March 14, 2025 Plume Ridge Bottle Shop

Five Fascinating Wine-Related Stories

Here are five unusual and fascinating wine-related stories:

1. The Stolen Romanée-Conti Heist

In 2014, thieves broke into the legendary Romanée-Conti estate in Burgundy and stole €300,000 worth of wine. The estate produces some of the most expensive and sought-after bottles in the world, and wine fraudsters often attempt to sell counterfeits. The heist added another chapter to the ongoing mystery of stolen and fake high-end wines.

2. The Napa Earthquake & The River of Wine (2014)

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit Napa Valley in 2014, causing massive damage to wineries. Some cellars had barrels roll out, spilling thousands of gallons of wine. Some reports said that certain streets smelled of Cabernet Sauvignon for days, almost like a wine-soaked apocalypse.

3. The Billionaire’s Fake Bordeaux Scandal

Rudy Kurniawan, a high-flying wine collector, was convicted in 2013 for selling counterfeit rare wines to elite buyers. He blended cheap wines to mimic high-end Bordeaux and Burgundy, creating one of the biggest fraud scandals in wine history. Some of his fakes still circulate in the market today, fooling collectors and sommeliers alike.

4. The “Space Wine” Experiment

In 2019, a dozen bottles of Bordeaux were sent to the International Space Station to age in microgravity. When they returned to Earth, scientists (and tasters) found that the space-aged wine had evolved differently compared to its Earth-aged counterpart. The flavor profile was more complex, though no one could quite explain why.

5. The Town That Literally Had a Wine Fountain

In 2020, a malfunction at a winery in Castelvetro, Italy, caused a local water supply to fill with Lambrusco instead. Residents turned on their taps to find sparkling red wine flowing out. It was a technical mishap in a storage silo, but for a brief moment, the town had its own “fountain of wine.”

Contributed by Blake Leland, Sommelier for Plume Ridge Bottle Shop.