dowhere is the wine? It is the big question still unanswered theft of 45 exclusive bottles of wine from the hotel-restaurant Atrio de Cáceres by a couple arrested this week in Croatia after a difficult investigation by the National Police, which believes that the man, an expert thief and wine connoisseur, acted by order or already knew who to “place” a unique loot.
Two renowned sommeliers and one of the most important private wine collectors in Spain interviewed by EFE agree with the police hypotheses and go even further by pointing to Mexico, Venezuela and Asian countries as possible destinations for Atrio winesin the hands, they suspect, of private millionaires driven by vanity who want to show off to friends or clients that they have copies impossible to find on the market.
This is what Rafael Ansón believes, former president of the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy, owner of one of the most important private wine collections in the country and a great promoter of haute cuisine. He believes that the robbery in the two-Michelin-starred restaurant owned by Toño Pérez and José Polo was commissioned. “It seems that someone saw the bottles before and had them stolen“.
Nothing less than valued at 1.6 million eurosamong the 45 vanished bottles of Atrio is the “jewel”, a Chateau d’Yquem of 1806, of 310,000 euros.
Along with her, in two travel bags and a backpack, Constantin Gabriel Dumitru, 48, of Romanian origin and also with a Dutch passport, and Priscila Lara Guevara, a 28-year-old former Mexican miss, quietly walked out the door of the two Michelin stars. in the early hours of October 27 with another 44 exclusive bottles, including a Montrachet Grand Cru 1999 Magnum, for 25,500 euros, and 38 copies of Romanée Conti, which were offered at 12,000 euros on the menu.
Not a drop recovered
A “merchandise” that from that very moment “burns” in the hands of the thieves, according to the chief inspector of the Robbery Group of the Central Unit for Specialized and Violent Crime (UDEV) in Madrid, who, together with Cáceres investigators, was convinced that there is no perfect robbery and that sooner or later the thief was going to fall.
It is more difficult to find the wine, because, at the moment, not a drop recovered, something in which the Police continues to work, waiting for the detainees to be transferred to Spain in the coming days and made available to the Cáceres court that is investigating the case. In the absence of wine, the ‘modus operandi’ of the robbery has been practically clarified: the thieves took the master key that opened the cellar.
A ‘VIP’ wine thief
And the profile of the author who made three previous visits to the restaurant in the previous months to finalize his plan has not surprised the agents. Constantin is an expert wine thief and he saw in the Atrio winery the opportunity to make “a leap in quality” in his criminal specialty, the chief inspector tells Efe, sure that he has been making ‘gourmet’ wines “disappear” for years.
His criminal record is not very extensive, the investigator reveals to Efe. His background includes a robbery in a ‘duty free’ at Geneva airport (Switzerland) and two others in Madrid last year, in this case, in two specialized stores in the Salamanca district: one He stole two wines of 20,000 euros, from the other, a whiskey of 12,000 euros.
A clean robbery and a not-so-perfect getaway
The copies of Atrio are of another level and Constantin knows it. In fact, In previous days, he eats with Priscila in another two Michelin stars in Madrid, Coque, which has a cellar baptized as “sacristía” and which houses 25,000 bottles, for which they were interested during his meal, although there is no record of any theft. Maybe it was a “touchdown”.
Because Constantin was going to perpetrate the robbery of his life days later in Cáceres, a movie robbery, clean, without violence and studied to the millimeter from the moment Priscila registers with a false passport to sleep in the hotel and that night goes to dinner at the restaurant with another person.
Two bags and a backpack
After dinner and around one in the morning on October 27, she distracts an employee with the excuse that they prepare some food for her to go up to her room. Constantin already has in his hands the key to access the cellar with two bags and a backpack. In a few minutes he loads the wines and four hours later they leave the hotel.
Catching them has not been an easy task. “For months they have been two ghosts for us, we had nothing,” acknowledges the chief inspector after the little success that the usual police checks gave. In January they know who they are and the operation takes shape. Although they are elusive, because they move with false passports through European countries. But the police begin to fit some pieces.
Fleeting visit to Madrid in February
He goes steps behind, but discovers that in February the couple made a fleeting visit to Madrid where they have their residence because of a family problem of his, that he has an ex-wife. Days later they are in Romania because Constantin has to renew his passport.
“They are supposed to live in the Netherlands, but we can’t find them there either.“, says the inspector. The European police already have their alerts active, but it is not easy. They skillfully move by car “from one country to another” until a control to go from Montenegro to Croatia ends last Tuesday with his flight. “In the end the delinquent makes a mistake, he trusts himself as time goes by.”
Bottles very difficult to place
Police hope that the Croatian authorities transfer the detainees within a maximum period of ten dayswith the question of whether his statements will contribute anything about the fate of the wine.
“They are some bottles very difficult to place, they are very specialDavid Robledo, director of the Allard Group and winner of the National Gastronomy Award for Best Sommelier in Spain, tells EFE that he can’t quite believe how they took so many bottles out of those backpacks so easily and is concerned about their state of preservation.
A black market driven by eccentrics
He thinks they may be somewhere hidden after being commissioned by some “eccentric”.
Rafael Sandoval, sommelier at the Coque restaurant, points to Venezuela and Mexico. In fact, he tells Efe that this very week a Mexican client passionate about wine and exclusivity offered him a blank check for his treasure, the 1805 Trafalgar demijohn.
The Romanée Conti, the most sought-after
“There are people who want what no one else has,” Sandoval points out to Efe, explaining that in the “super-collection” market the Romanée Conti are the most sought after. From Atrio they took 38 copies.
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For Ansón, the recipients of the black market for wine are fundamentally individuals or businessmen who want to overwhelm friends or clients with bottles that not even the producing wineries keep. “Before there was more in Russia, now there are many Asians & rdquor ;, the also president of the Ibero-American Academy of Gastronomy tells EFE.
The three wine lovers they find it difficult for Atrio bottles to return to their cellarbut the Police will continue working to recover them.