Reward offered for return of giant cork

A giant cork has been stolen from a winery near Prague, prompting a reward of 100 bottles of sparkling wine for its safe return.

The cork before it was stolen

The 2.5m decorative cork, which marks the premises of the Bohemia Sekt winery in Starý Plzenec in the Czech Republic, was stolen at some time between 29 and 31 July.

Likely to have been the work of a prankster, the winery has not taken kindly to the theft of its cork, which was installed last year and is made of hard plastic.

“We immediately informed the Czech Police, who are currently searching for the cork mock-up”, said Ondřej Beránek, CEO of Bohemia Sekt, in a press release.

“We want to ask the public to help us with the search. In a single year people have become accustomed to this decoration and they are now asking us why the stopper is missing and if we happen to be moving [our headquarters]. We would therefore like it to be returned as quickly as possible to its original position. We would like to thank the person who finds with a reward of 100 bottle of sparkling wine”.

At more than eight foot tall the plastic cork is difficult to conceal, with the winery hoping that it will soon be discovered.

Bohemia Sekt is one of the leading producers of sparkling wine in Central and Eastern Europe, made by secondary fermentation using the Charmat method.

In 2014 it sold 26 million bottles of wine with sparkling wine accounting for almost 10 million of that total, up 7% on the previous year. The producer’s still wine brands include Víno Mikulov, Habánské sklepy, Chateau Bzenec and Vinařství Pavlov.