Thieves have reportedly stolen about 30,000 bottles of premium wine worth nearly $8m from a historic winery in Tuscany, Italy, in what has been described as the country’s largest recorded wine theft.
The theft targeted a facility belonging to Marchesi Antinori near Cortona, in Arezzo province. The stolen collection reportedly included 2023 vintages of prestigious labels such as Solaia and Tignanello.
According to the report, the operation was carried out overnight by a group of seven thieves who disabled the alarm system and surveillance cameras before using the winery’s forklifts to load two lorries with the wine.
The thieves reportedly escaped before security patrols could respond, making away with an estimated 2,500 cases.
The theft was discovered on October 5, but the winery delayed announcing it publicly until October 9 to avoid interfering with the police investigation.
The stolen bottles reportedly sell for between €150 and €500 each, depending on the label and vintage.
About 10,000 bottles of Solaia were among the items taken. The winery typically produces between 60,000 and 70,000 bottles of the prestigious wine annually, meaning the theft could account for roughly one-sixth of its 2023 production.
The scale of the operation has raised concerns about organised theft targeting high-value food and drink products, particularly rare wines that can command substantial prices on specialist markets.
Rod Phillips, a history professor at Carleton University who studies the history of alcohol, said wine-related crime had historically centred more on fraud and counterfeiting, while physical theft had become more prominent as markets for rare commodities expanded.
Authorities are investigating the theft, while the reported value and circumstances of the operation underscore the challenges of protecting collectable wines from organised criminals.
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