Trusted Burgundy worker stole 8,000 bottles of fine wine from employers

A maintenance technician from Beaune has been found guilty of stealing €650,000 of fine wine from estates he had worked at in what is being called the biggest cellar heist in France – although the “kleptomaniac-collector” did not drink or sell any of the bottles he stole.

According to reports in French press outless Bien Public, the “trusted employee” who worked in a number of wineries around Beaune, had never aroused any suspicion and it was only after CCTV footage captured him stealing four bottles of wine that the extent of his alleged actions was uncovered.

Police searched his house and his mother’s house and discovered three full cellars, including not only the four missing bottles, but between 7,000 – 8,000 bottles of wine. The value of each individual bottles said to be worth between €100 to €1,000 in value, and included around 1,285 grands crus from the Côte de Nuits and Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru, according to Bien Public.

Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch originally said that the bottles had been accumulated over the course of 15 years and have been stolen from both his current place of work as well as other producers where the man had also previously worked.

According to Bien Public, the 56-year old man was originally arrested in February and appeared in court on Tuesday (6 August) charged with the theft of €650,000 worth of fine wines from Joseph Drouhin and Albert Bichot, his two last employers, between 2017 and last February. He was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence and a €10,000 fine, the news outlet said.

It has been described as one of the largest cellar heists France, which has a high incidence of wine theft.  In 2020, an operation by a French police and gendarme strike force dubbed ‘Magnum’ recovered more than €5 million worth of stolen fine wines and resulted in the arrests of over 20 people.

In 2021, police in France arrested 10 people in connection with two separate burglaries at estates in Burgundy, although they were able to recover around 1,000 bottles of stolen wine.

And in January this year, an inventory of the cellar of Paris’ historic restaurant La Tour d’Argent revealed that 83 bottles of wine, including Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, had vanished without trace.