Wine worth £14,000 stolen in raid

Nearly 2,000 bottles of wine worth £14,000 were stolen from a UK wine merchant in a late-night smash and grab.

The three wines stolen in the raid.

Sussex police said The Winehouse in Brighton Road, West Sussex, was broken into between 12.15am and 1.15am on Tuesday 26 August.

The smash and grab saw the burglars make off with 1,800 bottles of Chablis Cuvee Andre Dom Malandes, 2012 Fleurie Les Garants and Saint-Bris Chablis Les Malandes.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Derek Fowle, from The Winehouse, said: “They had obviously been in as a potential customer and identified where the alarm system was and how it operated.”

He said they were the only wine merchants in the UK to import one of the wines from Chablis.

PC Sally Howarth said: “The Winehouse is the sole distributor for the wines that were stolen to restaurants. ”

She also said the theft would have involved a lot of organization: “A number of people must have been involved to have removed so many bottles of wine in such a short period of time and they would have needed a van or a lorry to take them away.”

Sussex Police have asked that anyone being offered the stolen wines by someone not associated with The Winehouse to please come forward.