Rare bottles of Burgundy, including Domaine Leroy and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wines, were among the 50 to 60 bottles taken during the raid on Formel B’s cellars in Copenhagen last weekend.
Thieves used the cover of darkness to smash a hole in the wine cellar wall of the restaurant, which had retained its Michelin star a week earlier.
The stolen wines had a market value of around 1.5m Danish kroner, equivalent to £170,000 or $220,000, restaurant co-owner Rune Amgild Jochumsen told Decanter.com.
The hole in Formel B’s wine cellar wall. Credit: Formel B / Facebook.
‘It is a close-to-irreplaceable collection of wines that we have spent many years building that has disappeared in a single night,’ said Jochumsen and fellow co-owner Kristian Arpe-Møller on Formel B’s Facebook page on 24 February.
The pair took over Formel B in 2003, with Jochumsen aged 23 and Arpe-Møller 22.
They named several of the stolen wines and asked fans to share the list, expressing hope ‘that we can miraculously get some of the wine back’.
Those taken included Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 2014 vintage of Romanée-Conti, a wine valued at around £13,000 to £14,000 per bottle in bond.
Also stolen was a bottle of Domaine Leroy’s Romanée-St-Vivant Grand Cru 2014, plus a bottle of Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair’s La Romanée Grand Cru 2017.
‘These wines were like small babies for me,’ said Jochumsen, who added that burglars broke into the cellar through a shared wall with a neighbouring wine shop, and were thought to have spent around one hour in the restaurant’s cellar.
The entrance to Formel B. Credit: Jonas Buhr.
DRC has been made aware of the theft, as have several Danish wine merchants, according to Jochumsen. He said that the restaurant team has already ordered extra cameras and sensors to try to prevent something similar happening again.
The two owners, who own four restaurants across Copenhagen in total, have asked anyone with information to either contact them or Copenhagen police, which were investigating the burglary.
It is the latest in a string of fine wine heists targeting top restaurants in recent years.
Thieves stole ‘irreplaceable’ bottles of Romanée-Conti vintages from Michelin-starred Maison Rostang in Paris in 2019, while Napa Valley’s legendary French Laundry was also hit on Christmas Day in 2014.
See also:
Thieves use Paris catacombs to steal fine wines
