Thieves Steal 30000 Wine Bottles From Tuscan Winery

A coordinated robbery at Marchesi Antinori, a historic family-owned winery in Cortona, Tuscany, resulted in the theft of 30000 bottles of wine worth an estimated €5 million. At least seven masked individuals disabled alarms and surveillance cameras, used the winery’s forklifts to load two large trucks, and escaped with the bottles during preparations for an international shipment.

The theft occurred on Saturday, and winery employees discovered the loss when they arrived for work on Monday morning, according to reporting by The Guardian. The stolen collection includes sought-after wines from the estate’s 2023 vintage, with individual bottles valued between €120 and €400.

Among the missing wines are Solaia, Guado al Tasso, and Tignanello, a Tuscan red wine known for being among the region’s first to be produced without white grapes. The haul also includes 3000 bottles of Barolo Ginestra, some in magnum format.

Renzo Cotarella, chief executive of Marchesi Antinori, described the operation as unusually sophisticated in comments to Corriere della Sera.

“The gang was very prepared. A theft of this scale and value has never happened before in Italy,” Cotarella said.

The company chief expressed confidence that investigators could trace the stolen merchandise. He pointed to the difficulty of moving two truckloads of valuable wine without attracting attention and the surveillance coverage along roads in Tuscany.

“Two trucks full of merchandise can’t just disappear into thin air. The Tuscan roads are full of cameras. Perhaps with a bit of luck we’ll be able to recover at least some of the bottles,” Cotarella said.

The robbery comes amid a series of wine thefts at Italian wineries in recent months. One incident occurred in mid-September in Alba, in the northern region of Piedmont.

Cotarella suspects the same group may have been involved in multiple incidents, although the investigation has not established that connection. He said the company had not anticipated a theft of this scale and noted that its insurance policy does not cover the loss of wine worth such a large amount.

The winery had previously considered the possibility of smaller losses during transportation, but the break-in exposed a different vulnerability involving access to its cellar and the removal of large quantities of stock.

“We had always considered the possibility of having a few cases of wine being stolen during their transportation, but certainly not that two trucks manage to enter the cellar and make off with such a huge haul,” Cotarella told Corriere della Sera.

Marchesi Antinori was established in 1385 and has operated as a family-owned wine business for centuries. The stolen bottles could potentially reach private collectors, bars, or restaurants, according to analysis cited by Corriere della Sera, although the eventual destination of the merchandise remains unknown.

The sudden appearance of substantial quantities of these wines on the market could raise suspicions because of their value and the scale of the theft. Investigators are continuing their search for the missing bottles, while the winery has warned customers to be cautious about offers made outside its official sales channels.