This seems like a very specific, and rather difficult, way to make a dishonest living, but apparently it’s happened several times in recent years.
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And here I was expecting a video of apes munching on grapes in a vineyards in South Africa.
Or this:
Damn talk about heartbreaking
Kind of odd that the vineyard owner didn’t notice since this was around harvest time. You’d think they’ve have been checking the ripening daily or nearly daily. Yet the police only have narrowed it down to a one-week span.
It’s not a huge plot – the equivalent of 80m x 100m (think in yards if you prefer).
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The real tragedy, and also dark humor, is that there are so many vines that need tending in Germany.
I admit to being surprised this doesn’t happen more often. What’s to stop somebody from rolling up to DRC RC at night near harvest time? It’s not very big.
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Puts the problem in that liminal place between tragedy and farce.
well put
There are guards now. Plus you couldn’t sell it as Romanee Conti fruit.
Exactly what I was thinking!
I suspect I am the only board member who almost immediately thought of Rancho Deluxe when I read the opening post in this thread.
No excuses . . . . 
On the second point (let’s say you took whatever are the best grapes from a vineyard that doesn’t have guards), the thief would then have to make very good wine from the grapes and somehow sell them to the public in some way that realizes some of the value of that quality (yet without of course being able to identify the vineyard or Cru).
It seems like the most likely thief in that example would be another reputable winery? Say some Italian winery makes a Brunello that suddenly gets a lot better and higher scores because they stole the grapes from a top source? Of course you’d be risking your business and risking going to jail.
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And it’s not like you can just keep the grapes in your warehouse for a few weeks waiting to find a buyer. As I said originally, this seems like a very specific and rather difficult way to make a dishonest living. You’d have to have a “customer” lined up, like a made to order job, and truck the grapes straight to the winery. And presumably that dishonest winery is looking to pass off the stolen wine as its own, not sell it as being from the victimized vineyard.
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It would have to be some sort of sneaky billionaire who wants all 6000 bottles of RC to himself in a certain vintage. There are plenty of examples of elaborate art thefts where the artwork is never recovered, and the assumption is it ended up in someone’s private museum.
That’s got to be a yucky security guard job though. 11 PM to 6 AM shift, patrolling a vineyard all night rain or shine. Those who are afraid of ghosts need not apply.
Brings back to memory a theft down in Carneros: There was a new Vnyd in Carneros with Calif’s first Blaufrankisch planting, destined to go to Matt Rorick. Their first crop off these two rows were near ripe. The owner (forget his name) & Matt went down to harvest and somebody had beat them to it the night before.
The thieves probably thought they were getting some primo Carneros Pinot Noir. Bet they were surprised when they tasted the wine from those purloined grapes!!
Tom
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The value of the fruit is more in the name than the quality. Why not steal from another great vineyard where it’s easier if you are just trying to sell it as quality fruit.
Happens in Rheinhessen, Germany too!
Has someone said insurance fraud yet? Because I’ve been scratching my head on this and the only thing that makes sense to me is insurance fraud.
Keep an eye out for a bottling called Versicherungsbetrug Kabinett