Thieves stole 30,000 bottles of premium wine worth an estimated €5 million from Marchesi Antinori’s winery in Tuscany, Italy, in what the company described as the largest wine theft in the country’s history. The heist targeted the facility near Cortona on Saturday night, with a group of at least seven masked men disabling alarms and surveillance cameras before loading the wine onto two large trucks using the winery’s own forklifts, according to Chief Executive Renzo Cotarella .
The stolen bottles included about 10,000 of Solaia, one of Antinori’s flagship wines, along with Tignanello and Guado al Tasso, all from the 2023 vintage. The wines typically retail between €150 and €500 per bottle, with some rare vintages fetching far more. Cotarella said the thieves were highly organized and may be linked to other recent winery robberies in Italy .
The theft was discovered Monday morning, but the company delayed announcing it until Friday to avoid interfering with the police investigation. Authorities are reviewing surveillance footage and other evidence, while Antinori has warned global clients to be wary of offers outside official sales channels . Cotarella expressed confidence that the shipment could be traced, noting that two truckloads of wine would be difficult to move undetected .
