 sells for $375 per half-bottle, making the loot worth $142,500. The wines were labeled, boxed and ready for shipment, though not all the boxes were sealed. The château’s cellars are currently under renovation, but the first-growth insists the construction work is not connected to the crime. “The investigation is under way,” a spokesperson for the Langon police told Unfiltered. Yquem has not had an easy time of late. The 2012 vintage failed the in-house tasting test following a difficult growing season, and CEO Pierre Lurton decided against releasing a 2012 vintage. At present, the barrels are being emptied into vats, in preparation for selling it off in bulk to négociants. And the week before, the local Bordeaux newspaper caught online wine retailer 1855.com, currently under attack for alleged non-delivery of futures orders, proposing to sell Yquem 2012 on futures. No price was given, but the château tweeted: “Reminder for scatterbrains: We are not producing Yquem 2012. Thus it’s useless to try to buy it or sell it.” Or steal it, we might add.