$50k worth of grapes stolen from Virginia vineyard

Around 2 to 2.5 tons of grapes were stolen from Firefly Hill Vineyards in Montgomery County, according to the owners.

This is what thieves left me with. Less than 200lbs of grapes. They came in Monday night and knew what they were doing. Quick, efficient, multiple, pathetic pieces of excrement. They picked the vineyard clean stealing about 2 to 2.5 tons of 8 months of work. Yes the financial loss hurts. All told in labor, supplies, crop and lost wine potential totaling about $50,000, gone. What hurts the most is what they stole from my spirit and heart. The vineyard was a family experience. My daughters grew up in that vineyard. My family and friends helped me in that vineyard. Most importantly I spent time in that vineyard with my father. Cherished memories spoiled by a bunch of low life, no soul, heartless excuses for human beings. I hope these individuals will read this. Please know a slow and lingering death will never be long enough for you and no amount of pain you could endure will great enough.

To my friends and family thank you for all of the help over the past 12 growing seasons. Dad, I am so very sorry. We will make one last blend together and toast to all of the blood sweat and tears we shared together.

We are closed until further notice.

Sounds devastating to a small winery. Hopefully insurance can absorb some of the loss.

If they are smart they will return the grapes. For two reasons, one of which is that it is the right thing to do.

Sorry for being cynical but something doesn’t seem right. Math doesn’t work unless they are really making $30/bottle profit. Also, its on the early side for harvest in VA. I harvested my home vineyard on the 7th at 18 brix to make sparkling because the rain that was in the forecast and the uncertainty of Florence I wanted to get something instead of lose it all to rot. So what are they making that type of profit on that was ready to harvest now?

That sucks. Big time. I know that myself and other winemakers worry about this potentiality all the time. Lots of us have vineyards that are on easily accessible, yet lightly traveled (especially at night) public roads. Famous, old vine sites that could easily be harvested under the cover of dark because no one lives there. Certainly in Burgundy they have the same situation but the risk one would entail there would pale in comparison to here (how would you sell Chambertin wine off, whereas selling some Pinot made from high quality grapes would be much easier). I know it is has happened times over in California. Have not heard about it happening in Oregon but all it takes is one shady character to light that match.

Interesting point, i once read that DRC works out at $5 a grape. What prevents someone in a van stopping there at 3 AM and stripping a couple of dozens vines to make themselves a barrel of DRC or similar.

Do the really high end vineyards have security

The math is way off. 20-25K per ton for virginia fruit…maybe that is what they told their insurance company…

The phrase that the owner used was

lost wine potential

I’m assuming that means lost profit from the grapes after they are made into wine, not the value of the grapes “as is”.

The heading is misleading. It is finished product, not grapes value. Works out to about $300 per case.

I’ve thought about the issue of vineyard theft, especially as marijuana farms proliferate in the open now. Those require security, as there is plenty of incentive for people to come steal the leaves, either for their own use or for sale, and I image even someone quickly stuffing a small bag with some handfuls would give the thief a good haul. So I understand that, yet it also sucks for people living in the countryside to now have armed goons roaming around to protect neighboring pot fields.

Back to wine, it’s much harder to see what the incentive is for the thieves here. Even if this weren’t Virginia and the stolen wines were of high quality, I’m not sure how you realize the benefit of these grapes. I doubt any licensed wine business is going to be doing this to create their products. So then what do you do with it? Even if you made wine out of it in your back yard, who is going to buy it, and at what price?

I make wine at home every year for fun (my 2018 Mourvedre is almost done fermenting in the guest bathroom shower - the house has smelled so nice the last week!), so I guess a guy like me, if he stole a few hundred pounds of grapes in September from the To Kalon vineyard, could have a hell of a high quality home brew for himself. But that’s not the scale of this report from Virginia.

Question for the group: at your premium vineyards in Burgundy, Napa and elsewhere, do that have security systems or guards or anything? I guess they would only need to do it near harvest - even if it’s DRC or Screaming Eagle, bunches of green grapes from earlier than that aren’t going to do anyone any good.

Yeah, this makes absolutely no sense to me. How long does it take to pick 2.5 tons of grapes? Even in broad daylight, without the need to be surreptitious and with lots of help, that has to take hours, doesn’t it? Presumably the thieves didn’t do this with a dozen guys in broad daylight. And as Chris points out, WTF are you going to do with more than TWO TONS of grapes? Maybe, maybe if they were To Kalon a winemaker could get past his/her scruples to buy them, but in VA? With grapes from Blacksburg? Really?

I am not saying the account is untrue. I don’t know anything except what is posted above. But I am having a hard time making the math work on this one.

From the local press:

“Allison Dunkenberger said the value of the stolen fruit was about $20,000 or $25,000, but if the time and materials used in caring for them was included, the loss was closer to $50,000. Firefly Hill’s insurance does not cover theft of the crop, she said.”

Chris, you don’t smoke the leaves, brother. :wink:

Still doesn’t make sense. Average price per ton for VA fruit should still be below $2K although I can’t get the most recent report to download to verify. Not sure what they were to be $10K/T. Still assuming that they have to be white as reds shouldn’t be coming in yet.

Lots of organization involved here too. Bins, man power, escape vehicle. For Virginia grapes, way out near Virginia Tech, which isn’t prolific wine making country.
Worst script submitted for ‘Ocean’s 11’ remake?

The other thing that struck me – would the fruit even be ripe?

I saw a story about how prevalent bee theft is. One guy lost a million dollars worth of bees.

Some white varieties get harvested around here before the end of August. Cooler areas like Blacksburg likely would be pushing it, but the hurricane threat probably ‘encouraged’ more wineries to do an earlier harvest. Wouldn’t surprise me if that’s how they found out about the theft if it wasn’t adjacent to the winery. Checked it Monday to schedule the pick, and walked in Tuesday morning to an empty vineyard.

Sounds like a fraternity fall pledge class heist! They just scored enough grapes to make wine for the whole semester.

Feel bad for the family, but those numbers are crazy. In 2017 average Vidal Blanc price was about $1500/ton.

I guess you could get $50K gross if you sold 160 cases at $25/bottle. But this is a winery not on winesearcher, without any listings on CT.

The theft is wrong and gross, but numbers are nuts.

The 50k included “labor, supplies, crop and lost wine potential”, not just value of the grapes if they were sold on the open market.