French wine thieves resort to pelting gendarmes with Burgundy in cork-popping car chase

The world's most expensive wine comes from Burgundy

Credit: Heathcliff O'Malley/Telegraph

It is a getaway that gives new meaning to the word grapeshot.

Thieves who made off with €350,000 (£317,000) worth of grand cru Burgundy wines hurled bottles of it in the direction of French gendarmes during a high-speed motorway car chase.

The burglars unorthodox use of the prized tipple partially paid off. While they abandoned their vehicle and booty after smashing into a road toll barrier 22 miles (35km) north of the city of Lyon, they managed to evade capture.

The “drink driving” incident took place after the gang had conducted a dawn raid on the luxury Relais Château hotel, the Domaine de Rymska Saint-Jean-de-Trézy, 30km from Beaune, in Burgundy, eastern France, on Tuesday. 

Breaking into the wine cellar, they made off with hundreds of bottles of Burgundy from one of the world’s most prized grape-growing regions.

The owner of the hotel, set in nearly 200 acres of rolling countryside surrounded by ponds, meadows and woods, was reportedly woken by the fire alarm going off.

He leapt into his car in hot pursuit, succeeding in keeping up with the gang’s van as it hurtled through country lanes before joining the A6 Autoroute du Soleil motorway south towards Lyon.

After he called for help, a patrol of gendarmes then joined the chase.

However, as they gained on the van, the thieves began chucking wine bottles at the police car. Apparently inexperienced in the art of bottle-throwing, the grands crus fell wide of the mark, missing the windscreen of the gendarmes’ car. Investigators say nobody was hurt.

An inquiry has now been launched and a manhunt is underway for at least three men.

This was the second break-in at the luxury hotel in two days.

On Monday, thieves broke into the property and made off with €200,000 worth of fine wines from the same cellar after the alarm failed to go off.

Police are seeking to ascertain whether the two burglaries were linked, in which case the thieves may have more liquid ammunition at their disposal.