Decanter World Wine AwardsGrower loses entire crop to thieves
- Thursday 30 September 2010
Grower Roland Cavaille his vineyards in Villeneuve-les-Beziers were targetted on Sunday night. Thieves took advantage of a full moon, and used a harvesting machine to steal 30 tonnes of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.
The farmer was not insured against the loss of his grapes, which estimates have suggested would have taken 6-8 hours to harvest.
He told Le Parisien newspaper he was baffled. ‘They used a harvesting machine to gather grapes. This means there was no need to have lots of people; two people would have been enough.’
‘The area was quite isolated; it is a few kilometres from the village and near a river. So the thieves were able to work safely.’
He said that the theft amounted to a year's work and about €15,000 (£12,900).
Mr Cavaille added that the perpetrators were clearly professionals who could easily sell on the grapes.
According to the French press, the police believe the culprits to be rival winemakers.
Cavaille said there had been a similar grape theft reported in the Languedoc four years ago and that another complaint had also been filed this year.
Police are continuing their investigations.
Have your say!
CHEF RASTA
October 05 07:57
IT IS TERRIBLE, I THINK VERY STRONGLY TO BE AN INSIDE JOB, SOME ONE KNEW ABOUT HIS CROP AND KNEW HIS HABITS, DAMM THIEVES, BETCHA IT WAS ANTHER GROWER???
Toby Bensimon
October 01 09:06
This brings back the nostalgic feeling captured in the immortal words of B-Real from cypress hill who said 'special ops come and try to snatch my crops'..