Thousands of bottles of wine worth €5 million (£4.2 million) have been stolen from a prestigious Tuscan wine estate in what is believed to be the biggest heist of its kind in Italy.
A group of at least seven masked individuals broke into the cellar of Marchesi Antinori, a family winery dating from the late 1300s, in Cortona, after turning off alarms and surveillance cameras before using the company’s forklifts to load two large trucks with 30,000 bottles of wine and flee.
Among the bottles targeted were those most prized by wine collectors and consumers, including Solaia, Guado al Tasso and Tignanello, notable as one of the first red wines in the Tuscany region to be produced without white grapes. All the stolen bottles, between 120 and 400 euros per bottle, come from the house’s 2023 vintage.
The theft took place on Saturday as the company, based in the hilltop town of Cortona, was preparing for a major shipment to overseas buyers. The theft was only discovered when staff arrived for work Monday morning.
“The gang was very prepared,” Renzo Cotarella, general director of Marchesi Antinori, told Corriere della Sera. “A theft of this magnitude and value has never happened before in Italy.”
He said he had “great confidence” that investigators would find the stolen wine, which included 3,000 bottles, some magnum-sized, of Barolo Ginestra.
“Two trucks full of goods cannot disappear into thin air,” he added. “Tuscan roads are full of cameras. Maybe with a little luck we can recover at least some bottles.”
Several thefts have taken place at wineries in Italy in recent months, including one in Alba, in the northern Piedmont region, in mid-September.
But Cotarella, who suspects the same gang might have been involved, never imagined a theft of this magnitude could happen to his business. Unfortunately, his insurance policy does not cover the theft of wine of such value.
“We had always considered the possibility that a few cases of wine would be stolen during transport, but certainly not that two trucks would manage to enter the cellar and leave with such enormous merchandise,” he told Corriere.
Such large-scale wine thefts were usually meticulously planned and would likely be carried out by those who had extensive knowledge of wine themselves, Corriere suggested, with the target possibly being collectors, bars or restaurants. However, a sudden increase in the supply of these wines could arouse suspicion.
As investigators continue their search, Cotarella said the company, founded in 1385, has warned its customers to be wary of any offerings of its wine outside of official channels.
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