Connoisseur crooks
2003-03-02 20:43
Ziegfried Ekron
Cape Town - A top wine estate in the Boland suffered a massive blow over the weekend when thieves "harvested" about two tons of grapes, nearly ready for the wine vats, under cover of night.
The thieves must have had their eyes on the grapes for a while, but waited until the grapes were ripe for the picking before they raided the Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard of Delheim Estate.
Victor Sperling, general manager of the estate, said the thieves made off with nearly two tons of grapes from which Delheim's world renowned Grand Reserve is produced.
"We discovered the theft on Saturday morning. They must have stolen the grapes on Friday or Thursday night," he said.
He said the thieves cut a hole in the fence between Delheim and the Elsenburg agricultural research farm.
"The hole is big enough to allow a person with a harvesting basket through. I suspect they loaded the grapes onto a bakkie on the other side of the fence.
"It is not the first time that some of our grapes have been stolen, but I have never seen someone take such a volume at a time. These guys knew what they were doing," Sperling said.
He said Delheim lost about 20% of the grapes for its Grand Reserve in the haul.
"I do not know if they stole the grapes to sell it along the road or whether they had other plans with it.
"I have heard that grapes are sometimes stolen on order, but I do not know who would make wine from those grapes.
If we had made wine from those grapes, it would have been worth about R300 000."
- Die Burger