A crook was caught on CCTV breaking into a winery and pouring £2.1million worth of plonk onto the floor for no apparent reason.
The footage shows how the vandal jogs towards a vat and opens the tap, causing a jet of wine to thunder onto the floor.
Dressed in a raincoat and gloves, he walks through the stream of liquid towards the next stainless-steel tank.
He then tries to do the same thing before jogging across the cellar and out of view.
The crime took place in the early hours of Sunday (18 Feb) and was reported to the police by winemaker José Moro.
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The devastated vintner explained how several vats holding two of his top-rated wines were emptied.
The 2023 vintage of “Horcajo” – a select tempranillo scoring 93 Parker points and priced at €90 (£77) a bottle – was completely lost.
Another of the opened tanks was holding a tempranillo called “Malabrigo” scoring 92 Parker points.
Moro told local media: “Just these two references have seen the most growth in the past year, up 15 percent.”
But – he added – the outcome could have been even worse.
Moro said: “He entered and immediately opened the valve of five tanks. Fortunately, in that row, there were only three filled ones.”
Technicians said 60,000 litres of wine were spilled at the Cepa 21 winery in Castrillo de Duero north of Madrid, Spain.
The losses have been estimated at £2. million.
Moro said: “That’s the estimated loss due to this setback, at a time when we’re expanding and positioning our best wines.”
He told local media: “I find it despicable and lamentable that someone would play with the livelihood of Cepa 21 employees like this.
“We can’t find any explanation.”
According to Moro, the crook moved “very fluently”, suggesting he may have been familiar with the facilities.
The winemaker added: “We trust the law enforcement agencies to uncover who could have committed such an atrocity.
“They went for the top-tier wines. It’s outrageous.”
José Moro was the first Spanish winemaker to enter Forbes’ 100 Most Creative People in Business list.
He said: “As an entrepreneur, all I can do is move forward and gather even more strength so that prestigious wines like Horcajo and Malabrigo have an even greater presence in the market.
“Let’s hope everything is resolved.”
Police are investigating but no arrests have been made.
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