Record theft in Tuscany: 30,000 wine bottles worth €5 million disappear

An extraordinary quantity of luxury wine has been stolen in Tuscany, Italy, where at least seven people took around 30,000 bottles with a total value of €5 million. The target of the theft was the winery owned by the renowned Marchesi Antinori company, located in the Cortona area of the province of Arezzo.

“Corriere della Sera” and the “Financial Times” report that the incident could rank among the largest wine thefts ever recorded in Italy, considering the value of the goods taken.

The perpetrators selected bottles from the renowned Solaia, Tignanello and Guado al Tasso brands, all from the 2023 vintage. Around 10,000 of the stolen bottles are Solaia, while the value of each bottle is estimated at between €120 and €300.

The operation is believed to have been carried out during the night on Sunday. The group first tampered with the alarm system and disabled the winery’s security cameras, thereby preventing their movements from being recorded.

After that, the thieves entered the complex with two trucks and used the forklifts available at the winery to load the bottles. The missing product was discovered only on Monday morning, when employees began their work shift.

Renzo Cotarella, the company’s managing director, said the perpetrators appeared to have been highly organized. For this reason, he suspects that the same group may have carried out thefts at other Italian wineries in recent months.

One of the main concerns involves how the stolen bottles will circulate. They could be offered to private collectors or restaurant and bar owners, but the large volume and high price could make such a sale easier to detect.

The risk is even greater for the Solaia brand, whose annual production amounts to only around 60,000–70,000 bottles. As a result, putting 10,000 bottles on the market outside the official distribution network could immediately attract attention.

Marchesi Antinori has begun contacting customers around the world, warning them about suspicious offers and products that are not sold through official channels.

Company executives hope the wine will be recovered, since such a large shipment, transported in two trucks, would be difficult to make disappear without leaving a trace.

The incident has also sparked debate over whether such a large quantity of premium wine can be sold on international markets without its origin being identified.