Vineyards in Jura, France.
Paul Bonin headed to his vineyard in Gevingey to give the vines their first cut, but he was shocked to find that they had been stripped of their grapes.
The 48-year-old winemaker initially suspected that birds had devoured the grapes while he slept, but he then realised that he had fallen victim to burglary.
‘Friends showed me bunches of grapes that had fallen to the ground, neatly cut with pruning shears,’ Bonin told France 3.
Bonin had only harvested 10kg of grapes before the thieves struck, and they made off with 800kg, leaving nothing in their wake.
‘That means another year without income,’ he said. ‘I only made 200 litres of juice. It is a blow to the head.’
Bonin is not the first winemaker to be targeted by thieves in Jura, a region tucked between Burgundy and the Swiss border in eastern France.
Last year, Catherine Hannoun, of Domaine de la Loue winery in Port-Lesney, told Decanter that thieves made off with around 2,500 kg of grapes from her vineyard.
She was one of three winemakers targeted, according to French news channel TF1. Another victim, Laura Bourdy of Domaine Bourdy in Arlay, told reporters that the speed and apparent skill with which thieves stole grapes suggested they were organised and experienced.
The gendarmerie investigated the thefts, but they did not manage to catch the culprits.
Louis Cauzo, the mayor of Gevingey, reacted with fury to the theft at Bonin’s vineyard, which is roughly 0.85ha.
‘I am really outraged. He is a young winemaker who set up not long ago and who has invested a lot. It was his first real small harvest. And it is even more dramatic this year, because there are no grapes,’ he said.
It had already been a challenging year for grape growers in the region, as heavy rainfall, hailstorms and mildew ravaged vineyards across Jura.
Historically, the region’s average production is 80,000 hectolitres per year, but it is expected to fall to around 35,000 hectolitres this year, with experts blaming the climate crisis.
Police ramp up their surveillance during the harvest in Jura and other wine regions, as thieves target not only the grapes, but also agricultural machinery. However, they were unable to prevent the latest theft.
Bonin may add GPS micro-trackers to grape clusters in the future in a bid to catch the thieves.
‘I found a company that provides GPS micro-trackers the size of confetti,’ said Bonin. ‘If we slip them into a few bunches on the plot, we can track the movement of the grapes and see who received them. The pressure needs to change sides.’
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