Lost Vintage
Cases unlock in order, like levels. This is case 36 of 100.
Kererū Winery, Wairau Valley, Marlborough, New Zealand, 5:30 am. The cellar hand found the shed flooded with wine and the valves of tanks 3 and 4 wide open.
Thirty thousand litres of Sauvignon Blanc, the entire vintage sold to a buyer in Tokyo, ran down the drain between 2 am and 3 am. It was no fault: someone opened the valves by hand.
The owner, Isla Pritchard, is stuck in Auckland because of a cancelled flight. Three people had a reason to be near this vintage. One of them is lying about where they spent the night.
The winery's tasting room, a pale wooden counter, empty glasses and the smell of spilled wine drifting in from the shed.
Suspects
Duncan McAllisterOwner of the neighbouring Tussock Ridge winery, 61
Tui PaewaiKererū's winemaker, 38
Brett HollisKererū's sales manager, 45
The real case
The sabotage of the Case Basse cellar in Montalcino
Tuscany, Italy, December 2012
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
In the early hours of 2 December 2012, someone entered the cellar of Gianfranco Soldera's Case Basse winery in Montalcino and opened the taps on the vats. More than 60,000 liters of Brunello from six vintages, 2007 to 2012, poured onto the floor. Nothing was stolen.
The loss amounted to about six years of production of one of Italy's most highly rated wines. Weeks later, a former employee of the winery was arrested and convicted; the motive cited was revenge for his dismissal. Neighboring producers offered to donate wine to help the estate survive.
The game borrows almost the entire crime: the cellar broken into before dawn and the vintages drained with nothing taken. The perpetrator, the motive, the characters and the outcome are fiction.
Sources
Case glossary
Words from this case you might not know.
- cellar hand
- A winery worker who does the practical cellar jobs: moving, cleaning and tending tanks and barrels of wine.
- Sauvignon Blanc
- A green-skinned grape and the crisp, aromatic white wine made from it.