Hostage Vine
Cases unlock in order, like levels. This is case 156 of 200.
Côte de Nuits, Burgundy, Friday, February 12, 2010, 11 pm. In the cuveriecuverie French word for the winery hall where grapes are fermented and wine is kept in vats or tanks. of the Domainedomaine French word for a wine estate that grows its own grapes and makes its own wine. du Clos-Sabrier, among oak vats, an open cardboard tube lies on the table next to an unrolled pencil map.
In January, the owner, Ghislain d'Orsenne, received two tubes like it. In the first, the map of La Sabrière, the vineyard that makes the most expensive wine in Burgundy, with two vines in a circle, drilled and poisoned. In the second, the price: a million euros, or the whole vineyard dies when the sap rises.
Today at 6 pm, the police's bag of fake bills was left behind the cemetery hedge, as the letter ordered. At 6:30 pm, a man came out of the woods, took the bag and vanished into the dark.
Only three people know the Sabrière row by row. One of them took the vineyard hostage.
Winery vat room in Burgundy at night, with oak casks and a pencil map on the table.
Suspects
Anatole VigierTemporary pruner on the winter pruning crew, former student of the Beaune viticulture school, 57
Germain MaréchalVineyard manager of the Domainedomaine French word for a wine estate that grows its own grapes and makes its own wine. du Clos-Sabrier, 46
Coralie FesneauManagement assistant, handles the mail, the days off and the pruners' gîtegîte French word for a simple lodging, often rural, rented out or used to house seasonal workers., 36
The real case
The blackmail against the vines of Romanée-Conti
Vosne-Romanée, Burgundy, France, 2010
Read the real case