Calling Danny Ocean … « My Wine Education

Calling Danny Ocean …

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I love a good heist movie. Not because of the outcome, but I love the planning it takes to get there. Ocean’s 11 (the original and even the remake) doesn’t skimp on the planning. The Italian Job (I’ve only seen the remake) is not that great of a movie, but the heist planning is great.
What can I say, but that I love a good heist.

This morning I read on Decanter.com that there has been a rather large wine heist. A true heist. The sort of thing where you know a lot of time, planning, and practice went into the execution. More than €600,000 of the really good stuff (first growth, grand cru classé wines), including multiple cases of Lafite-Rothschild, Mouton-Rothschild, and Latour, were stolen from Seignouret Frères. Over 250 cases and more than 3,000 bottles of their best wines are now missing.

Ah, a theft to order, an inside job. Ocean’s 11 for the wine world. The wines will be making their way overseas, as numbers and codes make it next to impossible to sell the wines in France.

Other factors point to a professional gang working to order – they left
thousands of other less sought-after wines, there were no signs of a
break-in, and they must have been able to work undetected for some
hours, moving what amounted to four tons (4,000kg) of merchandise.

Now, I don’t applaud the crime. In fact, I hate that some fantastic wine was stolen. I do, however much I shouldn’t, enjoy the planning that went into such an amazing heist. Most of the crime I read about is violent and unnecessary. This was intelligent, well planned, non-violent, and apparently the thieves have great taste.