Romanée-Conti, the millionaire wine preferred by the wine thief who robbed Atrio

Only 6,000 bottles of it are made per year and it is considered the most expensive wine in the world The thief took 38 bottles of this brand from the Atrio hotel, but he also stole it in 2019 at a Swiss airport and in July 2020, in Madrid According to the investigators, in full flight after the robbery of Atrio, the luxury wine thief returned to Spain to attend the funeral of one of his daughters. Just pronouncing the name already arouses desire among lovers of tannins. And it is that the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wine, a Burgundy red, is considered by many experts to be the best wine in the world. So much so that its exclusive production, some 6,000 bottles a year and dating back to Roman times (hence part of its name), is often sold for over 10,000 euros per bottle. And the figure multiplies when it comes to certain vintages, created with a combination of Pinot Noir grapes. In 2018, the famous Sotheby’s auction house in New York sold two bottles of this wine dated 1945 for one million euros. Last April, the same auction house sold another 1976 bottle in Hong Kong for 151,000 euros. Thus, its quality, its exclusivity and, above all, its market price have made this French wine a legend. And consequently, in the favorite for his booties of Constantin Gabriel Dumitru, the thief of Romanian origin accused together with his partner -a Mexican miss- of plundering together with his partner the cellar of the well-known Hotel Atrio de Cáceres. There, his hit went down in history for stealing, among others, a Chateau d’Yquem from 1806. A Bordeaux wine valued at more than 300,000 euros by the restorers themselves. However, the bulk of the theft, 38 bottles in total, were Romanée-Conti broths. According to the investigators, it was not the first time that they had been used. In 2019, Dumitru was arrested in Switzerland and accused of stealing three bottles of this broth from a Duty Free store at Geneva airport and a year later, the thief with a Dutch passport. Shortly before, he had been booked in Spain when the owner of a liquor store in Madrid caught him allegedly trying to steal a bottle of Balvenie whiskey, with a market price of 5,250 euros, in a case whose trial has been held this week and where the defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Already in 2020, the wine thief allegedly acted again in Spain, stealing two other bottles of Romanée-Conti from a store on Calle Velázquez in Madrid. Each of them was valued at almost 20,000 euros. In October 2021, Dumitru made his big coup by pretending to be a client of the Hotel Atrio de Cáceres and, according to the complaint, looting 45 bottles from his cellar. Dumitru arrested Gianni Gimax 1.8 hectares of vineyards According to his own data, the production of Romaée-Conti is conditioned to the exploitation of a vineyard of 1,814 hectares, which causes its production to be very limited. The estate, and therefore the wines that bear its name, have passed through a dozen hands since the Middle Ages and part of the vineyards were replanted in 1945 after a disease of the vines. Currently, the brand is in the hands of two French winemakers: the De Villaine and Leroy families. This second, with the well-known merchant Henri Leroy at the helm, is in charge of marketing these exclusive bottles throughout the world. After the arrest of Dumitru and his partner in July 2022, nothing is known about the stolen bottles at the Atrium Hotel. Investigators believe the thief got rid of them early, on a black market for luxury wine where Romanée-Conti bottles are arguably the most sought-after item. In the middle of his escape, the Police believe that the accused returned to Spain to attend the funeral of one of his daughters and left the country again by road without being detected. In the case of the well-known Cáceres restaurant, the total amount of theft according to the owners amounted to 1.6 million. As a maximum penalty, both the thief and his partner, who participated with him in the coup, face a sentence of five years in prison, as it is a robbery without violence.