Bordeaux cellars ransacked

Nearly eight thousand bottles of top-quality wines have been stolen in a Bordeaux burglary spree.

Earlier this week thieves grabbed 4596 bottles of classified Grand Cru Saint-Emilion Cormeil-Figeac from the château cellars, after cutting telephone lines and forcing the front doors. In addition to Château Cormeil-Figeac 1998, bottles of grand cru Château Grand-Magnan 1995 and 1996 were also stolen.

The previous night, the Cooperative cellars in Tauriac in Bourg-sur-Gironde were ransacked, the burglars stealing the cooperative’s own van to drive away the booty. This consisted of 2700 top quality bottles: 600 Côtes-de-Bourg 1999, 1200 Château-La-Croix-de-Methée 1999, and 900 Château-Croix-de-Paty 1995.

In an ill-timed coincidence, Gendarmes had demonstrated the week before for better pay and conditions. They remain critically under-staffed and under-equipped.

Hubert de Boüard, president of the Saint-Emilion Wine Syndicate, said he hopes to form a vintners’ group which would pool resources to lay on additional security at properties.

Written by Alan Spencer in Bordeaux21 December 2001