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The two people who allegedly stole wine worth around 750,000 euros from the star restaurant Atrio in Cáceres in October 2021 have now been sentenced by a Spanish court. The perpetrator, who comes from Romania, has to go to prison for four and a half years, his accomplice, who comes from Mexico and is a former beauty queen, for four years. In addition, the two have to pay 753,454 euros in damages to the restaurant's insurance company. The two still deny the crime.
The court in Cáceres assumes that the robbery was planned down to the smallest detail and that the restaurant, the hotel and the wine cellar were all carefully scouted. After the woman distracted the receptionist in the middle of the night, the man had opened the cellar with a stolen key and brought out 45 bottles of rare wines in sports bags and a backpack. Among them was an extremely rare Château d'Yquem 1806, which was on the Atrio wine list for 350,000 euros. Spanish newspapers have speculated that the man, referred to in court as Estanislao, may have hidden this bottle as a kind of "retirement plan" for after his prison term.
The couple was arrested in July 2022 at the Croatian-Montenegrin border. The man is accused of further wine thefts. He is said to have stolen several bottles of Romanée-Conti for clients.
In total, the sales value of the wines in the Atrio restaurant amounts to 1.6 million euros, which earned the coup the name "wine theft of the century". It is suspected that it was an act of commission for Russian wine collectors. All the wines have disappeared since the crime.
(al / Source: apa, drinksbusiness; Photo: restauranteatrio.com)