Any time a classy wine is offered online below market price,be suspicious: the wines are often stolen. In France,owners of many a chateau are complaining about wine thievery. More and more often the gendarmerie are called to investigate when wine cellars suddenly go empty. Even big-name shops like Hédiard have been hit,just recently,someone tried to get their hands on some costly Grand Crus. More and more wine shops are turning to elaborate security procedures such surveillance cameras and heavy security doors.
hello Madam it’s the police please open
the
door the raid takes place at dawn in the
heart of Bordeaux in Southwestern
France 10 officers search the apartment
for stolen property and hit the
jackpot they find hundreds of bottles of
Fine Wines some worth more than €1,000 a
piece the homeowner presents receipts
but the police aren’t
convinced that’s a pretty big reduction
from €1,000 to 350 didn’t that strike
you as OD the man is charged with
fencing stolen goods in France more and
more people store their Wines in
especially protected wine
Depots Stefan leblond is one of them he
spent several 100,000 on his wine
collection and owns some unique
vintages so he doesn’t dare keep them at
home in his
Cellar it’s not that I’d live in
constant fear of having my wine bottle
stolen by some criminal but the depot is
very well protected maybe that’s why I
don’t worry so
much his wine bottles are in good
company restaurants and auction houses
as well as private individuals store
their precious vintages here and they
demand more than a simple alarm system
to keep their wines
safe video surveillance in addition to a
aroundthe clock video surveillance
system we have anti-intrusion systems
and motion
detectors then a second reinforced
door and it’s behind this door that our
clients’s wines are
kept some of the gr creus the most
prestigious ones are worth
10,000 renowned
frenched didn’t take such precautions
with its extensive wine collection the
store a treasure Trove for Gourmet and
wine enthusiasts from around the globe
was robbed earlier this year within
minutes thieves stole around 100 bottles
of wine worth some €400,000
some are really rare So Rare they’d be
hard to sell they’re not likely to be
put on the market since they’d be
discovered stolen wines occasionally
turn up at d one of the most famous
auction houses in
Paris Alexandre de sets the starting
bids for wines and spirits here he can
only laugh at the ignorance of some
thieves one Thief didn’t know how to
sell wines and tried to auction them off
here that was idiotic of course he was
going to get caught
how else do they sell stolen wines via
the Internet as it’s hard to catch
them wine lovers who want to be sure
they’re not buying stolen goods frequent
Fine Food emporiums like
L their best vintage wines are kept in
the cellar or on high shelves making
them difficult to
piler staff here still keep a watchful
eye but say the real danger lies
elsewhere I’m more afraid of the wine
transports and holdups happening as the
wine is getting delivered then of a
theft like what we saw at one of our
competitors
recently these things do happen but
they’re
rare still French wine Merchants are
taking no Chances with the holiday
season fast approaching few will be
keeping their the finest wines behind a
simple sell
door