Thief who stole $550,000 in wine from Napa Valley’s French Laundry sentenced to prison

One of the two men convicted in a brazen heist of top-flight wine worth $550,000 from The French Laundry in Napa Valley in 2014 was sentenced Tuesday to more than 3 years in prison.

Alfred Georgis, 53, of Mountain View pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport stolen goods in interstate commerce. San Jose-based U.S District Court Judge Beth L. Freeman sentenced him to 37 months in prison and a restitution payment of $585,715.

His co-conspirator, Davis Kiryakoz, 44, of Modesto, pleaded guilty to the same crime and was sentenced to a 15-month prison term in March.

The two men admitted to conspiring to steal more than $870,000 of wine from The French Laundry, acclaimed chef Thomas Keller’s Yountville restaurant, and two other California businesses, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office in ?San Francisco.

The Yountville heist took place in the early hours of Dec. 26, 2014. Around ?110 prized bottles of wine were stolen, including Domaine de la Romanée-Conti worth up to $10,000 a bottle. The restaurant had been closed for renovation and the alarm had been turned off.

The men admitted to selling bottles from their burglaries to a North Carolina buyer, transactions that left a trail for the FBI to follow and led to their arrest in 2016.

You can reach Staff Writer Nick Rahaim at 707-521-5203 or nick.rahaim@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nrahaim.