October 2009

Accused triggerman guilty of slaying 7 in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS – A man charged in one of the worst mass slayings in Indianapolis history was convicted Thursday of killing seven members of one family, including three children, in a bloody rampage prosecutors said stemmed from a quest for drugs and cash that didn't exist.
Marion Superior Court Judge Robert Altice convicted Desmond Turner, 31, on 23 counts stemming from the June 1, 2006, deaths of Emma Valdez, 46; her husband, Alberto Covarrubias, 56; the couple's young sons, Alberto, 11, and David, 8; and Valdez's adult son and daughter, Magno Albarran and Flora Albarran and Flora's son Luis, 5.
Turner, who waived his right to a jury trial in exchange for prosecutors dropping their request for the death penalty, faces up to life without parole. The sentencing phase of the trial starts Friday.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said he did not have the evidence needed to meet the high standard of proof required for a capital conviction. Prosecutors' case was built on witness accounts and other circumstantial evidence. They lacked a murder weapon or any physical evidence tying Turner directly to the scene.
Maria Flores of Indianapolis, Emma Valdez's sister, said after the verdict that the death penalty wouldn't have made a difference.
"Killing him won't bring our family back," she said.
Defense attorney Brent Westerfeld had hoped to capitalize on the prosecution's lack of physical evidence. During his closing arguments, he put up diagrams of a shirt and pants that police found soaking in the bathtub of a friend of Turner's the day after the slayings. The clothing contained DNA evidence from Turner but not the victims, he noted.
Altice, however, said Turner's actions after the slayings, including washing his clothes and fleeing to Kentucky, weighed heavily in his ruling.
"Mr. Turner was indeed the main shooter," he said.
Brizzi said the case was solved "old-school," without DNA evidence, and that there was no physical evidence linking Turner to the crime scene because he and co-defendant James Stewart had been careful. Stewart has pleaded not guilty to murder charges and his trial is set for Nov. 30.
Westerfeld also tried to discredit the prosecution's main witness, Brandon Griffith, who had testified that he had seen Turner force his way into Valdez's home with an assault rifle minutes before the slayings.
"I don't believe we begin to understand Brandon Griffith's ability to lie," Westerfeld told Altice.
During closing arguments, the prosecution put about eight items on an evidence table. Westerfeld started his summation by putting two large boxes containing evidence introduced during the trial, including the clothes Turner wore the night of the slayings.
He pushed both boxes down the table, crowding out the few items the prosecution had used.
"They didn't bring the mountain of evidence ... because the mountain of evidence moves to the defense side," he said.
Prosecutors Jennifer Haley and Janna Skelton vividly described how many bullets struck each victim, noting that in some cases the shots blew off parts of the victims' skulls. Several relatives of the family were in tears.
In his final summation, Brizzi, who faces disciplinary action over previous comments on the case, called Turner a "monster" and said, "The crimes he committed are unimaginable."

Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings: CBS Wins; 8 p.m. Hour Remains One of the Softest of the Week (Mediaweek.com)

-Yesterday's Winners:
Criminal Minds (CBS), CSI: NY (CBS)

-Fading Fast: America's Next Top Model (CW)

-Yesterday's Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Hank (ABC), The Middle (ABC), Eastwick (ABC), The Jay Leno Show (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
CBS led the Wednesday overnight troops, beating second-place NBC by a healthy 60 percent. Third overall was Fox, followed by ABC and distant The CW.

CBS finished first overall in the 8 p.m. hour care of its combination of The New Adventures of Old Christine (#1: 4.4 rating/7 share) and compatible Gary Unmarried (#2: 4.3/ 7). The two sitcoms, in fact, beat ABC's competing Hank (#4: 3.6/ 6) and The Middle (#4: 3.7/ 6), which were both series lows, by an average of 19 percent in the overnights. But the Wednesday 8 p.m. hour remains one of the least competitive in all of prime-time.

Also airing from 8-9 p.m. was NBC's consistent, albeit non-spectacular Mercy (#2: 4.3/ 7), Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (#3: 4.2/ 7), which will win the time period among adults 18-49, and fading America's Next Top Model on The CW (2.4/ 4), which year-to-year was down by a significant 29 percent (3.4/ 6 on Oct. 22, 2008 to 2.4/ 4).

The Wednesday 8-9 p.m. overnights in a nutshell:

ABC
Hank – 8 p.m.: 3.6/ 6 (#4)
The Middle – 8:30 p.m.: 3.7/ 6 (#4)

CBS
The New Adventures of Old Christine – 8 p.m.: 4.4/ 7 (#1)
Gary Unmarried – 8:30 p.m.: 4.3/ 7 (#2)

NBC
Mercy: 4.3/ 7 (#2)

Fox
So You Think You Can Dance: 4.2/ 7 (#3)

CW
America's Next Top Model: 2.4/ 4 (#5)

At 9 p.m., CBS' underrated Criminal Minds stood well above the competition in the overnights, with an 8.8/14. Comparably, that beat NBC's second-place Law & Order: SVU (5.7/ 9) by a hefty 54 percent. Battling out for third in the time period in the metered markets were ABC comedies Modern Family (#3: 4.9/ 8) and Cougar Town (#4: 4.2/ 7), which were both series lows, and Fox's consistent Glee (#4: 4.4/ 7). But Modern Family, Cougar Town and Glee are all expected to be on the map among adults 18-49. Here are the updated metered market tracks for Modern Family and Cougar Town:

Modern Family (ABC)
9/23/09: 7.8/12
9/30/09: 5.8/ 9
10/06/09: 5.1/ 8
10/13/09: 5.4/ 8
10/20/09: 4.9/ 8

Cougar Town (ABC)
9/23/09: 6.8/10
9/30/09: 5.5/ 9
10/06/09: 4.7/ 7
10/13/09: 4.8/ 8
10/20/09: 4.2/ 7

Capping off the 9 p.m. hour was a repeat of The CW's Melrose Place with a mere 0.7/ 1. For more on Melrose Place, see TV Tidbits below.

Leading the 10 p.m. hour in the overnights, of course, was CBS' CSI: NY, this week with an 8.5/14. Next was NBC's The Jay Leno Show (3.6/ 6), one of the rare evenings it did not finish third, followed by ABC's failing Eastwick at a series-low 3.1/ 5. The next time a network decides to spin a series off from a movie over 20 years old, don't do it. There was absolutely no need for Eastwick.

Wednesday 10/21/09

HH
Rtg/Shr
CBS 7.2/12 NBC 4.5/ 7
Fox 4.2/ 7
ABC 3.8/ 6
CW 1.5/ 2

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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday, October 22, 2008):
NBC: +10, CBS: - 9, ABC: -19, CW: -44, Fox: -54

Note: Fox aired game one of The World Series on the year-ago evening.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Read more at Mediaweek.comTo subscribe to Mediaweek, click here.

White House slams Cheney on Afghan 'dithering' claim

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
The White House slammed Dick Cheney Thursday, accusing him of years of neglect of Afghanistan, after the ex-vice president said President Barack Obama was "dithering" on troop decisions.

The latest fierce feud over national security between the past and current administrations flared up as Obama nears a fateful choice on whether to order thousands more troops to the Afghan war after an exhaustive strategy review.

"What vice president Cheney calls dithering, the president calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and the American public," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Gibbs said Cheney was in no position to fault Obama, saying he had ignored a previous request for more troops, lodged with the Bush administration and only met by Obama in March, soon after he came to office.

"The vice president was for seven years not focused on Afghanistan. Even more curious given the fact that an increase in troops sat on desks in this White House, including the vice president's for more than eight months," Gibbs said.

"I think we've all seen what happens when somebody doesn't take that responsibility seriously."

Cheney made his comments at a dinner in Washington on Wednesday, in his latest lacerating criticisms of the Obama administration on national security policy.

"Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission," Cheney said.

"The White House must stop dithering while America?s armed forces are in danger."

"Waffling while our troops on the ground face an emboldened enemy endangers them and hurts our cause.

"President Obama's advisors have decided that it's easier to blame the Bush administration than support our troops."

Cheney was particularly irked by a claim by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel at the weekend that the Bush team had not asked tough questions about Afghanistan leaving Obama to start examining the war from the beginning.

The former vice-president said the Bush team dug into every aspect of Afghan and Pakistan policy in late 2008, and briefed Obama's team before he took office.

He claimed that Obama's initial new strategy unveiled in March and based on counter-insurgency was based largely on that study.

Gibbs said he did not know about the specific review, but took another swipe at Cheney, saying "I find it interesting that he's blaming us for something that he didn't see fit to do over, best I can tell, seven years of a war in Afghanistan."

Obama, who ordered an extra 21,500 troops to Afghanistan in March, is considering a request from war commander General Stanley McChrystal for at least 40,000 more soldiers for to fight insurgents in Afghanistan.

Cheney also took aim in his speech against other aspects of Obama's foreign policy, lambasting especially, his engagement of Iran.

While Obama was stretching out his hand to the Islamic Republic, Tehran was financing terrorism in Iraq, Syria and the Palestinian territories, Cheney charged.

While former president George W. Bush has muted criticism of his successor, Cheney has been a frequent and vocal antagonist to Obama.

In August, he told Fox News that he had "serious doubts" about how much Obama "understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation."

In May, he and Obama waged a war of words over the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba, and interrogation practices branded by critics as torture, which Cheney defended and Obama outlawed soon after taking office in January.

Airline crew overshot Minn. airport by 150 miles

MINNEAPOLIS – Two Northwest Airlines pilots failed to make radio contact with ground controllers for more than an hour and overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles before discovering the mistake and turning around.
The plane landed safely Wednesday evening, apparently without passengers realizing that anything had been amiss. No one was hurt.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew told authorities they became distracted during a heated discussion over airline policy and lost track of their location, but federal officials are investigating whether pilot fatigue might also have played a role.
The National Transportation Safety Board does not yet know if the crew fell asleep, spokesman Keith Holloway said, calling that idea "speculative."
Flight 188, an Airbus A320, was flying from San Diego to Minneapolis with 144 passengers and five crew. The pilots dropped out of radio contact with controllers just before 7 p.m. CDT, when they were at 37,000 feet. The jet flew over the airport just before 8 p.m. and overshot it before communications were re-established at 8:14 p.m, the NTSB said.
The FAA notified the military, which put Air National Guard fighter jets on alert at two locations. As many as four planes could have been scrambled, but none took to the air.
"After FAA re-established communications, we pulled off," said Michael Kucharek, a North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman.
Andrea Allmon, who had been traveling from San Diego on business, said no one on the plane knew anything was amiss until the end of the flight.
"Everybody got up to get their luggage and the plane was swarmed by police as we were getting our bags down from the overhead bins," she said.
She said they were kept on the plane briefly while police talked to the crew, then allowed off. She said she was "horrified" to learn what had happened.
"When I do my job I do my job," she said. "These guys are supposed to be paying attention to the flight. The safety of the passengers should be first and foremost. (It's) unbelievable to me that they weren't paying attention. Just not paying attention."
As of Thursday afternoon, NTSB investigators had not yet examined the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, which were being sent to Washington for analysis. He said the agency was also seeking to interview the pilots, but had not scheduled a meeting.
One of the two pilots should have been paying attention to the radio, said Ronald Carr, a former Air Force and American Airlines pilot who teaches flight physiology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. But he added that "sometimes you can have such heated discussions and get so distracted that you lose situational awareness, and when you're traveling seven miles a minute, that can happen pretty quick."
The two pilots have been suspended from flying while Delta Air Lines Inc. conducts an internal investigation, said Anthony Black, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based airline, which acquired Northwest last year. He refused to name them or give further details on their background or what happened in the air.
Air traffic controllers in Denver had been in contact with the pilots as they flew over the Rockies, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. But as the plane got closer to Minneapolis, she said, "the Denver center tried to contact the flight but couldn't get anyone."
Denver controllers notified their counterparts in Minneapolis, who also tried to reach the crew without success, Brown said. Controllers and the pilots finally resumed communication when the plane was over Eau Claire, Wis.
"Radar controllers were the whole time trying to make audio contact with that plane," said Tony Molinaro, an FAA spokesman in Chicago. He said he was not aware of controllers diverting any other flights, which was unnecessary because the Northwest jet was flying high enough to safely avoid planes approaching Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
It was not clear who initiated communications when contact finally was made, Brown said.

After the plane landed, two airport police officers boarded the plane at the gate, which authorities said is standard procedure after a crew loses communication with air traffic controllers.

Kelly Regus, a spokeswoman for the Delta branch of the Air Line Pilots Association, declined to comment.

The Federal Aviation Administration is updating decades-old rules governing how long commercial pilots can fly and remain on duty. The NTSB also cautioned government agencies this week about the risks of sleep apnea contributing to transportation accidents.

The board cited an incident in January 2008 when two go! airlines pilots feel asleep for at least 18 minutes during a midmorning flight from Honolulu to Hilo, Hawaii. The plane passed its destination before controllers raised the pilots, who landed safely. The captain was later diagnosed with sleep apnea.

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Associated Press Airlines Reporter Joshua Freed in Minneapolis, AP writers Martiga Lohn and Brian Bakst in St. Paul, David Koenig in Dallas and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

FlightAware.com tracking of Northwest Flight 188: http://bit.ly/2QV9hX

Cruelty charges dropped against Michigan soldier

TOLEDO, Ohio – Charges have been dropped against one of four U.S. soldiers accused of mistreating others in their platoon in Iraq following an investigation into the suicide of an Ohio serviceman, the military said Friday.
Spc. Daniel Weber of Frankenmuth, Mich., resigned from the Army and is expected to testify against two of his unit supervisors, said Maj. Myles Caggins, a spokesman for Multinational Division-South.
An investigation into the death of Pvt. Keiffer Wilhelm led to cruelty and maltreatment charges against Weber and the three others. Allegations included verbal abuse, physical punishment and ridicule of other soldiers.
The military has determined there is no direct evidence that the soldiers' alleged misconduct caused Wilhelm's death. But Wilhelm's family believes he was treated so badly that he took his own life.
Wilhelm, who grew up in Willard in northern Ohio, was in Iraq with his new platoon for just 10 days before he killed himself Aug. 4.
He called his mother twice from Iraq and told her he was being targeted in his new unit and forced to run for miles with rocks in his pockets that smashed against his knees, she said.
Wilhelm, 19, told his mother that he was being forced to exercise for hours and that his personal items were disappearing, Kathe Wilhelm said. A day before he died, he told her that he was being forced to go on long runs that left his knees bloody.
Kathe Wilhelm said she expects to testify at the trials for both Sgt. Enoch Chatman and Staff Sgt. Bob Clements, who were supervisors in the unit.
Clements, of Eastland, Texas, faces charges of cruelty and maltreatment, making a false statement, impeding an investigation and reckless endangerment. If convicted of all counts, he faces up to 25 years in prison.
Chatman, of West Covina, Calif., was charged with cruelty and maltreatment, making a false statement and reckless endangerment. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
Also charged with cruelty and maltreatment was Sgt. Jarrett Taylor, of Edmond, Okla.
They remain in Iraq, where legal proceedings will take place.

EU officials warn of disappearing cod

BRUSSELS – Cod is slipping closer to disappearing from key European fishing grounds, officials warned Friday, saying that only steep catch cuts will prevent the disappearance of a species prized for centuries for its flaky white flesh.
The European Union's executive body called for sharp cuts in the amount of cod fisherman can catch next year — up to 25 percent in some areas. The European Commission said recent studies showed cod catches in some areas are far outstripping the rate of reproduction.
Scientists estimated that in the 1970s there were more than 250,000 tons of cod in fishing grounds in the North Sea, eastern English Channel and Scandinavia's Skagerrak strait. In recent years, however, stocks have dropped to 50,000 tons.
"We are not that far away from a situation of complete collapse," said Jose Rodriguez, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana. He and other environmentalists said pressure from the fishing industry had kept quotas at levels too high to sustain a viable populations around Europe, while lack of enforcement meant illegal fishing made the problem worse.
The European Commission said Friday it would seek in 2010 to cut the catch in some fishing grounds around Britain, France, Spain and much of Scandinavia from 5,700 tons to 4,250 tons.
In the Mediterranean, bluefin tuna has been overfished for years to satisfy increasing world demand for sushi and sashimi. The tuna population is now a fraction of what it was a few decades ago, but the EU's Mediterranean nations last month refused to impose even a temporary ban.
Oceana estimated that illegal fishing doubled the amount of tuna caught.
Meanwhile Cod, which once sustained vibrant fishing communities from Portugal to Britain to Canada, is increasingly consumed by the ton as salt cod and fish-and-chips.
"People don't ask for fish and chips, they ask for cod and chips," said Mike Guo, a manager at Great Fish and Chips in Essex, England. "It's a traditional dish."
The depletion of the species has caused the decay and disappearance of hundreds of fishing villages on both sides of the Atlantic.
Overfishing off Canada's maritime provinces exhausted the world's richest cod grounds and forced the government to impose a fishing moratorium. The collapse wiped out more than 42,000 jobs, and 18 years later the fish have still not returned.
"It was devastating," said Tom Hedderson, minister of fisheries in Newfoundland. "This affected whole communities ... all up and down the coast here in Newfoundland and Labrador."
He welcomed the EU call to cut catches by 25 percent, but suggested more drastic cuts may be needed.
Some Canadian scientists believe the collapse of cod stocks off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia changed the marine ecosystem so dramatically that it may be impossible for cod to recover. Off Newfoundland alone, cod stocks once exceeded more than 400,000 tons but now scale only 5,500 tons, Hedderson said.
There are signs of recovery of Atlantic cod off New England, however, after years of conservation efforts. And international regulators have reopened some areas off Canada for limited fishing, Canada's Fisheries and Oceans Department spokesman Scott Cantin said.
The fishing industry in Europe, however, is in decline. The number of vessels in the 15 nations that were part of the EU in 1995 has dropped from 104,000 then to 81,000 in 2006. In Britain, employment in the fishing sector sank from 21,600 in 1990 to 16,100 in 2006.
The EU Commission's demand for cod cuts will be discussed by the bloc's 27-member states in a Dec. 14-15 meeting, when the fishing quotas for 2010 will be finalized.
"The scientific prognosis for most stocks is not encouraging, with many in a worse state than last year," Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said Friday. "This, combined with the difficult economic climate, will mean that the negotiations will be even more challenging this time around."

Keeping fishermen in port with excessive quotas will add to their economic woes, said Bertie Armstrong of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation.

Norway and the EU jointly oversee cod stocks in North Sea, with each party regulating the stocks in its waters.

Norway and the EU will begin annual negotiations on cod stock management in November. Ann Kristin Westberg, deputy director-general of Norway's Fishery Ministry, said her country was unlikely to accept a 25 percent quota.

"We probably want to have it lower," she said. "We would like to point out that stock the EU are involved in managing are in terrible shape."

The cod harvest from the Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine fishing grounds, the two primary New England fishing grounds, in 2007 totaled 3,868 metric tons, the biggest catch since 2003 but far under the landings of the 1980s when fishermen often caught more than 20,000 tons annually.

"The Gulf of Maine stock is responding to the recovery plan, and the Georges Bank stock is recovering but not as much," said Teri Frady of NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachussets.

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Associated Press writers Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine, Rob Gillies in Toronto, Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Rachel Leamon and Maresa Patience in London contributed to this report.

Texas man finds a rocket launcher on his property

SAN ANTONIO – A man who found a green metallic tube while cutting trees on his Comal County property thought it had a military look, like a rocket launcher. He was right. He was wrong to pick it up, take it home and display it on his dining room table. A decal on the equipment discovered by Jarrette Schule said: "Guided Missile and Launcher, Surface Attack."
"I had never seen it before," said Schule, 34. "I looked at it, and it kind of looked like a missile launcher."
An ordnance disposal team from Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio confiscated the device on Wednesday afternoon. Old military ordnance can be dangerous and should not be touched or moved, experts said.
Schule discovered the unarmed anti-tank weapon on Tuesday on his land miles away from a military installation.
"I don't know if it fell out of something or if somebody just dumped it," he said.
Schule did not want to leave the launcher on his vacant property, so he loaded it in his truck and took it to his house.
The San Antonio Express-News reported that he spent Tuesday afternoon calling the FBI, Homeland Security and other agencies.
"Everyone was handing it off to everybody else," he said.
Schule called military police at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, who passed his information to an Army criminal investigator. The special agent visited him Wednesday morning.
"She said this is the first time she ever encountered anything like this," Schule said. "I got the impression it was kind of a big deal. Doesn't happen every day, I guess."
The decal on the launcher has a 13-digit "National Stock Number," which is used to identify military equipment.
Military officials are trying to determine who last had the launcher. A serial number can be used to track the chain of custody, said Phil Reidinger, a spokesman for Fort Sam Houston.
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Information from: San Antonio Express-News, http://www.mysanantonio.com

1788 cognac, 1875 wine on sale at Paris auction

PARIS – Over the years, the chief sommelier had forgotten they were there. And when the four bottles of 1875 Armagnac Vieux were finally unearthed from the labyrinthine wine cellar this week, they were covered in a black fungus that looked like matted cat fur.
The landmark Tour d'Argent restaurant, which dates back to 1582, is cleaning out its 450,000-bottle wine cellar, considered one of the best in the world. It is putting 18,000 bottles up for auction in December, an event that has captured the imagination of French wine lovers.
The restaurant is selling mostly wine but also some very old spirits, like three bottles of a Clos du Griffier Cognac from 1788, the year before the French Revolution, as well as the ancient Armagnac, valued at euro400-500 ($595-$743) a bottle. The fuzzy fungus is nothing to worry about — it thrives on the fumes of such spirits and often grows on long-aged bottles.
The restaurant wants to cut down on wines it has in multiple to vary and modernize its selection.
"You'll probably see, we've got too many bottles," jokes chief sommelier David Ridgway.
Unlocking a padlocked iron gate, he ushered visitors into the restaurant's underworld, where bottles are stacked floor to ceiling in a succession of caverns. Though everything is registered in a computer, there are occasional surprises, like the 1875 Armagnac, which Ridgway came across while looking for something else.
Visitors are offered sheepskin blankets for the chill: 14 degrees Celsius (57.2 Fahrenheit) this week, but dipping to 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 Fahrenheit) in winter.
"I like the wine to live a little bit of the seasons, even though it's temperature-controlled," said Ridgway, a Briton who has overseen the restaurant's wine menu since the early 1980s.
The cellar of the Left Bank restaurant, known for pressed duck and spectacular views of Notre Dame, is a part of its history. A sign marks the spot where a brick wall was built in 1940 to hide the best bottles during the Nazi occupation in World War II.
Estimated prices at the Dec. 7-8 sale by French auctioneer Piasa start at euro10 ($15) a bottle and go up to euro2,500-euro3,000 ($3,716-$4,459) for each 1788 Cognac, one of which will go to charity.
Among wines on sale are Chateau Lafite Rothschild (1970, 1982, 1997), Cheval Blanc (1928, 1949, 1966) and Chateau Margaux (1970, 1990). The total sale is expected to bring in around euro1 million ($1.5 million).
Buyers can rest assured the bottles aren't counterfeit — a major problem in the industry — because the restaurant bought them directly from vintners. As for the restaurant, the timing of the auction is right even as Europe struggles amid a global economic crisis.
"I'm sure there are some amazing treasures in that cellar, and it's a good time to sell because the wine auction market has really come storming back" after tanking during the early months of the financial crisis, said Michael Steinberger, Slate's wine columnist and author of "Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine, and the End of France."
The restaurant, a family business, was once the summit of French gastronomy, but recent years have brought setbacks. Longtime owner Claude Terrail died in 2006, and his 29-year-old son Andre now runs it. The restaurant long held three Michelin stars but is now down to one.
The economic crisis has affected the restaurant's finances only "a bit," Terrail said, in part because of its name and diverse international clientele. While the kitchen was renovated recently, the wine sale may fund more extensive renovations down the line.
The restaurant's name means "The Silver Tower" in French, and all the bottles for sale are stamped with the restaurant's insignia, a tiny tower.
On the Web:
http://www.piasa.auction.fr/UK/