A brazen theft in Atherton, California of 450 bottles of a private collection have left police puzzled and residents speechless. One of the more memorable quotes to me:

Read the complete article here.

Terrific article by Mike Steinberger in Slate on his consumption of a ’96 Coche Corton-Charlemagne and then his quest to find another bottle.  It took him 20 months, but the adventure was worth it!

• My quest for a $700 bottle of wine

Given the predilections of one of our members and his penchant for scotch, I came across this article from Men’s Vogue about a single malt Glenrothes of 1979. Sounds delicious, althought I think I’d save my $1,000 for a Petrus.

Words & Wine is a travel company that specializes in wine tours and writers’ retreats in the south of France. Their 2007 tours and retreats are based out of the Notre Dame de Cousignac winery in France’s Rhone valley. For their 2007 trips, they’ll be exploring both the northern and southern appellations of the Rhone, as well as the Cotes de Provence, Cotes de Ventoux, Die, Ardeche, and Beaujolais wine regions. For upcoming trips, thet plab to expand out and conduct writers’ retreats and wine tours in other major wine appellations, including Beaujolais, Burgundy, Alsace, the Loire valley and Bordeaux in France, and Napa, Sonoma and the Central Coast in California.  

To all that it may concern, we are banning Premier Cru from our considered list of Internet wine merchants.  Why?  Because our folks from the west coast group purchased a discovered-to-be-corked-after-purchase bottle during their dinner last week, and Premier Cru were neither interested in taking returns nor making it up in any fashion.  That’s too bad for PC, given that between the west coast and east coast there are about 40 people who buy cases and cases of wine each year.