Discerning thief steals $40,000 in expensive wine from Incline business

A burglar made off with more than $40,000 worth of wine from an Incline Village business, according to a Washoe County Sheriff's Office detective.

Detective Donald Day is handling the case for the Washoe County Sheriff's Office and said an unknown suspect stole multiple cases of a high-end wine from a storage facility owned by Incline Village-based Wine and Chocolate.

Dan Ursitty, owner of Wine and Chocolate, went to the storage unit his business is currently located in to check on his merchandise on Wednesday, Jan. 16, in the mid-morning, when he noticed something was missing.

"I hadn't been to the storage facility since the previous Monday and noticed the place was disturbed, it wasn't how I left it," Ursitty said.

The storage facility, located on the 200 block of E. Enterprise Drive, is where Wine and Chocolate has been based since the business vacated its old location in the Christmas Tree Village over a month ago.

Ursitty said he noticed several cases of Silver Oak wine missing from the facility and decided to alert the Washoe County Sheriff's Office.

Day said when he investigated the robbery there were signs of forced entry on the storage facility.

"This doesn't appear to be random," Day said of the burglary. "Specific types of wine were targeted."

Ursitty said bottles of Silver Oak's Alexander Valley vintage from 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 were stolen, in both the 750 milileter and the 1.5 liter size, along with various other collector wines. The 2000 vintage is currently selling for $75 per 750 milileter bottle on Silver Oak's website.

Day said the crime occurred sometime between Monday, Jan. 14 and the early morning of Wednesday, Jan. 16.

Day said a few other high-end cases of wine were stolen as well, but the cases of Silver Oak made up the majority of the robbery.

There are no suspects or leads yet in the case, Day said.

He is asking anyone, local residents and businesses, to alert him at the WCSO's main dispatch line (775) 832-4110 if they have any information about the wine.

"This is really high grade stuff, not the wine they sell at 7-11," Day said.