Trotter auction wine stolen in transit

Sixty cases of wine belonging to Chicago chef Charlie Trotter destined for a Christie’s auction in New York have been stolen in transit.

Chicago chef Charlie Trotter

As db reported earlier this week, Trotter was due to auction off his multi-million dollar cellar from his eponymous restaurant at Christie’s New York next Friday.

Among the highlights were double magnums of Château Haut-Brion Blanc 1994, imperials of Château Lafite, Latour and Mouton-Rothschild, and 15L Nebuchadnezzars of Château Pichon-Longueville and Lynch-Bages.

According to restaurant blog Chicago Eater, a few weeks ago, the wine from his four cellars at the restaurant was boxed up, labelled, logged and taken to a distribution center in Chicago.

It was then loaded onto trucks headed to New York for the upcoming auction.

On arrival in New York, Christie’s staff quickly realised that an entire pallet (60 cases) of wine was missing.

“There were some pristine older Bordeauxs and Burgundies in there,” Trotter told Chicago Eater.

“Most was above mid-level, but a bunch of great wine went missing. We didn’t have any bad wine in our cellar – 10% that was taken was top-end,” he added.

Unsure of the exact value of the wine that was stolen, Trotter confirmed that the wine was insured.

Christie’s assured Trotter that it has never had anything stolen before, and that Trotter will get the market value for the missing wine.

“The staff are mortified, it’s a huge blemish on them, but isn’t the point of an auction to get more than the market value?” Trotter said.

Christie’s has launched an investigation into the stolen wine.

“As this is a matter of ongoing investigation, we are unable to comment at this time,” said a spokesperson for the auction house.

It is unclear whether or not the wine was taken by an employee at the distribution centre.

“Every box had Charlie Trotter’s written on it,” Trotter said.