Elite Wine Worth $5 Million Stolen from Italian Winery at Once. This is an Unprecedented Scale

The company, headquartered in Florence, traces its history back to 1385. Last weekend, criminals broke into the warehouse in Cortona. At that time, the winery was preparing to ship a large batch of some of its most expensive wines to foreign clients.

The robbers disabled the alarm system and neutralized surveillance cameras inside and around the perimeter of the warehouse. They then drove onto the premises in two heavy-duty trucks and used forklifts belonging to the company to load the boxes of bottles. Employees discovered the wine was missing on Monday morning when they arrived at work.

It is believed that at least seven masked men participated in the crime.

Renzo Cotarella, CEO of Marchesi Antinori, stated that Italy has never before experienced a theft of such scale and value. He hopes that law enforcement will be able to recover the stolen wine.

"Two trucks full of goods cannot simply vanish without a trace. There are cameras installed everywhere on the roads of Tuscany. Perhaps, with a little luck, we will be able to recover at least some of the stolen bottles," said Cotarella.

The price of one bottle of the stolen wine ranged from 150 to 500 euros. The company believes that the selection of such expensive products indicates the criminals' good knowledge of wines and possession of inside information.

Cotarella noted that the company intends to protect its market and has already warned potential buyers: bottles offered from unusual sources at suspiciously low prices may be stolen. The head of the company doubts that the criminals will be able to sell such a quantity of expensive wine worldwide without attracting attention.

Marchesi Antinori exports its products to 170 countries. Last year, the company's revenue amounted to 263 million euros.

Wine thefts are not uncommon in Italy, but according to the police, the nature of such crimes has recently changed. Previously, perpetrators more often robbed Michelin-starred restaurants known for their rich wine cellars. From there, they would take a few particularly valuable bottles, each of which could cost tens of thousands of euros.

For example, this summer, two men disguised as workers and wearing hard hats with reflective vests drilled holes in the shatterproof glass of the famous Milanese restaurant Affinatore. They stole several bottles of elite Romanée-Conti wine with a total value of 280,000 euros.

Sometimes wine is also stolen from trucks during transit. However, in recent months, professional thieves have increasingly targeted wineries themselves, from where they remove thousands of bottles from temperature-controlled warehouses within a few hours.

This summer, the historic Banfi di Montalcino winery reported the theft of three thousand bottles of its finest Alta Langa wines from a warehouse in Piedmont. Company representatives noted that the criminals carefully selected the bottles and knew exactly what to take.

Last month, four perpetrators stole three thousand bottles of popular Barolo wine from the Conterno Fantino winery, also located in Piedmont, in less than three hours. They used a warehouse forklift for loading.

The Marchesi Antinori robbery, according to preliminary estimates, has become the largest not only in Italy but also worldwide — both in terms of the number of stolen bottles and their total value.

"The winery's employees were crying. It's not just about the cost of the wine. It's something more. We can survive the loss of this wine, but I am terribly saddened by the very fact that something like this could happen to us," says Cotarella.

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