A gang of at least seven masked thieves stole roughly 30,000 bottles of wine worth €5m (£4.2m) from the cellar of Marchesi Antinori, a storied winery in Cortona, Tuscany. The break-in happened on Saturday and was not discovered until staff returned to work on Monday morning.
The theft matters to wine buyers, collectors and anyone tracking crime trends in Italy's food and beverage industry. Investigators believe it is the largest wine heist of its kind ever recorded in the country, and the company has warned customers that stolen bottles could surface through unofficial sellers.
According to Marchesi Antinori chief executive Renzo Cotarella, the thieves disabled the winery's alarms and surveillance cameras before using the company's own forklifts to load two large trucks with the stolen wine. The gang then drove away undetected.
The stolen bottles include some of the winery's most sought-after labels: Solaia, Guado al Tasso and Tignanello. Tignanello is known as one of the first red wines from Tuscany made without white grapes. All of the missing bottles come from the 2023 vintage and were priced between €120 and €400 each. Among the haul were 3,000 bottles of Barolo Ginestra, some in magnum size.
Marchesi Antinori has operated since 1385 and is one of Italy's oldest family-owned wine producers. The theft took place as the company was preparing a large shipment for buyers overseas.
Cotarella told Corriere della Sera that the thieves were well organized. "The gang was very prepared," he said. "A theft of this scale and value has never happened before in Italy."
He said he remains hopeful that police will recover at least part of the stolen wine, pointing to the difficulty of moving such a large quantity of goods without being noticed. "Two trucks full of merchandise can't just disappear into thin air," Cotarella said. "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 company had anticipated smaller-scale theft, such as bottles disappearing during transport, but not a break-in of this magnitude. He said Antinori's insurance policy does not cover wine theft at this value. "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," he told Corriere della Sera.
The robbery follows a string of winery thefts across Italy in recent months, including one in September in Alba, in the northern Piedmont region. Cotarella said he suspects the same group may be behind both incidents, though he said he never expected his own company to be targeted on such a scale.
Corriere della Sera reported that thefts of this size are typically carried out by people with detailed knowledge of the wine trade, since moving and reselling such a large volume requires buyers familiar with the market. Likely outlets for the stolen wine include collectors, bars and restaurants, though a sudden surge in the availability of these specific labels could draw attention from authorities.
Cotarella said Antinori has alerted its customers to be cautious of any offers to buy its wine through channels outside the company's official distribution network.
Investigators are continuing to search for the trucks and the stolen wine. Cotarella said he remains confident that the scale of the theft, combined with road surveillance across Tuscany, will help authorities trace at least some of the missing bottles. No arrests have been reported so far.
This site's staff reporter is following developments in the case and will provide updates on the investigation as Italian authorities release new information.
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