Hunt for wine at Bern's produces valuable find (Tampa, FL-For Wine Lovers))

TampaBay.com ^ | 12/22/2010 | Susan Thurston

[devane617]

TAMPA — A few times a month, the sommeliers at Bern's Steakhouse go hunting for wine lost and forgotten in the restaurant's cellars.

They climb the shelves, crawl over cases and shine a flashlight on anything not on the inventory list. It's like mining for gems, says restaurant owner David Laxer. You never know what you'll find.

This spring, they struck gold. A double magnum 1947 bottle of Chateau Latour.

The selling price: $30,000.

The first-growth Bordeaux will be on the 61st edition of Bern's wine list due out in early January. It's by far the most expensive wine in the restaurant's history.

Senior sommelier Eric Renaud found the bottle during a "project day'' at the restaurant. He was working in the rare wine room when he saw the bottle tucked away on a high shelf in the back. It was on its side, instead of pointed outward like the rest.

"It looked like someone had hid it there a long time ago,'' he said. "The second I saw it, I almost had a heart attack.''

Laxer figures his father, Bern, who founded restaurant in 1956, bought it a half century ago for about $100. It had probably been sitting there for decades, gathering dust but improving with age.

[devane617]

I am not a wine drinker or collector, but for some reason have always been interested in the wine collecting hobby. I use to eat at Bern's when I lived in the bay area, and still do when I get the opportunity to visit.

The video attached to the article is very interesting also...

[USS Alaska]

I travel to FL each winter, Jan-Feb, and the last part of my trip ends up on the Gulf coast.

I always eat at least one dinner at Berns {it's great food, but pricey} and they have a wonderful selection of unusually rare vintages of wine and alcohol of all sorts.

[Jacktown]

Yes, that was very interesting. Thanks.

I’m a wino. LOL. Those prices make me shiver. The best wines I have ever had were homemade and from a place in Mississippi called Old South Winery.

I mostly drink red wine but any homemade fruit wine I rarely pass up. No snob here, no box wine. That’s just nasty.

Something else, I have never had a hangover from drinking wine. Got mad drunk but never had a hangover.

Merry Christmas.

[devane617]

No “Bobby-In-A-Box” for you !

[goseminoles]

I love Bern’s. Great food, atmosphere, and wine.

[fini]

Most wine does not keep well for many years. My father collected wine ($20-$40 in today dollars). He even had a very good wine closet (temperature controlled). When he died in 1995, my stepmother kept his wine together and only used a few bottles a year. By 2005, almost every bottle we opened had already gone bad.

[goseminoles]

“I mostly drink red wine but any homemade fruit wine I rarely pass up. No snob here, no box wine. That?s just nasty”

Just give me George Lebouef Beujeuolet.(Sp?). Less that 10 bucks and not bad.

[goseminoles]

“I mostly drink red wine but any homemade fruit wine I rarely pass up. No snob here, no box wine. That?s just nasty”

Just give me George Lebouef Beujeuolet.(Sp?). Less that 10 bucks and not bad.

[Tainan]

I’m a wino. LOL. Those prices make me shiver. The best wines I have ever had were homemade and from a place in Mississippi called Old South Winery.
I mostly drink red wine but any homemade fruit wine I rarely pass up. No snob here, no box wine. That’s just nasty.
Something else, I have never had a hangover from drinking wine. Got mad drunk but never had a hangover.
Merry Christmas.

+1...Well said and a very Merry Christmas to You & Yours


(does gut-pukin' sick qualify as a hang-over?)

[Red_Devil 232]

Mmmmmmmm Muscadine wines.

[Jacktown]

Is that some good wine or what ? :)

[Bigg Red]

What kind of incompetance is required of a staff that a $30K bottle of wine goes missing and is not missed?

[Textide]

I was gonna say....isn’t there a thing called ‘inventory’ that most restaurants perform? Seems like it’d be especially fitting if it had a rare wine room.

[devane617]

this place has wearhouses and have half-a-million bottles in the collection, plus, this place has been in business a very long time,,,I can see how a bottle may get misplaced...

[SamAdams76]

This is Bern's wine cellar...well, just a small section of it.

[devane617]

Let's see if this works...

[devane617]

A little smaller version....

[SamAdams76]

I guess it was a small section after all!

[devane617]

WOW!!!!

[stboz]

The best wines I have ever had were homemade and from a place in Mississippi called Old South Winery.

In Natchez if I recall correctly. There's something about Muscadine wine that leaves a memory.......Ralphhhhh...get the Buuiick! I have a call on the big, white phone!