New York Giants Party with Giant Bottle, Giant Celebs(1)
Plus, the law catches up with wine criminals, wine for monkeys and the intersection of fine wine and China gets more congested
Victor Cruz received this pricey gift after performing his signature salsa dance in the endzone at the Super Bowl. Let's hope he shared.
• For those of you Unfiltered readers just waking up from a coma, the New York Giants won the Super Bowl last weekend, defeating the New England Patriots in a highly anticipated rematch. And of course, Unfiltered is always interested to see what the champions celebrate with every time one of these children's games played by men concludes. This year the Giants made an interesting choice, but one Unfiltered can't fault, partying with newly single pop star Katy Perry, whose frequently changing hair was dyed a lovely shade of Giants blue. Of course, that party included Giants coaches and management, and the cool kids always sneak off to their own party for the good stuff, the cool kids being breakout star receiver Victor Cruz, retired Giants star Michael Strahan and hip-hop star Lil Jon, and the good stuff being a Nebuchadnezzar of Armand de Brignac "Ace of Spades" Champagne. The 15-liter bottle, priced at $100,000, was presented to Cruz in celebration of the Giants' victory at an Indianapolis pop-up version of New York's club Greenhouse. For Cruz, who barely makes the NFL minimum for second-year players, that bottle amounts to a quarter of his annual salary. Unfiltered wonders if he'd have maybe just preferred a raise after scoring the team's first touchdown Sunday and salsa-ing his way into America's hearts.
Once back in New York, members of the Giants were treated to more boozy gifts: Defensive end Justin Tuck presented everyone on the team a special-edition engraved bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label Scotch. Someone please just have a chat with defensive end Dave Tollefson, who apparently confused blue label with blue collar, telling the N.Y. Post it was "a working-man's drink … Johnnie Walker and some Coke!"
Photograph of inflatable bouncy castle by iStockphoto
Outdoor fun for the whole family, or gateway to wine crime? You decide.
• Unfiltered takes as a rule that every inflatable bouncy castle operator harbors a terrible secret (this also applies to historical reenactors, artisanal food truck proprietors and post office workers who are friendly for no reason), so it came as no surprise to hear that a Toronto-area woman who operates such instruments of childhood terror has been accused of posing as a Ukrainian diplomat in order to embezzle wine from Ontario's beloved state-run liquor monopoly, the LCBO. In a delightful fusion of highbrow and low, former LCBO employee Francois Agostini is accused of funneling 1,618 cases of liquor to the fake diplomat, for an LCBO loss to the tune of 1.6 million loonies. The pricey booze was diverted to bouncy castle impresario/Ukrainian diplomat Andrea Smallwood/"Svetlana Petrovska," who then operated a healthy side business selling discounted spirits out of the back of her truck. The LCBO was reportedly alerted to the scheme by a trailer park resident who was resentful that Smallwood, her neighbor, had so much top-shelf booze.
• Unfiltered has been on the wine crime beat long enough to know the usual suspects when the Pétrus goes missing, so we're happy to report that the wine industry can sleep well tonight knowing two repeat offenders are off the streets. Theft-happy sommelier Mark Lugo and rotund arsonist Mark Anderson have finally been brought to justice.
Or re-justice, in the case of Lugo, a former wine staffer at Per Se and BLT Fish who spent 138 days in a California hoosegow for theft of a Pablo Picasso. Lugo now faces sentencing in Manhattan for lifting several paintings and drawings from New York galleries and hotels last year, valued at $430,000. His M.O. was ingenious: Case the joint for weeks, create myriad disguises and concoct foolproof getaway schemes … no, actually he just walked in, took a painting off the wall and walked out. His devious scheme also fooled a wine store in New Jersey, from which he stole bottles of Château Pétrus on two separate occasions. (Who can forget his classic escape, when he fled the store while claiming the alias "Mark Hugo"?) Lugo pleaded guilty to grand larceny and faces a one- to three-year sentence.
