Burgundy Burgled

Some twisted f*cker broke into the basement and made off with around $1000 worth of MY wine last week. They had pretty good taste too. The stupid bastard(s) didn't grab any Bordeaux, but made off with Burgundy, Austrian and German Riesling, old GV (my f-ing birthday wines!), Spaetburgunder and Lieu-dit Alsace. I guess I'm lucky that they didn't like Jura, the Loire, and Alsace Grand Cru.
I hope all the bottles are corked!

WOW! My condolences.

Did they take anything else or was this purely a wine heist?

Do you think it was premeditated?

Yikes!

That sucks, Bill.

Do know exactly what wines were stolen?

[Jenise]

And that's all they took...IOW, the sole purpose of their illegitimate visit was to steal wine?

Probably a neighbor, which makes the violation worse. This happened to a friend of mine once, and stupidly at one point he thought some bottles were missing but wasn't sure, then a month or two went by before he checked the same boxes again, and more had been removed. It was pretty easy for him to presume the Italian exchange student renting a spare room in back of the house next door, with a good view of my friend going in and out of his storage area carrying bottles, had just been helping himself over time. Mostly he got top Cal Cabs and 1st-3rd growth Bordeaux.

Bummer, Bill. I looked into insuring my wine collection, but the premiums were really too high to make it worthwhile. We rely on an excellent security system, which has worked well for many years.

My condolences.

I don't think it was premeditated. Nothing else is missing (yet), so I figured they just grabbed what they could carry (a little over a case) and took off. If they had planned it, the Palmers and Margaux would be gone. It just so happens that most of my wine is Riesling and Burgundy, so probability was on the side of those wines being taken. Nothing was catalouged, so I'm still trying to figure out exactly what is gone. With more time it could've been much worse. It was probably a drug addict or some kid (or combination of the two) looking for some quick booty.

My condolences Bill. We were burglarized about 17 years ago, while on vacation. They took selected items from my son's comic book and sporting card collections. They also went into my wife's dresser and took costume jewelery, yet left the real gold stuff.
I think fixing the broken lock and door jam was more costly than the items taken.

That's awful, especially since the items are irreplaceable--not like a camera or some such where you could collect insurance and go out and buy a new one. Seems like odd stuff to steal--where would you fence it?

My condolences. As you said--may every last bottle be corked.

-Paul W.

[James Roscoe]

Can I just say that this SUCKS!

My sympathies. I once had long-playing record albums stolen (this dates me) en route from Michigan to Nebraska--took only the folk music albums such as Ian and Sylvia, Limeliters, Glenn Yarbrough and left classical, jazz and musicals. Now with all the reissues on DVD and compact disc I could replace some that were not available at the time.

I hope the stolen wine was corked!

Bill,
Have you checked to see if your homeowner's insurance will cover this loss? If you've got any sort of docmentation or photographic evidence, you can probably make a claim (which, admittedly, won't get you your wine back, but might blunt the pain a bit).

Mark Lipton

Not to trivialize Bill's loss, I'd be hesitant/wary about submitting a $1,000 loss to my insurance company. I suspect his homeoner policy has a ~$500 deductible, so that halves his loss. However, submitting a claim may make your renewal policy more expensive and if you choose to shop your insurance at renewal, could make it more difficult to buy at affordable rates. If you trust your agent, ask before you claim.
Redwinger, a believer in really big deductibles

I have no records or documentation. That will learn me I guess. Plus, all in all, I'm rather lucky I guess (at least I'd tasted all of the wines previously), but it might be time to invest in a bear-trap or two.

Sorry to hear about the loss. A tangentially related story from me: when I moved to my current apartment some things were stolen from our moving van. Six shelves from my bookcase (which is why I have three huge gaping holes in it) and a small box with a couple bottles of Muscadet and a few books. I don't know what anyone will do with a couple shelves but that has been a huge inconvenience for me. I fully understand someone stealing Muscadet - even robbers can have good taste. But most annoying of all is that besides the cheap/crappy Fantasy books stolen were two books that I really love: William Polk's Passing Brave and his translation of Labid's Golden Ode. Both are a bit difficult to find and cost alot.

-O-