Thieves have stolen 30,000 bottles of wine worth around €5m from Marchesi Antinori, one of Italy’s oldest family‑owned wineries.
The break‑in occurred Saturday night at the Tuscan estate’s storage facility as the company prepped a shipment for overseas customers.
At least seven masked men reportedly disabled alarms, turned off cameras and used the winery’s forklifts to load two trucks with prized Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso vintages.
CEO Renzo Cotarella called it the largest theft of its kind in Italy and expressed optimism that authorities can recover some of the bottles, citing the extensive network of roadside cameras.
The missing wines, usually priced €150–€500 apiece, indicate the thieves were likely connoisseurs with inside knowledge.
No arrests have yet been made; the incident was discovered on Monday morning when staff returned to find an emptied vault.
Marchesi Antinori, founded in 1385 and exporting to 170 countries, saw last year’s turnover at €263m.
The theft comes amid a string of wine‑related thefts across Italy this year, including a Piedmont heist that saw hundreds of thousands of euros in bottles stolen.
The incident underscores the vulnerability of high‑value agricultural products and the need for robust security—an issue that becomes increasingly critical as climate change pressures intensify supply chains in the global wine industry.
