Burglars steal 750 bottles of fine wine - worth £50,000 - from posh restaurant

The theft, which happened in the dead of night in central Paris, follows the shocking targeting of the Michelin-starred Tour d'Argent, also in the French capital

Burglars have stolen €60,000 (£50,000) worth of bottles of fine wine from the cellar of a restaurant in Paris.

More than 750 bottles of wine were nicked in the dead of the night from the discreet eatery in the French capital earlier this month. The restaurant's cellar contained various vintages and grand crus, some of which are on sale for €2,000 (£1,600) a bottle.

Jérôme Baudouin, the editor-in-chief of La Revue du vin de France, said that this year had been a "bad vintage" for fine wine thefts. He added: "For the last five or six years, there has been an increase in thefts. The price of wine, particularly Burgundy, has risen considerably, and that attracts criminals."

Speaking to Le Parisien, the journalist said a bottle of Bourgogne premier cru was around €50 (£41) 10 years ago but now costs as much as €400 (£330). This has made it more appealing for thieves to "load 20 or 30 cases in the boot of the car," Mr Baudouin added.

The Parisian world of wine was shocked in January when thieves targeted the Michelin-starred Tour d'Argent, which overlooks the Seine and has the largest collection of any restaurant in the country. In a surgical strike, burglars stole 80 bottles of its finest vintages, including Romanée-Conti, the legendary Burgundy that can fetch tens of thousands of euros. The total value of the theft, reportedly committed without a break-in and only recorded during an inventory, surpassed €1.5million (£1.25 million).

In 2019, more than 150 bottles worth an estimated €400,000 (£330,000) were stolen from the cellar of the Michelin-starred restaurant Maison Rostang, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Burglars took advantage of work being carried out on the restaurant, near the ChampsÉlysées, to break in after digging a hole in a wall of about 50cm in diameter. The culprits are often specialist thieves who sell on a "parallel market", according to experts, while some thefts are believed to be inside jobs.