The db wine crime files 2025: part 2
In an exclusive new series for the drinks business, Sarah Neish explores the biggest wine crimes of 2025. Following on from tuk-tuk getaway vehicles and cyber attacks in part one, this next instalment uncovers elaborate cellar heists and arrests of appellation officials.
Part one of the db wine crime files 2025 revealed that drinks companies have been victims of billions of pounds worth of criminal activity this year as professional fraudsters and opportunists alike targeted producers, restaurants and consumers.
Criminal operations are becoming increasingly sophisticated and the perpetrators more discerning and selective about the wineries and styles they choose to go after, as evidenced by the Ukraine wine heist detailed below, where thieves sorted through 12 pallets of wine to specifically extract sparkling bottles.
Read on for more wine crime-related activity.
October: Ukrainian wine shipment of 3,000 bottles stolen
In mid-October, thieves targeted a lorry transporting 12 pallets of wine from the Ukrainian Wine Company as it waited at Dover for onward transportation to UK restaurants and retailers. The criminals successfully made off with five of those pallets (amounting to around 3,000 bottles), having first checked the wines and made a beeline for sparkling.
“Saying I’m shocked is an understatement. I’ve been in this industry since 2008, always in import and export, doing everything myself – logistics, customs, etc. This is the first time I’ve ever faced something like this. And where? In the UK. I still can’t believe it,” said Svitlana Tsybak, CEO for Ukrainian Wine Company UK.
“We know too well how much effort it takes to make and move Ukrainian wines – how hard and sometimes dangerous it is to produce them in Ukraine, and how much support our winemakers need right now. The biggest disappointment isn’t even the money we lost, but the wasted effort, ours and our producers.”
According to the Ukrainian Wine Company, the stolen wines included some of Ukraine’s most celebrated labels, including sparkling wines from Chateau Chizay, Grande Vallee, and Kolonist.
“Despite this major loss, we continue to supply premium Ukrainian wine across the UK… This theft has strengthened our resolve to continue our mission to introduce the UK wine market to the richness, and character of Ukrainian wines. We are in constant contact with our Ukrainian winemakers and logistics partners to restock the stolen inventory and avoid any disruption in availability,” the company said. “The theft has highlighted the rising demand for Ukrainian wines in the UK.”
Indeed, as db reported, the war between Russia and the Ukraine has made Ukrainian wine “more visible” in the UK.
Metropolitan Police claimed there was insufficient evidence to pursue the case, despite having CCTB footage of the offenders.
November: Hidden illegal Douro wine operation shut down
A covert bottling line in Vila Real, a Portuguese city near the Spanish border, was shut down after inspectors uncovered wine falsely presented as Douro DOC reserve.
According to The Portugal News, the sting rumbled a unit engaged in bottling, marketing and exporting wine, with the entire operation run behind a false partition wall inside a wine plant. A total of 1,326 bottles were seized by Autoridade de Segurança Alimentar e Económica (ASAE) for being improperly labelled as Douro DOC reserve wines. A further 12,000 labels bearing the same wording were also confiscated.
A technical team from the Douro and Porto Wines Institute was brought in to advise on the origin of the wines, and the ASAE has since confirmed that proceedings for usurping a designation of origin are now underway and that the matter has been passed to the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action.
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December: British tourist faces 50 years over hotel wine heist
A British woman is facing up to 50 years in jail after being arrested in the US over what police described as an “audacious distraction theft” of fine wine, including £30,000 worth of bottles from Domaine de la Romanée Conti. Natali Ray from Herne Bay in Kent, was charged with grand larceny, conspiracy to commit grand larceny and defrauding an innkeeper after several bottles of Romanée Conti went missing from a cellar in Virginia.
Prosecutors allege that Ray, posing as the personal assistant to a wealthy Canadian businesswoman who was looking to host a 25-person dinner, used the fake persona of “Stephanie Baker” to distract staff at L’Auberge Provençale Inn & Restaurant while an accomplice slipped bottles of Burgundy wine into specialised pockets sewn into his overcoat.
CCTV obtained by the Daily Mail reportedly shows Ray, wearing a wig, telling the restaurant receptionist she wanted to see the cellar to ensure it was temperature-controlled. Sommelier Christian Borel led her to the 5,500-bottle cellar, which holds stock from many of the world’s most prestigious vineyards, where Ray allegedly asked rapid-fire questions about American wines while her companion is said to have taken eight bottles. The missing stock was replaced with cheaper screwcap wine in a bid to delay detection.
Two of the bottles, a 2019 Échézeaux and a 2021 Grands Échézeaux, were later found outside, but six bottles valued at US$41,500 remain missing. The man escaped in a rented SUV after staff gave chase, and Ray was arrested in nearby Clarke County and was due to appear in court appearance on 3 December.
December: ‘Gang des grands crus’ faces trial over €2.5m theft of fine wine
Twelve defendants are due to appear in a Bordeaux court over a series of cellar raids targeting France’s most prestigious wines. The so-called “gang des grands crus” stands accused of stealing and trafficking thousands of bottles of fine wine from Bordeaux and Burgundy between 2019 and 2020, with the principal suspect, a 34-year-old man from Gironde with around 20 prior convictions, alleged to have orchestrated the theft of more than 4,000 bottles from 13 cellars and warehouses.
Investigators say the total value of the stolen wine exceeds €2.5 million and report that wiretaps and recovered bottles tie the main suspect closely to the operation. The wines involved include Château d’Yquem, Lafite Rothschild, Angélus, Petrus, Château Margaux and Cheval Blanc, along with Romanée Conti, with the stolen goods suspected to have been sold on to wholesalers and restaurants in Paris.
An earlier trial scheduled for April 2023 was postponed after irregularities in the judge’s referral order, and is now being rescheduled, with French prosecutors requesting heavy prison sentences for those involved.
December: Vinho Verde appellation officials arrested
Four members of the Portuguese region’s governing body, the Viticulture Commission of the Vinho Verde Region (CVRVV), were arrested as part of an ongoing wine fraud investigation dubbed “Puro Verde” or “Pure Green” by police.
CVRVV head Dora Simões told Vinetur she had been “caught completely off guard” by the arrests of the four members belonging to the trade body’s Inspection and Control Division, but insisted the organisation was cooperating with police regarding the rumoured reports of “collusion between [viticulture] commission officials and businesspeople in the wine sector”.
The four individuals were arrested for allegedly warning wineries of upcoming inspections and accepting bribes of meals, wine and event tickets.
According to Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Notícias, the officials also allegedly turned a blind eye to wine producers failing to meet the requirements to obtain designation of origin (DO) or geographical indication (IG) certification to be able to label their bottles as Vinho Verde. The accused are also suspected of falsifying documents and “failing in their duties to monitor the origin and transit of the grapes and their storage in wineries and producers during the 2025 harvest”.
A further four “business owners involved in the distribution and production of Vinho Verde” have also been arrested, charged with “active and passive corruption, falsification of documents and abuse of power”.
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