A man has been arrested in relation to the theft of tens of thousands of dollars' worth of irreplaceable wine taken from a Marlborough winery.
Someone kicked in a door at a building at Fromm Winery sometime last week and stole up to 30 cases of top-shelf French wines from a cellar.
The winery's general manager William Hoare says he's gutted.
"They basically got the jackpot… probably the value would be 40 or 50 grand worth of wine.
"I think someone's come past looking for firewood and they've basically nicked the firewood and found the locked door and they've kicked it in and they've gone in and stolen a whole lot of French wines that a really rare and a whole lot of Fromm wines."
Some of the wines were part of Fromm's "Wine Library" which are used as a reference point for its vintages.
"You accumulate wines that are from other top producers from all around the world and then you go back and look at them just to… make sure you're making the right sort of wines and keep your palate in check," says Mr Hoare.
(Marlborough Police)
Some of the wine belonged to Fromm employees, one of whom was saving bottles - some up to five litres - for his infant son's 21st birthday.
The police have been called in and have finger printed the burgled cellar and set up cameras to catch any future thieves.
On Monday afternoon, police announced they'd arrested a 40-year-old man where a police search warrant netted just six bottles.
Charges are pending for the man, though police say they still want to hear from anyone with information about the burglary or if anyone's come into possession of "unusual or expensive wine" to call Nelson police on (03) 546 3840 or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Mr Hoare says although there's insurance, there's no way to replace a rare bottle of wine.
"A lot of them a really rare in the sense that there might only be four or five cases that actually come to New Zealand. Even if you could buy them again, they're a bit like shares, they go up in value, some of them, some of them don't. But it's more that sentimental thing."
The winery's calling on the public to keep a look out for any French wines. Mr Hoare is also pleading on the burglars not to dump the cases and just let him or the police know where they are so they can be picked up.
"The person wouldn't even know what they've got, but they stole a whole lot of firewood as well. So we were saying on the weekend they're probably sitting in front of the fire drinking $500 bottles of wine."
Newshub.
