Thieves have stolen approximately 30,000 bottles of top Italian wine worth 5 million euros (around 5.8 million US dollars) from a winery in Tuscany. The winery stated on Friday (October 9) that this is the largest recorded wine theft case in Italy.
According to reports from the Associated Press, the target of the theft was the Marchesi Antinori winery near Cortona in Arezzo province. Last Saturday night, at least seven thieves broke into the facility and stole a variety of highly sought-after Italian wines including Solaia, Tignanello, and Guado al Tasso. Although the theft was discovered on Monday, the company waited until Friday to make the information public to avoid disrupting the investigation.
CEO Renzo Cotarella stated that the thieves first disabled the winery’s alarm system and surveillance cameras before driving two large trucks onto the premises. They used forklifts inside the winery to load the wine onto the trucks and then escaped during the night.
“This was clearly a very well-planned operation,” said Cotarella. He added that this group may be responsible for other recent thefts at wineries in Italy over the past few months.
“Italy has never experienced a theft of this scale and value before,” he said.
The stolen wines were from the 2023 vintage, with individual bottle retail prices typically ranging between 150 and 500 euros. This includes approximately 10,000 bottles of Solaia, one of Antinori’s flagship wines, produced in what Cotarella described as an “excellent vintage.”
Founded in 1385, the company has been passed down through 26 generations of the Antinori family. The company is now warning global customers to be cautious of sources offering wine through unofficial channels.
“We are informing our global customers and asking them to be vigilant about any sales information from unofficial sources,” Cotarella said.
Authorities are investigating potential routes for the stolen wine to be fenced. Police and the Carabinieri are reviewing surveillance footage and other relevant evidence.
Cotarella expressed confidence that investigators will be able to trace the stolen goods, noting that moving two trucks of wine without attracting attention is no easy feat.
This theft case surpasses Italy’s previous high-profile wine robbery incidents. In 2017, thieves stole about 2,000 bottles of rare wine worth 750,000 euros from a warehouse near the Adriatic Sea resort town of Cervia.