Thieves steal 500kg of grapes from award-winning British vineyard as rows of plants are 'completely stripped bare'

Published: 03:16 EDT, 7 October 2026 | Updated: 03:17 EDT, 7 October 2026 A family-run vineyard has been robbed of 500kg of grapes, leaving rows of the field 'completely stripped bare'.The grapes were stolen from the 33-acre award-winning Winbirri Vineyard in Surlingham, Norfolk on September 22. The missing fruit was worth around £1,000 but the thieves could get around £8,000 for their value as wine as there were enough for 400 bottles, the owner Lee Dyer said.Mr Dyer said: 'We're a family-run business, we all work seven days a week and this is a year's worth of work that we've had to do to get these grapes over the line.'They're not an easy crop to grow full stop, no matter what country you're in.'You do have to put a lot of work into them and someone then comes along and feels it's ok to come on your property and just take it for themselves.'The owner added he is now considering implementing costly security measures like motion-activated cameras.Mr Dyer, who took over the business from his father in 2010, added: 'This is all expense that you really shouldn't have to be going to just because someone feels it's acceptable to come into your property and just take your crop. The missing fruit was worth around £1,000 but the thieves could get around £8,000 for their value as wine, as there was enough for 400 bottles, the owner Lee Dyer said The family-run vineyard was robbed of 500kg of grapes, leaving rows of the field 'completely stripped bare' The grapes were stolen from the 33-acre award-winning Winbirri Vineyard in Surlingham, Norfolk on September 22'To take that much fruit I don't think it was a single individual'.It's not the first incident of theft from the vineyard, as he said in previous years men had been caught on e-bikes and modified trailers with secateurs in hand, but the grapes were stolen 'on a much smaller scale'.Mr Dyer noted that people had come to visit just days before the theft saying they wanted to come and pick them to make wine for themselves. 'It might just be a coincidence but then a few days later after these visits we noticed a couple of the rows had been completely stripped bare,' he said. Mr Dyer said there are a lot of regulations to sell grapes for wine and suspects the thieves wished to use the stolen goods to make their own wine. He said: 'The only use of the crop in this way would be for a group or an individual to make wine in a garage.'You can't rock up to a vineyard and say I've got grapes to sell - a paper trail has to be achieved and negotiations have to be arranged in advance.'Alarm bells would be ringing. Wine grapes, especially with Bacchus, don't have enough flesh to be an eating grape. Mr Dyer said there are a lot of regulations to sell grapes for wine and suspects the thieves wished to use the stolen goods to make their own wine'This year, every bottle of wine we produce is from grapes we have grown. If we don't have that 500kg of grapes, it's 400 bottles or so of wine we can't produce.'We can only harvest this crop twice per year so we can't get that back.'Winbirri Vineyard was founded in 2007 by local farmer Stephen Dyer, Lee's father, and became the first significant wine-making estate in Norfolk.Mr Dyer added: 'The most disturbing thing is that out there is somebody who thinks it's okay to walk onto someone else's property, steal the grapes and think there's loads there, it doesn't matter.'We work seven days a week and it's a whole family involvement. It's the fruits of your labour.'You go to all that effort growing but at the last minute, someone feels it's fine to nick it all.'Norfolk Police confirmed they had received a report of theft.