"When you see Château Margaux, Petrus ... I'm not in the wine business, but you know it comes in cash".

A few days ago, Cédric D., told the Bordeaux court (southwest) behind the scenes of a "daring" heist of one million euros, in September 2020.

Eight thieves had entered the warehouse of a major merchant in Bordeaux, crawling on the ground before slipping the wines on a skateboard to avoid "presence sensors".

In one weekend, 278 cases are taken away: Château Latour, Haut-Brion, Ausone.

Part of it had been sold to a Bordeaux merchant, 20% below the market price, to be exported to Hong Kong, the Asian plate of the wine trade.

Since 2018, "the phenomenon of thefts of great wines has become important in the Gironde" with at least twenty breakages against warehouses, private cellars or small specialized cellars and supermarkets, sometimes attacked with a ram car, according to the prosecution. from Bordeaux.

The total loot is around 5 million euros.

"With prices skyrocketed in a few years, certain wines have become a privileged target for thieves, especially since behind, they are resold very easily, not like a painting", underlines a spokesperson at the Interprofessional Council of Bordeaux Wine (CIVB).

In the court of Bordeaux, Céline Pagès, vice-prosecutor at the economic and financial pole evokes a "criminal phenomenon" with teams of "seasoned" thieves, coming from "classic burglaries - gold, silver, jewelry".

Well-versed in the methods of "organized crime", "they are able in record time to organize themselves to target the victims, choose the wines and rely on an efficient concealment system so that the wine leaves very quickly", at merchants, restaurants or abroad, particularly to China, the leading market for Bordeaux wines in terms of value and volume.

As "for the fight against narcotics", investigators must deploy special investigation techniques: DNA research, telephone tapping, geolocation, details Ms. Pagès.

Gendarmes and police officers were thus able to dismantle in December 2020 and March 2021 a network of theft and concealment, with about twenty suspects arrested.

Crucial link: a Chinese receiver installed in Gironde.

"The wines were exported to China, sold to restaurateurs and traders from the Asian community in the Paris region, or resold to individuals through informal networks", specifies the colonel of the gendarmerie Jean-Baptiste Félicité, who headed until this summer the research section of Bordeaux, seized of this file "Magnum 33" with the judicial police.

Police officers in the vineyards of Château Sipian, September 29, 2021 in Valeyrac, Gironde Thibaud MORITZ AFP

Angelus, Cheval Blanc, Mouton-Rothschild, Pape Clément ... The investigators found part of the loot.

QR code to trace the wine

The gendarmerie, which had already created a "wines" group within the Bordeaux research section, has just set up a regional unit to support the wine industry, the largest private employer in the Gironde region with 60,000 direct jobs.

"The chain of delinquency (...) does not cover only thefts and international traffic, there are also counterfeits and fake online orders", explains the gendarmerie colonel Olivia Poupot.

Gendarmes visit the facilities of Château Sipian, September 29, 2021 in Valeyrac, Gironde Thibaud MORITZ AFP

It was first necessary to forge "bonds of trust" with the hushed world of Bordeaux wines, where this problem was rarely put in the public arena, for fear of "the double penalty, that is to say the theft. and the lack of brand image of the company ", underlines a gendarme.

This "wine network" is based on several components: intelligence with information sharing, legal investigations, prevention.

"We canvass the profession to explain the interest in filing a complaint, providing information useful for investigations and ensuring a certain number of securing wines and cellars", details the colonel of the gendarmerie Alain André.

In the Médoc, the manager of Château Sipian Frédéric Mehaye has equipped himself with cameras.

"10 years ago, it was not done, we had no problem but there we have changed our attitude a little, we listen to the police," says the winegrower.

The gendarmerie will launch an SMS alert at the beginning of the year to "inform almost in real time the 800 castles of the Médoc".

"If a castle is burgled at night, the idea is that all the properties are informed as quickly as possible", explains the squadron leader Cédric Roger.

Gendarmes talk with the manager of the Sipian castle Frédéric Mehaye, September 29, 2021 in Valeyrac, Gironde Thibaud MORITZ AFP

The inter-profession is also studying the possibility of assigning a "specific identification to each bottle", in the form of a QR code, in order to "trace resale channels" in the event of theft, according to the CIVB.

"What could have been sufficient yesterday with a simple alarm is no longer sufficient today", summarizes Francis Castelin, Deputy CEO France of Ziegler.

This specialist in the transport and storage of wines has benefited from the expertise of the gendarmerie to rethink the security of its new warehouse near Bordeaux.

"We organized ourselves like the banks, we have almost the same processes".

© 2021 AFP