Holiday Spirits Sink As Rare Wines, Cognacs Go Down With Freighter

Millions of bottles of wine and spirits, many destined for holiday tables in the United States, were lost at sea last month when a cargo ship split in half off Portugal, according to many merchants.

“What a mess,” said Michael Aaron, chairman of New York retailer Sherry-Lehmann, which lost 1,600 cases in the wreck. “At least the fish are going to have a nice New Year.”

Talk of the MSC Carla has been rippling through the American wine industry ever since the freighter was torn open by a wave off the Azores Nov. 25.

Early reports of the amount lost make it “potentially the largest wine loss ever at sea,” said Dan Berger, a syndicated wine columnist, whose sources put the loss at more than $100 million.

While much of the wine is replaceable in a supply-heavy market, the loss forced retailers to work overtime to keep shelves stocked in the critical December weeks before Christmas, when roughly 40 percent of U.S. wine is sold.

“If it’s not on the shelf by the 24th, you may as well forget about it,” Berger said.

The Swiss-based carrier, Mediterranean Shipping Co., said reports of huge losses were exaggerated. But wine importers and wholesalers told a different story.

“My loss is enough to be painful, but others lost more,” said Ed Everett, a San Francisco-based wine distributor, who was expecting a 200-case shipment of rare Cognac.

Aaron said he had to replace 1,000 cases of wine from France’s Bordeaux and Loire Valley regions. More distressing, he said, were the dozens of sunken bottles of irreplaceable Armagnac - vintages 1934, 1947, and 1957 - with prices up to $700 a bottle.

Importer Frederick Wildman & Sons reported at least 800 cases aboard the Carla while Boston-area wholesaler MS Walker said it had six containers aboard, including a variety of mid-priced French, German, Spanish and Italian wines.

Also aboard were at least 1,000 cases of highly coveted 1995 red Burgundy and Bordeaux, sold on a futures market and currently fetching as much as $200 a bottle.

“This is a very tense time,” said importer James Galtieri, who on Thursday was awaiting the fate of those cases and held out hope they might be salvaged.

The Carla - en route from Le Havre, France, to Boston - went down in a fierce storm about 200 miles northeast of the Azores, according to Portuguese officials.

Thirty-four crew members were rescued from the vessel. The containers sank too deep to be retrieved.