Stolen Grapes

Stolen Grapes. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. It wasn't exactly the heist of the century but it was a unique and unprecedented heist none the less. Sometime between Wednesday, Sept. 15 and Monday the 20th, someone slipped into Grand Rêve Vineyard and made off with some unusual grapes, valued at $5 to $6,000. Paul McBride is a partner in the Grand Rêve Vintners. MCBRIDE: That by no means was the main economic consequence. The uniqueness of this site in Red Mountain, this is one of the very first hillside vineyards in Washington State. We're actually up on these fairly steep, rocky, southwest facing slopes – trying to take Washington viticulture to that next bar, that next level up. He says they have been working on the vineyard since 2004 when they had planted a unique grape called Mourvedre, a red wine grape that is traditionally grown in the southern Rhône Valley of France. MCBRIDE: So a very unique varietal in a very unique sort of trellising on a very unique site and we were anxious, this was going to be our very first vintage that we were going to pick off of that site and about 10 days prior to when it would reach optimal ripeness for us somebody seemingly pulled in there in the middle of the night and in a rather sophisticated way picked about a ton and half of Mourvedre. McBride says that the stealing of a few grapes by garage wine-makers is not really unheard of but... MCBRIDE: It certainly took a lot of gall and it was an extraordinary – kind of like the pt equivalent of an art heist except instead of art in this case it's kind of rare fruit selections from Red Mountain. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.