Simon Hunter
IT was a crime that will have broken the heart of even the most casual wine drinker.
Grainy CCTV footage showed how, back in February, a hooded figure opened the taps of stainless steel tanks at the Cepa 21 winery in Castillo de Duero, in Spain’s northern Valladolid province, spilling 60,000 litres of high-end wine onto the floor, causing an economic loss of some €2 million.
Now, some four months later, the Guardia Civil has finally made an arrest in the case.
A female ex-employee of the winery has been detained by the authorities, on suspicion of carrying out the sabotage.
Read more: Hooded figure breaks into winery and pours away €2 million worth of vino
The suspect had been fired just a few weeks before the incident took place, and had in fact left the company just two days before, according to a report in Spanish daily El Pais.
The Guardia Civil said it had always been working under the assumption that the wine was spilled by an ex-employee, and believes that the suspect had more than enough time to plan and execute her sabotage.
One of the owners of the winery, Emilio Moro, said in February that the person in CCTV footage accessed the area ‘with an ease as if they knew exactly where they were, opening the taps of five deposits’.
“There was, thank God, wine in only three of them,” he added.
The authorities in Valladolid have not ruled out further arrests should the suspect opt to surrender more information about what happened.
Nothing was stolen from the cellar during the incident, meaning that the authorities ruled out robbery from the start.
