A vineyard near Béziers in the Hérault region of southern France had 30 tonnes of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes stolen overnight.
A vineyard near Béziers in the Hérault region of southern France had 30 tonnes of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes stolen overnight.
In an attempt to trace the thieves, French police are analysing tyre prints left by the harvesting machine last Friday night.
The difficult-to-access two-acre parcel of land is located between Sauvian et Villeneuve-Les-Béziers.
The wine grower, Roland Cavaillé, told local newspaper La Dépèche that the thieves would have had to be working for at least four hours in order to harvest the land. He said the grapes were perfectly ripe, and that he had been getting ready to harvest the vines himself.
Cavaillé said he would have received €60 per hectolitre for the crop, adding that he was now unsure how he would survive until the end of the year. He said his agricultural insurance covered the vines themselves but not their fruit.