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TAMPA — A few times a month, the sommeliers at Bern's Steakhouse go hunting for wine lost and forgotten in the restaurant's cellars.

They climb the shelves, crawl over cases and shine a flashlight on anything not on the inventory list. It's like mining for gems, says restaurant owner David Laxer. You never know what you'll find.

This spring, they struck gold. A double magnum 1947 bottle of Chateau Latour.

The selling price: $30,000.

The first-growth Bordeaux will be on the 61st edition of Bern's wine list due out in early January. It's by far the most expensive wine in the restaurant's history.

Senior sommelier Eric Renaud found the bottle during a "project day'' at the restaurant. He was working in the rare wine room when he saw the bottle tucked away on a high shelf in the back. It was on its side, instead of pointed outward like the rest.

"It looked like someone had hid it there a long time ago,'' he said. "The second I saw it, I almost had a heart attack.''