Thieves take 500kg of grapes from family-run Norfolk vineyard – worth up to £8,000

A Norfolk vineyard has had an estimated 500kg (1,100lb) of grapes stolen from the vine, enough to make about 400 bottles of wine.

Lee Dyer, owner of Winbirri Vineyard in Surlingham, said the stolen Bacchus grapes were worth about £1,000, or about £8,000 if made into wine.

He said that on September 20 the fruit were on the vine, but on September 22 it was noticed that two rows in the field had been “completely stripped bare”.

“We’re a family-run business, we all work seven days a week, and this is a year’s worth of work that we’ve had to do to get these grapes over the line,” said Mr Dyer.

“They’re not an easy crop to grow, full stop, no matter what country you’re in.

“You do have to put a lot of work into them and someone then comes along and feels it’s ok to come on your property and just take it for themselves.”

He said that “we’re going to have to change things”.

Mr Dyer said he is now considering additional security measures such as motion-activated cameras or “some form of SIM card WiFi”.

“We’re now going to have to up the security on the vineyards,” he said.

“This is all expense that you really shouldn’t have to be going to just because someone feels it’s acceptable to come into your property and just take your crop.”

Mr Dyer said that “to take that much fruit I don’t think it was a single individual”.

He said that grapes had gone missing “on a much smaller scale” in previous years, and that last year a volunteer picker “actually caught a few gentlemen red-handed with electric bikes and modified trailers and secateurs in hand”.

“This year we had a couple of visits from people asking questions about buying grapes and that they make wine themselves and they would come and pick them,” he said.

“It might just be a coincidence but then a few days later after these visits we noticed a couple of the rows had been completely stripped bare.”

He added: “My main hope from this is the individuals that did it will see this publicity and then suddenly go ‘actually it’d probably be a wise idea not to repeat that’ because of the attention it’s brought.”

A Norfolk Police spokesperson said the force received a report on October 2 regarding the theft of grapes from a site in Surlingham, believed to have happened between September 20 and 22.

The spokesperson said an officer is due to speak with the person who reported the incident.