As Trial Opens, Wine Collectors Seek Solace

[Xipe Totec]

Miranda Heller remembers the taste of the 1875 port she savored on her 40th birthday. The deep red liquid had been made by her great-great-grandfather from some of the oldest vines in California, and it still hummed on her tongue 121 years after its creation.

After her celebration, Ms. Heller wanted to preserve this special port, so a friend in the wine business sent Ms. Heller’s 175 bottles to a military bunker in Vallejo that had been converted into a wine storehouse.

But on the afternoon of Oct. 12, 2005, Ms. Heller’s port, as well as 6 million bottles of some of California’s most prized wines, went up in flames. The huge fire destroyed more than $250 million worth of wine — the single largest loss of wine in United States history.

Officials accuse Mark C. Anderson, the businessman and a former Sausalito city commissioner, of setting up a complicated embezzlement scheme to steal wine from clients and then starting the fire to cover his tracks. Mr. Anderson, 61, is being tried on 19 felony counts of arson, mail fraud, tax evasion and other charges in connection with the fire. The federal trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/15sfburn.html


There should be a DU forum for Oenologists...

And a special place in hell for Mark C. Anderson...

[niyad]

1. had not heard anything about this--yes, a most special place in hell for him.

[tomm2thumbs]

2. with that much financially at stake, I'm surprised they didn't have better security

and especially alarm/fire monitoring - of course it could be a case where it was all disabled but I'm guessing from the look of the building it may have not been so

the historic loss aspect of it is very sad - any archive is precious

[aquart]

3. He murdered wine?

All the work, love, hope that goes into those premium bottles?

[Xipe Totec]

4. He did.

I feel the same way.

[classysassy]

5. Wine vs Human life

Well now the wine killer is going on trial,when will the killer of all those Iraqis go on trial?.